oldest overdrive/distortion...

[schecterplayer]

Re: oldest overdrive/distortion...

My uncle has an original ProCo Rat which is really old but thats more of a fuzz. I would guess that the tubescreamer is one of the oldest OD's because it seems like almost every overdrive on the market is a modified clone and it seems like everyone used one.

 

[James Rock]

Re: oldest overdrive/distortion...

The RAT came out in 1977 and that is thought of as distortion.

 

[adrian]

Re: oldest overdrive/distortion...

ES 335: I had Schaller pedal too, in the late -60s. Mine was a small thin box, and it had a decent sound on low dist (perhaps we would not say so today). On full distorsion it was a totally disaster, I used it for King Crimson-like tones which could last for an hour or so.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: oldest overdrive/distortion...

The oldest one that I personally know of was the Maestro (spelling?) Fuzz Tone. If I remember right Keith Richards used one on "Satisfaction" in 1965. I remember how blown away we were with that tone because we'd never heard anything like that.

That's the first one I ever saw...and the first one I ever owned.

Except for the Wollensak tape recorder I used to use before fuzz tones were available. It could be used as a PA.

So I'd plug my guitar into the mic input and another cord into the external speaker output and plug that into my guitar amp. I'd crank the tape recorder and overdrive the daylights out of my amp...got a cool fuzz tone like that on satisfaction.

First fuzz I heard on record was by the Ventures ona tune called the 2000 pound bee.

Early 60's?

Lew

 

[Sludgenutz]

Re: oldest overdrive/distortion...

I built my first fuzz box in 1978 for an eighth grade science project of sorts. It worked fairly well. I remember it had two aluminum cap transistors...and only gave a gritty fuzz on the lower tones. The upper tones were left nearly clean.

 

[Corbic]

Re: oldest overdrive/distortion...

If boosters do count, I'd go even further and say the Dallas Rangemaster.

Forgot about the Rangemaster, since it goes add some gain to your sound I guess it could be counted as an overdrive.