Mirano Exciting Fuzz - The First Big Muff Clone?

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Back around 2010 I randomly came across photos of a cool-looking fuzz I had never seen before. It appeared to be a Mosrite Fuzzrite copy but with three knobs instead of two (à la the Pro Suzzzz Fuzzzz). 

After a bit of onlining I discovered, that in pure Japanese fashion, it wasn't a Fuzzrite at all, but a Big Muff clone! So now I was intrigued (no disrespect to the Fuzzrite)...

While it is much easier today, it's still quite difficult to research vintage Japanese pedals from here in the US. In addition to the language barrier, all of my typical fact-finding methods fall flat when it comes to anything made in Japan before 1980. But back around 2011 I did my best to find any information I could on the EF-1 Exciting Fuzz, and Mirano as a brand.

From the little bit I had access to at the time, a few things seemed to be agreed upon; 1. is that it was indeed a Big Muff "style" fuzz, 2. "Mirano" was the house brand for the manufacturer Katayama Denshi Gakki Co., Ltd. 片山電子楽器(株) (aka, Katayama Electric Instrument Co.) 3. the same company would also go on build the Rozz pedals, probably most famous for their own Big Muff copy, the legendary 18v DH-01 Dead Heat, 4. the Exciting Fuzz was released very early, possibly even in the late 60s!

And it was this last point that caught my attention the most.

Now the idea that the Exciting Fuzz could have come out almost immediately after the Big Muff, or even a much more insane idea, that it could have come BEFORE the Big Muff, is almost too preposterous to even consider. But if there's something I've learned through all this, it's that you have to look into every possibility because you quite literally never know what you might find.

That being said, the problem with guitar pedal lore (and a huge reason I even write these posts) is that someone's best guess at the past can get repeated over and over again, and eventually to the point of being accepted as undeniable fact. We've seen this scenario a thousand times, and to be completely honest, I too contributed to this noise with some of my older posts (*that probably still need to be revised!). And while I don't think much of this was done intentionally to deceive people, these "best guesses" are rarely described as such, resulting in deception nonetheless.

So after about a decade of putting the Mirano Exciting Fuzz on the backburner, I started digging again a couple of years ago.

Sadly, even after ten whole years of waiting for the internet to catch up, I wasn't able to find a significant amount of new info than I had previously. But what I did find, in addition to the super cool ad-sheet above, was that the Exciting Fuzz wasn't quite as rare as I had once thought. 

I found multiple listings on Japanese auction sites and guitar shops, which also gave me a great look inside many more of them than I had seen before (they're all built exactly the same; parts choice, pcb, paint job, everything). This last bit could even be a clue that whenever they were built, it most likely wasn't over long period, as it's extremely rare to see unchanged components throughout the lifespan of any pedal.

So I was feeling a bit defeated until I came across THIS website. In it, the author describes how expensive it was for the time (¥9,800) and that together with help from his parents, he bought the pedal. He remembered this being around the time he was in Junior High School, and determined that it must have been 1972!

Great! An actual first-hand account!

1972 makes a lot more sense than anything earlier, and seemed to confirm the websites who stated that it was built in "the early 70s". But there was still something that bothered me about this date; 1972 would not only mean that it's the first known Big Muff clone in Japan, but also that just two years after the official EHX release, with almost NO foreign distribution, the Big Muff was not only cloned, but heavily modified and released by a major Japanese company?

It's no secret (and we have discussed this here many times before) that since the mid-60s Japan was notorious for copying foreign designs of everything from guitars, to amps, and of course, pedals. But even in those instances there was always some time between that original pedal landing in Japan, becoming somewhat popular, getting cloned, manufactured, and released back to the world under a new name.

What we do know for sure is that the Japanese amplifier brand Elk released their "Big Muff Sustainer" under the intentionally confusing brand, named "Electro Sound Co." in 1973 (they also simultaneously released it under their own brand, as the "Super Fuzz Sustainar"). And while my previous best guess for the equally legendary Sekova Big Muff was also 1973, I have yet to find any evidence to confirm that's true, and now think '74 is the more accurate estimate.

Other Japanese Big Muffs of the time include the Guyatone FS-6 (1974), the Ace Tone FM-3 (1974), the Aria RE-102/203 (1975?) and the Maxon D&S (1976). 

So that brings us back to the Exciting Fuzz and this 1972 date. Is it really possible that a full two years before every other brand in Japan caught on, Mirano was out there slinging their version of the Big Muff with zero competition?

And going back to the handful of claims that the Exciting Fuzz was built in the "late 60s"; there are a thousand reasons why that can't be true, with the biggest being that we now know Electro Harmonix did not release the Big Muff until Spring of 1970. 

This whole thing was becoming exhausting and honestly, I was about to give up completely. 

But then!!!

I found something.

So this is really nerdy to admit, and I know it makes me sound like some level of dork I can't come to terms with, but one way I have found to get new info on old Japanese pedals is by looking through auction sites for vintage magazines. Page by page, listing by listing, in hopes that anything I care about will show up.

And just last week I came across this magazine above. It's an annual gear buyer's guide published by Player Magazine (think of Player as Japan's Circus or Hit Parader). Inside was a whopping two full pages of suggested pedals and their prices; including stuff from MXR, Elk, Guyatone, Korg, and... the Mirano Exciting Fuzz!

So what does this mean?

I think finding out that this was still for sale, and to the point that it was in a group of suggested gear for 1976, at the very least disproves those super early release dates (1968-1970). And when we consider other facts; like the unchanged components, the relatively low number of existing units, and the explosion of Japanese Big Muff clones in 1974, I would feel comfortable moving up the release date of the Mirano Exciting Fuzz to the "Mid-70s".

So is this the earliest Big Muff clone? No. 

It's almost certainly not even the earliest Big Muff clone in Japan. But it is rare, it is cool as hell in that Fuzzrite style enclosure, and it is an awesome sounding and ingenious modification to the original circuit that combines the classic BM crunch with a type of clarity you almost never find in a fuzz.

Obviously I plan to keep digging into the history of the Exciting Fuzz, and I'm sure hiding out there somewhere is an old advertisement or printed announcement for its release, just waiting to be discovered. So as always I have to ask, but if you know any additional details about Mirano, Katayama, Rozz, or anything else related, please feel free to reach out to me via  Email or Instagram.

thanks for reading!

-ed

Super Fuzz Guts: The First Year (and a half)

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Continuing on with our bigger mission here of uncovering the true history of the Super Fuzz, I wanted to throw together a post highlighting the (oddly) many variations the early gray units went through in a relatively short period of time. From all available physical records, the Univox Super Fuzz model 108-5 was introduced in the Spring of 1968 and was gone by the end of 1969. Honey, the Japanese brand who sold their version roughly six months-to a year prior, the Baby Crying Fuzz, was bankrupt by Spring of 1969. (Which is just one of many factors that make me think Honey was not the original manufacturer, but we can get into that later...)

Today our main focus is on the Univox-branded Super Fuzzes, seemingly made by the thousands in at most, a year and a half time period. Alright! Let's go:

We'll start with the most common, by a huge margin, version you see above. The mixture of components; grey or blue capacitors, 2SC828 transistors, green or brown caps, etc. are all pretty consistent between these units. Not pictured here is another very notable but hidden part, which is a small ceramic capacitor that's typically soldered to the trace side of the board.

And from examining a lot of Honey units as well, it's my belief that this is most likely the original version of the circuit. But with how common it is there's also a great possibility that they were being made concurrently with the variations below.

The circuit above almost certainly came next. The combination of parts matches perfectly, and other than a single new addition, it IS the same. But that one little update would go on to alter the Super Fuzz circuit for the next decade...

Removing the hidden capacitor from the backside of the board and adding a trimpot to the front, this V2 Super Fuzz PCB would have a short life, and as of now,has only been found in Honey and Univox branded units. There is a good chance that this alteration was made some time after the release of the Honey Psychedelic Machine in 1968, as it too features essentially the same fuzz circuit with the added trimpot (albeit, in a different layout).

The next iteration is essentially the same, but for some reason the trimpot has been removed completely. Now I haven't seen the trace side of this board so I don't know if the hidden cap is there, nor do I know if all of the part values are the same. But we can probably assume that the manufacturer felt like this particular unit didn't need any additional tuning.

Is it possible that this is essentially the same as the V1 but using a V2 PCB? Until we see more of these I can't say for certain.

Our next two examples, "V3", ends up being the PCB that will be used to the end of the run. Shin-ei will even go on to copy this exact layout for their "FY-6 Fuzz Master" in 1970, until a final revision (V4) is introduced in 1975.

This version features the same missing trimpot and holes where it should be. You may also notice at the bottom (left of the blue wire) is a green or tan capacitor that was not present in previous versions. From what I understand this was done to reduce noise coming from the battery (but I could definitely be wrong here). And they seemed to really like the idea because this is the next most common board you'll find after the V1.

Now that we've gone through each version I wanted to show a couple oddities that you may come across. The first is this V1 Super Fuzz that uses a combination of 2SC828 transistors and metal can 2SC539's. This is another combination I have only found in Univox and Honey branded units.

There are two other places where you will find this though; the Honey Psychedelic Machines and Univox Uni-Fuzz. Honey appears to have started using the 2SC539 transistors with the creation of the Vibra Chorus / Psychedelic Machine. And as a result, some of them also found their way into Baby Crying Fuzzes, Super Fuzzes, and Uni-Fuzzes.

For our final example we have a V3 board but with a unique combination of parts not often seen in Super Fuzzes. The resistors were commonly used in mid-late 60s Japanese amplifiers and also found in a few early fuzz pedals, like the Guyatone FS-1 and the Voice Differential Box. Another place you can find them is in some Uni-Fuzzes, which helps confirm that this pedal wasn't just repaired at some point.

This was most likely built in 1969, as it matches the parts and layout of both the early Crown Super Fuzzes and the earliest Apollo Super Fuzzes. This was really an interesting and mysterious time period in the pedal's history because by all accounts Honey had gone out of business and Shin-ei had yet to take over...

So the question remains; who was making these pedals? All the examples above, while appearing to be sequential, I believe at least, were made simultaneously. Yes, the V1 was almost certainly first, and the V3 was last, but for the amount of V1's out there it really would stand to reason that all three were being made at the same time. There were also two different enclosures and paint colors used! (two different manufacturers???)

To make things even more maddening, I just looked back at this original factory schematic drawn out by Univox in June of 1968. This would have been roughly one month after receiving the pedals from Japan, and it not only shows the use of two different transistors, but also a TRIMPOT! 

So now I don't know what to think. 😂

My current conclusion hasn't really changed though, because I still believe that within the history of the circuit (1967-1969) it was originally designed without a trimpot, and then in early 1968 (probably with the creation of the Psychedelic Machine and addition of different components) they redesigned the PCB to have space for a trimpot in order to bias the transistors regardless of the components being used? What we do know for sure is that A. the Psychedelic Machine utilizes the 2SC828 and 2SC539 transistor combo, and the board has a trimpot to bias the transistors. And B. that the Honey Baby Crying Fuzz pre-dates the Psychedelic Machine, with the two effects being invented by different people (the former of whom is still a mystery).

This is all to say that I still think while there is a logical order in which these PCB variations were designed, most likely they were all being made at the same time, and possibly by more than one manufacturer in Japan. And it's just by pure chance that the unit Univox dissected for their factory schematic happened to be a somewhat obscure example.

That mess aside, what I am most interested in, and think is the key to solving a large chunk of this riddle, is finding out what exactly happened in the nine months following February 1969. This is like a no-man's-land vortex between the end of Honey and the beginning of the Shin-ei era, yet we have hard evidence showing OEM Super Fuzzes arriving at stores within that period (Crown, Apollo, JH Experience). So who was making them? Who was distributing them? 

What's even weirder is that we've also seen pedals such as the Guyatone FS-3 from 1972 that appear to use old Honey parts, most likely auctioned off after the Shin-ei buyout. So what did that situation look like?

In 1970 Univox would go on to use a different manufacturer for the new Super Fuzz model U-1095, continuing with the same factory that was responsible for their Uni-Wah. (This is almost certainly who, in 1967, Unicord hired to build the LRE Fuzz Sound as well). Unfortunately we do not know the name of this manufacturer, but it appears as though "Melos" could possibly have been their house brand.

Either way, I hope this was a bit interesting to you! I try to keep it fairly surface-level when it comes to the circuit analysis stuff (mostly because "surface level" is personally the amount of knowledge I possess on the subject :) but also because I think we can garner a lot from simply noticing the little similarities and differences between pedals, outside and in.

Thanks for reading!
And make sure to check out this classic blog post from Cult pedals that introduced me to many of these circuit variations years ago. It's a fantastic read, as is the entire site!
-ed

Bowman Electronics Fuzz Box

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A couple of years ago during another late-night deep dive for the old and stompy, I came across a pretty crude and low-fi scan of the 1970 edition of Burnstein-Applebee electronics catalog. Among the thousands of components and DIY gear was a photo and description for the "Fuzz Maker Sound Kit". It looked cool, but unfortunately with the scan being as bad as it was there was no way I could figure out if it had a brand name, who made it, or really any of the integral details I typically hope for. So I saved the image and filed it away with dozens of other fuzz kits from that time period, and honestly, just kind of continued on without a second thought.

Fast forward to last month where I was talking with my good friend Bart from Effects Database and he pointed me to an ebay listing for a stack of Burnstein-Applebee catalogs, ranging from 1967-1971. And while I've tried to cut back gambling on old print media lately, the price was low enough that it was worth a shot! So the wait began, and with it, the speculation of what hidden fuzzy gems could be lurking in the dusty pages of those long forgotten catalogs.

Well a week later my curiosity was quelled; the packaged arrived safely and I began going through of every page, line by line and olde timey wholesome illustration by olde timey wholesome illustration. But would all of this waiting and work pay off?

Kind of...

The image above is the only page from any of the catalogs with something pedal-related. It also happens to be the same exact page I found two years prior. womp womp.

But maybe if I could make a new hi-res scan we could glean some NEW information from it and crack the code!

So I went to work (aka, drove to my mom's house and used her scanner) and began to decode the image below.

There it is! 

Ok, so this image is significantly better than the older one but still leaves some important details to be imagined. Like, what is that brand logo on the top left? Is that a model number (72-Z)? What are the two controls (Volume, Tang WIANAV//)?

And as I sat there staring at this picture, it hit me: I may not be able to answer the questions above, BUT! I definitely recognized that pedal and had seen it before.

Those knobs, that enclosure, the upper-right portion... This fuzz is definitely related to APPLIED AUDIO!!!

A couple months back I posted a long and (what I thought was) comprehensive history of Applied Audio Products. Based directly in the heart of the late '60s East Coast audio gear mecca, this NJ-based company was responsible for thousands of fuzz boxes for the better part of a decade.

But while I knew they were knee-deep in the OEM manufacturing world, I was unaware until now that they may have also had a hand in the wild world of electronics project kits.

The enclosure, that ridiculous battery tester, those odd knobs, everything we can see here points to Applied Audio. But until we get a glimpse of the inside, this theory may need to remain in land of speculation. And in addition to the unknown circuit, we still have the question of what brand was this being sold under?

To find the answer I had to go back and slowly comb through every page of the Burnstein catalog, because for some reason they really tried to hide the branding on these kits. But my persistence paid off, and I finally was rewarded with a name: Bowman Electronics.

After more internet sleuthing I was able to discover that Bowman had been around at least as early as 1966, they also went by the name "Bowman Leisure Industries" and were based out of both Roselle, NJ and Garwood, NJ. Mostly known for project kits, the fuzz was part of a series of personal electronics called, "Mod-U-Kits", which included everything from spy gear to handheld amplifiers.

Unfortunately there weren't a ton of mentions online of Bowman, and absolutely zero of the fuzz, but the handful of kits we did find gave us a few more clues as to how it would look when you ordered one of these.

Each kit was ready for in-store displays at your local Lafayette Radio Electronics or Radio Shack stores back in the day. They also had what I assume is the paper instruction sheet with an image of the finished product staring at you from behind a thin layer of ancient plastic. 

Upon opening it the enthusiastic builder would have been met with an enclosure, PCB, wires and components in a small baggy. All fairly standard for electronics project kits, and it's probably safe to assume that opening the fuzz box was a near identical experience. Basically you pop the transistors, caps, and resistors in, pull out your trusty solder iron and a few moments later you had "built" yourself a cool new noisy gadget.

As I sat there trying to connect the dots I remembered something about Applied Audio's history; they had a partner/parent company called Trans-Tek who they shared a South Plainfield, NJ warehouse space with.

Well prior to moving to that warehouse, Trans-Tek (known for selling surplus/bulk electronic components and PROJECT KITS) was located in Garwood, NJ.

And when I checked both addresses, Bowman and Trans-Tek were located down the block from each other! As in, you could probably take a leisurely stroll from one building to the other in under 10 minutes. (see the green flags in the map below)

This is where my information ends though, as I have been unable to find a concrete link between the two companies. So from here on out I'm just going to present a couple of best guesses as to what may have been going on here.

One option is that the two companies had been working together since the mid 60s, with Trans-Tek supplying Bowman Electronics with the necessary components for their kits. So when it came time for Bowman to get into the fuzz game, they had an easy call to make.

Another option takes into account that the fuzz kits don't appear until 1970 (or at the very least, I haven't seen anything prior to this date). That being said, if you read the Applied Audio article you may remember that only the earliest units (1967/68) appear to use those tophat knobs and larger battery tester lamps. The fuzz in the Bowman Electronics photo clearly has both of those features, so is it possible that they simply purchased dead/old stock parts from Trans-Tek (Applied Audio) and then sold them as a kit? If this is the case, it's also possible that the circuit inside is completely different from a typical Applied Audio pedal.

The last detail to mention here would be that the enclosure of the Bowman Fuzz Box appears to be wider than the Applied Audio "Big Fuzz" but not as wide as the "Fuzz and Treble Booster". 

And you may be thinking that they just stretched the image to fit the ad, but the labeling is different as well. On the typical Applied units the knobs are "Attack" and "Intensity" with the word "Fuzz" just above the two, creating the shape of a triangle. But on the Bowman you can see that the labeling on the right knob is perfectly centered and stacked. Which leads me to believe that this is not only a unique enclosure, but potentially one made specifically FOR this Bowman Electronics kit.

That is all to say, I honestly don't know what happened here. lol

But that's why we do these types of articles because maybe YOU DO? And if that is the case, please feel free to shoot me an Email or find me on Instagram.

Thanks for reading,

-ed

Early Montarbo Sinfhoton Demos

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While I continue to slog my way through grimy depths of historical research I'm realizing that the classic Italian fuzz, the Montarbo Sinfhoton (Sinphoton), is not quite as easy to uncover as I had hoped. But in the meantime I thought it would be cool to post a couple videos, actually loaded up to YouTube 12yrs ago, by user Psych Up Melodies. 

The first one below shows the earliest version; with its white knobs, stylized "Montarbo" logo, and metal-can transistors. The other video shows a later version (late 70s-mid 80s); more common "Montarbo" logo, metal knobs, and no hardwired input or output chord. So check these out and see if you can hear a difference:

One question that has been haunting me through all this, is WHEN did the Sinfhoton actually come out? The year that has been repeated over and over for decades is "1968", but I have yet to find any credible evidence to confirm that's true. So if you happen to have access to any old magazine advertisements, catalogs, or anything else that could help clear this up, please send me a message via Email or Instagram.

thanks for reading!

-ed

Surf. Siren. Wah. Tornado.

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In 1968 Honey Co., Ltd. released a full lineup of new and impressive effects; the Special Fuzz, the Vibra Chorus (pre Uni-Vibe), the Psychedelic Machine, and a really niche / weird / borderline ridiculous unit called the HA-9P Super Effect. In addition to controls for "Wah-Wah" and "Volume", the player could also trigger the sounds of a "Siren" or "Wind/Tornado". It was billed as more of an SFX machine rather than a typical pedal, and sought to capitalize on Japan's infatuation with The Ventures and the national Surf Rock craze.

But in 2025 it's very easy to look back at these Surf pedals as nothing more than a novelty, or some kitsch artefact of a bygone era. But I believe that hidden deep within this oddball weirdness is a new key to uncovering one of the blurriest periods of the Honey/Shin-ei saga...

Where did the Super Effect idea come from originally? That's a question that we kind of have an answer to, but also, maybe not. :)

Whenever this pedal gets brought up in conversation (extremely nerdy and specific conversation) someone is always quick to point out the Jennings Cyclone pedal, which in a very similar fashion had controls for "Wah-Wah",  "Siren", "Tornado", and "Fuzz". The release date has been difficult to pin down, but we do know that in the Summer of 1968 Jennings premiered their new effects line at the BMII Trade Fair. Unfortunately the only known reports fail to name all of the pedals that were demoed. But the "Summer of 1968" does give us a nice baseline as to the earliest probable time the Cyclone could have been released.

Predating both the Jennings Cyclone and the Honey Super Effect by at least two years was the Guyatone HG-208 Surf Deluxe steel guitar. Debuting in the 1966 Guyatone catalog, it's the first known instrument to feature an oscillating white noise to specifically mimic the sound of waves. We obviously can't deny that the use of white noise was already becoming a staple of early synthesis by the mid 60s. The Ace Tone S-3 Canary clavioline (1963/4) featured two large circular pads that triggered bursts of white noise, allowing the user to tap out a rhythm in real time. When held down, the buttons would spit a steady stream of white noise, but by adding the oscillating "Vibrato" effect it could also create something similar to a wave or wind sound.

So while the Honey Super Effect may not have been a completely original idea, in 1968 it would have definitely felt fresh and different enough for the average guitar god looking to 'psych' up their solos. 

To me, the best argument for the Super Effect coming out before (or at least, without the knowledge of) the Jennings Cyclone is that Honey decided against including a fuzz. I could easily be wrong here, but this reads to me like Honey had an idea to make a true sound effects pedal, and not necessarily a guitar effects pedal. If they were simply copying the Cyclone, then why not just do so straight up?

Luckily for us we don't have to guess any more, because an unpublished interview with legendary engineer, Fumio Mieda sheds a significant amount of light on the development of the Surf Wah. In it, he states that he came up with the circuit for the "Siren" portion first, and almost by accident, while still working for Teisco in (approximately) 1964. He made note of it and held on to the design until 1968, as there was no home for it in the Teisco lineup, when he was able to adapt it into pedal-form with the Honey HA-9P. 

The other interesting part of that interview is where Mieda talks about the inspiration for creating this sound, describing the profound impact of daily air raid sirens he would hear throughout his childhood. Leftover from the 2nd World War, they were repurposed to signal the start of general public announcements in his home town (and possibly throughout Japan, but he wasn't sure). So with this in mind, he timed the sweep of the siren to mimic those same air raid horns from his youth. Pretty wild! And even maybe a little more wild, is to think that in addition to the Uni-Vibe, the Special Fuzz, and the Korg MS-20, Fumio Mieda also invented the Surf Wah!

Alright! Let's get into those original Honey-era Surf Wahs and what makes them stand out.

The 1968 Honey brochure (see top of the post), shows us that the "Tornado" effect was originally labeled as "Wind" on the pedal itself even though the controls were described as affecting the "Tornado" sound. So it's no surprise that later in the run Honey would change the pedal's labeling to also say "Tornado". And as you'll see, when Shin-ei got into the game they would again change which natural disaster would represent the "wind" effect. 

Another quick cosmetic detail to look out for is the model number itself, "HA-9P". This is something that was done only during the Honey-era (1968-1969). So while you can find this exact enclosure with pedals built even into the mid 70s, anything made after 1969 will have a blank space under the word "Siren". And as you'll see in a little bit, even the circuit was changed from one manufacturer to the next, so this easy-to-spot cosmetic alteration is a nice way to know what you're actually getting even when there's no gut shots.

Shin-ei is just as well known for the amount of OEM brands they manufactured as they are for the effects themselves. But this trend actually began during the Honey-era, and the Surf Wah might be the best example of the their reach.

It's hard to say which branding came first, but both the Apollo "Racket Pedal" and the Shaftesbury "Squall Pedal" were advertised in 1969, while the Greco "Special Effects Pedal" was first seen in the Greco/Goya catalog from 1968. The last two known brands with the HA-9P circuit are the rare Italian unit by Galli, and the American Cromwell, which was distributed by Guild and appeared in their 1969 price sheets.  

It's worth noting that many of these continued to be produced after Shin-ei took over as well. So you'll most likely see Apollo, Shaftesbury, and Cromwell units with the missing "HA-9P" labeling and the later circuit, seeing as they're much more common. Additionally, after 1969 the new brands that popped up in the original Honey enclosure include the Sekova Model No. 89 Super Effect, the Tempo Super Effect, and the Companion Super Effect. This is right when things started to get weird and stupidly convoluted with Shin-ei and their many versions of the Surf Wah.

At some point, either late 1969 or very early 1970 (I think!), Shin-ei took over manufacturing the Honey effects. This particular period of time is still very unclear, but the two pedals above give us a glimpse into how chaotic it was.

In the Summer of 1969 Shin-ei Electric Co. Ltd. ran an advertisement for what I believe to be the very first "Companion" branded effect. It was a simple wah pedal, but one I've never seen outside of this ad. And while it was unique, it's enclosure was also very similar in shape to the first image above. 

By 1971 this new Surf Wah would officially become known as the Companion ME-7 Multi Effect, and featured an updated "Hurricane" sound in place of "Tornado" or "Wind". It also used a cloned/modified circuit with a totally different layout from the Honey units. But previous to its official name or even landing in any type of catalog, I believe Shin-ei made their own version of the Surf Wah BEFORE the decision was made to take over/absorb Honey (I'll explain this theory more as we go on). And the unit above is a perfect example of this, as it has enough unique parts to be unlike the typical ME-7's but also it's clearly not the same as HA-9P's either.

Another oddity from what I believe is the same time period, is this Oscar Wah King. With its grey paint job and clear rubber foot tread, it combines both the past and the even more past hallmarks of typical Shin-ei and Honey effects. 

Before we go all-in with the gut shots, I wanted to show you what's going on inside both of the Surf Wah oddities we just mentioned.

The three photos above show the early Companion pedal, the Oscar pedal, and the base of two additional Shin-ei Surf Wahs from 1970 (Aug. & Apr.). The Companion version appears to be the same general circuit as the Oscar, but in a completely different layout. The components we find inside include carbon comp resistors, those brown/orange caps, and eight 2SC-829 transistors, which vary from the 2SC-828 transistors found in the official schematic (and the vast majority of ME-7's).

The Oscar pedal houses both the Honey PCB and the correct Honey-era components, including the unique combination of seven 2SC-828 and a single 2SC-539 transistor (which is the same odd metal can tranny you'll also find in Honey versions of the Uni-Vibe, Psychedelic Machine, some Crier Wahs, a handful of  Baby Crying Fuzzes, and the Uni-Fuzz).  Another pedal to note is the Oscar Fuzz Wah, which comes in the same grey enclosure and is the only Shin-ei pedal I am aware of that uses two separate boards for the fuzz and wah sections. As far as we know Honey never made a Fuzz Wah, but when we look inside the Oscar it uses two Honey-era PCB's. This is an important clue to help us date these pedals because in 1970 they would officially start calling them "WF-8" in relation to the 8 transistor, single PCB circuit; which to me could show that this rare Oscar version is from that infamous transition period in 1969?

I wonder about that grey paint job as well. Was this originally designed for Univox/LRE? Was it a scenario where Honey went out of business and the enclosures were sold off with everything else, winding up in the hands of Shin-ei? We do know that many Honey-era PCB's made their way into the Guyatone FS-3 Fuzz (as we discussed HERE a while back). But those ones had the Honey lettering etched into them ("HF"), while the PCB's that were used in the Oscar pedals were blank, just like what you will find in the last batches of grey Univox Super Fuzzes. We may never know what was really happening in that transition period between the Summer of 1969 and the Spring of 1970, but one thing is for sure; it was pretty chaotic.

If you thought the craziness was done, just wait...

Dated to April of 1970 (or just one month after the earliest date-stamped Companion effects) this NDK "Exciter" is yet another iteration of the Surf Wah. It uses the same circuit and components found in the typical Shin-ei versions of the time. I can only speculate as to why these got both, a different enclosure and a different name than the "normal" run found in the Companion catalogs. But if there's any logic to it at all, my best guess is that these decisions were made for the export market?

What's makes this whole thing even weirder is that Shin-ei continued to produce the Surf Wah and Fuzz Wah in all 3 enclosures, pretty much until they went bankrupt in 1979. Could this point to multiple manufacturers all owned by Shin-ei, working somewhat independently? Could it be nothing more than clever marketing, using the illusion of choice to make more sales? 

If you're a guitar company in the US and want your "Brand X" Surf Wah you definitely wouldn't want it to look exactly like your competitor's, "Brand Y", Surf Wah... 

So instead of being locked in to a single option you get to pick between 3 different enclosures that secretly all house the exact same circuit... I'm honestly not sure what to think, because it's not like Shin-ei gave these options for the FY-2 and FY-6 fuzzes? I'm almost certain that the Uni-Vibe was made exclusively for Unicord (Univox/LRE/Tempo), while the Vibra Chorus (and later the Resly Tone) were made for the rest of the Shin-ei brands and OEM offerings. So basically all we got are these three different treadle style effects that were available in multiple housings.

Why is this all so maddening!!! lol

Alright, well let's move on to areas we do know something about.

A clue that I noticed last year, and honestly shook my long-held opinion of how this mysterious relationship worked, was that almost all of the effects that transferred from the Honey-era to the Shin-ei-era (minus the Super Fuzz and the Uni-Vibe) had different bottom plates from their previous versions. 

The image above shows one of the earliest Companion-era Shin-ei Surf Wahs on the left and a Honey Super Effect on the right. These were probably made within a year of each other, yet you can see the difference almost instantly. While Honey opted for a smaller battery door that hinged from left to right, Shin-ei's design involved a larger area that fully hinged from bottom up. And you'll see this type of battery access in virtually all of the Shin-ei treadle effects. 

Knowing this, I was able to infer a few key things: 1, is that Shin-ei most likely built the Oscar effects using those odd Honey parts, because they all have the larger hinged bottom plates. 2, is that my assumption Shin-ei hadn't simply taken over after Honey went bankrupt, but they manufactured their pedals from the beginning, is almost certainly wrong!

So what do I think happened here?

This is definitely an ongoing, and everchanging, theory. I will finally submit to that. 

But my best guess is that Shin-ei decided to begin manufacturing pedals some time in the first half of 1969. They had already been in the business from 1959 (supposedly), making pickups and then microphones. And I believe around 1969 they figured the time was right to finally jump on the stompbox trend themselves (even though/because the Japanese guitar market was crashing all around them). 

What was the norm in the late 60s, especially in Japan, was to blatantly ripoff another brand's design, almost totally. You had Royal do it with their Fuzz Box, Nishin Onpa do it with their Mac-Tone Fuzz Machine, and Yack do it with there DA-1 Fuzz Box. So why not Shin-ei also get into the game through cloning? We already know that the original version of the FY-2 was copied from the Yack-YF-1, and I am really stretching to think of a purely original effect Shin-ei ever produced...

That all said (typed?), I think Shin-ei was probably getting ready to release a line of effects that essentially ripped off what Honey was doing, in 1969. And the fact that Honey happened to go out of business around the same time was just pure serendipity, leading to Shin-ei buying out much of the remaining inventory, business, and taking over the previous OEM deals. Where I once truly believed that Shin-ei had always been Honey's effects manufacturer, I now think they were simply in the right place at the right time, and were able to take over the business completely.

I am almost certain I'm still missing something though, something big that will crack this case wide open. But for now at least, with the information I have been able to gather, this makes the most sense. Obviously more questions need to be answered, like:

-Was Shin-ei manufacturing pedals before 1969, for other brands, and we just don't know about it?, or

-Was Shin-ei a collective of smaller manufacturers all owned by the larger conglomerate called Shin-ei Electric?, and the big question still stands, 

-What did the transition from Honey to Shin-ei really look like? Was Honey actually building their own pedals, or did they hire a (currently unknown) third party and the deal with Shin-ei was actually with this mystery factory and not Honey themselves?...

The legacy of the Surf Wah almost totally lies in the Land of Pedals Past. I don't think I have ever heard one used at a live event, or on any record that came out in the last 40 years. And I can't think of a single pedal builder who has gone all-in on making a clone of this utterly strange circuit.

But in 1970 it was still quite fashionable, so the Italian brand EKO released their version, called the Multitone. And because Italian brands had close ties to UK brands in the late 60s - early 70s, and also because the Multitone includes a Fuzz, I believe this pedal was most likely a combination clone, of the Jennings Cyclone and Repeater pedals.

In what seems like the same year, the Brazilian brand SOUND Malagoli released the SOUND - III (which was later modified and rebranded as the SOUND ES-3). We believe it's inspired by, if not completely a copy of, the EKO Multitone. There's a long history of Italian/Brazilian connections in the world of musical instruments, that were a result of a massive Italian immigration during the World Wars. So it's no surprise that an obscure Italian pedal would wind up in Brazil and quickly get copied.

The last example was definitely cloned directly from a Shin-ei ME-7. As we mentioned earlier, Guild had an HA-9P Surf Wah in their price lists in 1969. This is most likely the Cromwell branded version, but I suppose there could be a Guild version we have just never seen? Well in 1974 Guild would reintroduce the effect, this time built by Applied Audio Products here in the US, called the SP-5 Siren Surf & Turf Pedal. It was a part-for-part copy of the Shin-ei Surf Wah, even down to the PCB, and was only available for a single year. But in 1977 Applied would reintroduce this effect under the Hohner brand, with the ME-30 Multi-Exciter. 

For Shin-ei, the ME-7 Multi-Exciter would go through one more cosmetic change in the mid-70s before fizzling out for good. This would sadly signal the end of the totally tubular sounds of Wind, Tornados, Hurricanes, and Sirens gracing our favorite records. The truth is, there's about a zero percent chance that a resurgence of the Surf Wah pedal ever happens, so I do apologize if this is the first time you're hearing about them because this article feels closer to a pedal eulogy than our typical deep-dive.

But I hope you were able to take away something new and interesting from all of this. And at the very least, I hope I did a good job of describing the greater importance of the Surf Wah as part of the Honey / Shin-ei story. Because if we study them even more they may end up being our best guide down the path to true effector enlightenment...

thanks for reading,

-ed