Shaftesbury Duo Fuzz (England meets Japan)

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Among the most well-known vintage guitar pedals, the Shaftesbury Duo Fuzz has the distinction of being even more famous than its original branding. In 1967 the Japanese company Honey released two effects; the Crier Wah and the Baby Crying Fuzz. The following year a deal with the American company Unicord would lead to the very first OEM units that came from Honey; the Univox Super Fuzz and the LRE Super Fuzz. Shortly after a few more export contracts would be signed, Tempo (another branch of Unicord) and Crown would both get their very own Super Fuzz units, and by 1969 three more rebrandings of the effect would be on the market; the Apollo Deluxe Fuzz Tone Expander (US), the JH Experience Fuzz (Canada), and finally the Shaftesbury Duo Fuzz (UK).

And it's precisely the Duo Fuzz that we're going to focus on today; partially because it's the longest running Super Fuzz ever made, and also because much of the current information out there is a bit... outdated.

So let's see what we can uncover about this savage British beast.

The Shaftesbury brand was born out of Rose-Morris, a longtime UK-based musical instrument distribution company. In 1967 they began opening showrooms in London to highlight their most popular brands; Marshall, Gibson, and Eko, among others. With the added dimension of a physical retail space they could begin to compete on a different level, and decided to create their own low-cost house brand, "Shaftesbury" (named after the street location of their flagship showroom).

Most online searches will return a date of "1968" as the inception of the brand, but as of now I have not been able to find any evidence of this. Rose-Morris ran advertisements in magazines like Beat Instrumental and Melody Maker pretty consistently from 1967 through to the early 80s, yet there was no mention of the Shaftesbury brand until the middle of 1969. So while we can't say for sure it was either year, it's still worth mentioning regardless.

The above catalog is consistently attributed to 1968, but there are no date marks on any of the pages, nor have I been able to find any of the products listed elsewhere prior to 1969. So my best guess is that this catalog simply came out a little later than we've always thought.

Another common piece of information that often gets passed around is that Pete Townshend played a Shaftesbury Duo Fuzz at the legendary Rolling Stones "Rock and Roll Circus" in December of 1968. I suppose this could be possible, but again, I have so far found zero evidence to corroborate the claim. I've watched the Who's performance multiple times, but they never even pan down to Pete's feet, let alone show the pedal he's using. I've also found two separate photos of his setup but unfortunately you can't see ANY pedals in either image. So I have no idea?

Could it be a Duo Fuzz, no fuzz at all, or is it maybe an early grey Univox Super Fuzz perchance? For now we'll have to leave that one up to debate, at least until someone finds solid photos from that night showing exactly what he did use.

So what do we know?

Well in June of 1969 Beat Instrumental magazine ran the earliest known ad for the Shaftesbury pedal line (*see above), and it prominently featured not the Duo Fuzz, but it's crazy sister effect, the Squall Pedal.

The Squall was another rebranded Honey invention, the Super Effect, which had just been released some time in 1968 (for a full history check out this article here). It was rather odd, as it functioned more like a sound effect machine than a stompbox. But maybe this novelty is exactly why it got top-billing over the Duo Fuzz in these early ads?

Both pedals were highlighted throughout the rest of 1969, showing up in Melody Maker, BI, and by early 1970 they even appeared alongside fellow Rose-Morris distributed items, like the Marshall Supa Fuzz, in the annual Henry's Radio Ltd. catalog. (*see below)

Another thing that we know for sure is all of the original Shaftesbury products were imported from Japan. Ironically, this included a set of Rickenbacker knock-offs, which was funny because Rose-Morris was also a distributer for the actual Rickenbacker. lol

In addition to European and US companies, RM distributed guitars from Suzuki and Arai/Aria. This means they had an established connection to the Japanese market prior to launching Shaftesbury. But beyond this it has yet to be proven that either of these brands had anything to do with their guitar or effects dealings later on.

So where/how did Rose-Morris come to partner with Honey (or whoever was manufacturing their pedals at the time)? The initial brands to do a similar OEM deal were all from the US, and were all associated with Unicord/Merson: Univox, LRE, and Tempo. This was followed quickly by the brand Crown, who themselves were already doing business with Japan, importing guitars affixed with their logo from Matsumoko. To me, this really only leaves two options for the Shaftesbury line; One is that Rose-Morris used their connection with Unicord/Merson that was previously established through Marshall. The other, is that there was possibly a third-party supplier that made package deals (if your brand wanted to import gear from Japan, instead of doing business directly with those manufacturers you got a pamphlet and simply circled what you wanted; guitars, amps, mics, effects, etc. Then the orders would be put through to the proper factories).

Everything I have seen in my research points to the 2nd option above as being the most common at the time. But I am still waiting to find the smoking gun in the form of an original Japanese supplier catalog...

For this specific case however there was a legitimate and well documented connection between Rose-Morris and Unicord/Merson pre-Shaftesbury. Take the images above for instance.

These come from the June and July issues of Music Trades magazine (1968). They describe the NAMM convention that year, and the so-called "Britsh exhibit". There is mention of the already existing Marshall/Unicord deal (I have found mention of this as early as January 1968). The short article also discusses Rose-Morris' involvement, and even states that the exhibit is theirs (which I assume displayed all of the brands they represented?). But while they go on to describe the Rose-Morris house brand "R-M", with both their line of drums and and even a new pedal steel guitar, there is no mention at all of the Shaftesbury brand (which most likely did not exist yet).

This is all to say that the evidence might not be anywhere close to conclusive, but I think it's at least a 40% chance that the relationship between Rose-Morris and Unicord led (at least partially) to the products sold under the Shaftesbury brand. But again, that is only a guess at this point!

One final bit on dating the earliest Duo Fuzzes; as we said above unfortunately there isn't clear enough photos or video from the Rock & Roll Circus performance to say that Pete Townshend used one that night. So what is the earliest evidence, and how good is it?

In 1969 the UK band Soft Machine released their album "The Soft Machine Volume 2". Fuzzy guitar tones are prominently featured throughout the album, mostly coming from the bassist Hugh Hopper. Since this time Hopper has been seen (and quoted as saying that he) used a Shaftesbury Duo Fuzz, and if you listen to the track above it's very clearly a Super Fuzz circuit. According to what I've read the album was recorded between February and March of 1969. So if that is accurate, and if we WAS using a Duo Fuzz, then this would be the earliest known evidence currently out there.

Right now, if I had to put money on it, I would say my very best guess for the release of the Shaftesbury Duo Fuzz is somewhere between December 1968 - Spring 1969. 

But how can you tell if you have one of those early, Honey-era Duo Fuzzes?

The unit you see above is an early one, most likely from 1969. And it has all the hallmarks of its fellow Honey-era brethren; the On/Off Expander pot, the small "Made in Japan" sticker on the back, and even the paint/rust patterns are consistent with other Honey Super Fuzzes.

I don't have photos of the inside, but I can guarantee that you would clearly see the on/off pot and one of three known Honey PCB's, along with the letters "HF" printed on the trace side.

But one thing that distinguished the Duo Fuzz from all other variants was that logo badge. It's the only one that leans to the left instead of the right. And it's precisely this distinction that allows us to easily, and quickly, determine if we're holding a Honey Duo Fuzz from the '60s, or a Shin-ei Duo Fuzz from the '70s.

In 1970, after Honey had gone out of business, Shin-ei began to manufacture their own version of the Super Fuzz, which they called the "FY-6". And one of the first things they did differently was to create an embossed enclosure, with an indented area for the logo badge to sit. (*see the example above)

These were made this way from 1970 - 1972. And if you're still unsure from looking at the outside, once you take a peak under the hood you will notice a clear spot that has been machine-pressed into the sheet metal. The unit directly above is a Duo Fuzz from February of 1972, and you can easily see on the left that it too features the embossing.

But if you remember to a minute ago when we were discussing the unique left-leaning logo that Shaftesbury used, then maybe you're already questioning how they were able to stick there badge inside a space that's clearly made for a right-leaning one. And you would be very correct in wondering how they did it... And luckily for us, the solution is one of the main factors that separates a "late 60s" Duo Fuzz from a 1970s unit.

The top image above shows the front of the exact pedal you just saw a second ago. And if you don't immediately see how they did it, I'll just come out and tell you; they made the logo badge BIGGER than the indented area! 

That's it! 

That's how Shaftesbury was able to keep their unique look even though another manufacturer took over the project and changed the build-style on them. And honestly, it's a rather elegant solution to what could have otherwise been an embarrassing and janky rollout (hence the other image above that shows what happened when the Canadian brand, JH Experience, made the same journey from Honey to Shin-ei.)

Toward the middle of 1972 Shin-ei would abandon the embossed faceplate idea and go back to a flat one. And while I have yet to find an example, I would bet that for a while at least, the remaining indented enclosures became Duo Fuzzes... But again, this is totally a guess as of now. Either way, their logo badges stayed large throughout the rest of the run, and remain a recognizable calling card of the 70's/Shin-ei builds. 

But actually, there's even one more distinction we haven't mentioned yet:

"Spot the Difference" was (and still is) one of my favorite games as a kid. I honestly think the hours I spent staring at the backs of Highlights magazine as an 8yr old prepared me for the years I've now spent staring at photos of guitar pedals. lol

Take a look above. At first you probably notice that the text on the bottom badge is a bit more fine and detailed than that one above it. You may also notice that it doesn't look quite as squished in its border either. But did you also notice the words "Rose-Morris"? The top badge comes from a Honey-era Duo Fuzz, while the bottom one obviously comes from a Shin-ei pedal. Either through mistake or neglect, the Honey badges failed to add the hyphen between "Rose" and "Morris". But a year later this was fixed by Shin-ei to more accurately reflect the true RM logo.

So if you're ever having a hard time figuring out if the badge is larger than normal, or can't see if it has an on/off Expander pot, then feel confident you can always fall back on the old "Rose Morris" vs. "Rose-Morris" trick.

Another way you can tell what year your Duo Fuzz was made is by looking at the foot switch. Just like we discussed back in this post about dating Shin-ei pedals, from Jan-May of 1973 they introduced a new footswitch that featured the brand name "Companion" (*see the top image). Then they followed that up with the now classic "Shin-ei"-labeled footswitch, around the middle of 1973. So if all I know about the two pedals above is what I see, I know for sure that the top one was made in 1973, and the bottom one is no older than 1973 (and now you too know this super nerdy detail :)

The "Shin-ei" footswitches lasted throughout their run as a brand, around 1979, but I have yet to find a Duo Fuzz dated any later than December 1975. And if I am not mistaken that would make them the longest running OEM branded Super Fuzzes ever made. So in addition to the variances we've discussed here, there are definitely other things that changed over time; like transistors, caps, switches, and jacks. Also, the 1975 units reflect the same change that the other brandings went through, with a new PCB, wiring style, and updated component selection. 

The history of the Shaftesbury Duo Fuzz is both insignificant (as it's just one of many re-branded OEM Super Fuzzes), and also quite significant (as it was used by guitar legends like Pete Townshend and Steve Hackett). Being the only true UK-based import of the circuit, and being tied directly to one of the largest distros in England it competed right up against giants like Sola Sound, Dallas/Arbiter, and Marshall. And because of its totally unique circuit, the Duo Fuzz stood out to anyone who wanted a little extra GNAR from their guitar tone.

In production for approximately seven years, and sold for possibly longer, the story can now be rewritten about this badass pedal. The Duo Fuzz is solidly a stompbox from the '70s, just as Nirvana is a band from the '90s. So if you take nothing else away from this, I hope at least you remember that much! 

Maybe some of this was helpful, and maybe you even found a few new pieces of info that you didn't already have. Either way the Duo Fuzz will remain an important part of guitar history, and there's a reason why it's still one of the first vintage stompboxes most people discover.

Thanks for reading, and as always if you have any additional info on Shaftesbury, Rose-Morris, or anything that's at all related, please feel free to comment below or send me a message via Email, Substack, or Instagram.

-ed

Tri-Dirty Booster Demo (finally!)

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Just last week a great video was posted by friend of the blog, Hidenori Kume over on Takahashi Takuroh's youtube channel. They go through two pedals from Hidenori's collection, but specifically take time to thoroughly demo, what many of us believe is, the best Big Muff clone ever made; the Hohner Tri Dirty Booster!

Enjoy the fuzz/// ✌

thanks for watching,

-ed

Kay Fuzz Tone - What We Know...

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Just like its fellow countrypedals, the history of the Kay FUZ-1 Fuzz Tone seems to have been lost to both time and translation. For decades all we've ever known is that it was built in Japan, it was based off of either the Univox Super Fuzz or the Mac-Tone Fuzz Machine (aka, Ibanez Standard Fuzz), and that it was famously used by both the Edge and Daniel Lanois. 

The remaining factoids that currently exist have been a combination of best guesses and somewhat poorly calculated deductive reasoning. I myself unfortunately helped to perpetuate some untruths about the Kay Fuzz in the past, simply because it was easier to believe what I had always heard rather than take the time to look into it myself.

So today we're going to go deep into the history of the Kay Fuzz Tone, and see if we can hopefully right some of those wrongs...

I suppose we should start with the biggest correction first.

Like most of you, my impression has always been that the Kay Fuzz was released "some time in the late 60s". And because I had never heard differently, I just accepted this as the hard truth. But as you might be guessing, we were all wrong!

And when I thought about it, 1969 (and especially 1968) does feel kind of early when you learn what the pedal actually is. But we'll talk about that more in a minute.

So a few years ago I knew that I had to track down some type of advertisement or printed evidence showing exactly WHEN the Kay existed. And while combing though pages and pages of old issues of Music Trades magazine, I found exactly what I was looking for! A product announcement for the original three Kay "Sound Benders" effects series; the red WaWa-1 Wah Wah, the blue Trem-1 Tremolo, and the orange FUZ-1 Fuzz Tone. But immediately after my excitement died down I became legitimately shocked when I realized the date on the cover of the magazine was January of 1974!!!

This was wayyyyy later than any of us had ever considered. So I had my questions, because for a product to appear in Music Trades it means that a major distributer has picked it up and it's ready to sell nationwide. Sometimes this can happen months after the pedal is actually released, so I knew I needed to find some additional confirmation. Then a few months later I happened to stumble on to the image below (on the left), showing a completely different announcement for the Kay pedals in an issue of UK's Beat Instrumental magazine, dated to October of 1973!

In the same issue B.I. also published a report on the AMII (Associated Musical Instruments Industries) Trade Fair that took place the previous month. And included in the piece was a nice little writeup about the new Kay line of guitars and effects! This article (and the accompanying ad) also mentioned "W.M.I." as the owners of the brand. (*and while George Osztreicher is presented here as being part of the company, he was more of a business partner at the time, acting as their importer to the UK. Later on he would play a larger role in W.M.I. and eventually take over the Kay name after W.M.I. went out of business)

I continued to look through every available online magazine and newspaper archive but that October 1973 date still stands as the very earliest mention, anywhere, of the Kay pedals.

If we take a peak inside the Kays a few more clues start to reveal themselves. Notice the first image below; it shows the back of a potentiometer inside the Kay Fuzz Tone with a date code "533E", which translates to the 33rd week of 1975. Unfortunately there are very few images of the pots online, so this is the earliest code I've been able to find so far. But I have seen a later code, dating to August of 1977! This shows that the Kay Fuzz was made for quite a while, which is also reflected in the sheer amount that still exist today.

Another interesting point to consider is the circuit itself. It's clearly a Univox Super Fuzz derivative. But we now know that famous circuit first appeared as the Honey Baby Crying Fuzz in 1967. Just a year later a former Honey employee would join Ace Tone and design his own modified version of the fuzz, calling it the FM-2 Fuzz Master. A year after this another brand would jump on the bandwagon with a similar mod; Guyatone would release their own 5 transistor version, the FS-2 Buzz Box. And finally, in the Summer of 1970, Mac-Tone would come out with their Fuzz Machine, which was possibly designed as a modification to the the Guyatone? So when Kay (or whoever manufactured these) was ready to release their own fuzz box, most likely in a attempt to cut costs even further, they reduced the circuit down to just 4 transistors from the 6 found in the original Honey Baby Crying fuzz. 

This all feels like a logical progression, with one pedal inspiring the next. And in a attempt to compete, Kay seemed to choose a race to the bottom of price as opposed to taking on all the other Super Fuzz knock-offs in either tone or build quality. As a result the Kay fuzz is much grittier and more "primitive" sounding in comparison, giving an almost gated and more raw tone that sits somewhere between a typical octave fuzz and a Fuzzrite. And by 1973 this upper-octave style had spread all over the world, especially in the US where the Fender Blender, the Ampeg Scrambler, and the fOXX Tone Machine had all been on the market for a few years at that point. So it does make sense that this was the path Kay chose as well.

I think if we take this into account, we can finally lay to rest the idea that the Kay Fuzz was released any earlier than 1973. 

But who actually built the Kay Fuzz Tone?

Located on the bottom rubber pad of each Kay effect is stamp that reads, "Made in Japan". And one quick look inside reveals nearly every component is also of Japanese origin. But to this day we still don't know who built them.

There is a possible clue to this, which in the US at least is not widely known; the Kay fuzz was also sold in Japan as the Uecks Fuzz Tone. Uecks was the brand name for the Ueki Gakki (Musical Instruments) Company. In addition to the rebranded Kay effects, they also had their own branding of the Univox Micro Fazer, called the Mini Fazer. Ueki Gakki Co., it has been rumored, was started by Takenori Ueki who was one of the founders and original president of the brand Honey. One thing we do know for sure, based on the below image from Player magazine's musical instrument buyer's guide, is that the Uecks pedals were available to purchase in June of 1976. Unfortunately beyond this, my research has fallen a bit short, as that's really all we know about the mysterious brand. 

So was the Fuzz Tone a "Uecks" pedal? Was it a situation where a single manufacturer sold the effect to each brand, and neither had any real tie to the builder? Or, was it something else completely?

Another clue that's hiding right on the circuit board itself, is what looks like the letters, "IDEAN F-1". Obviously "F-1" is the name of the circuit, but what the hell is "IDEAN"??? I have tried searching this a million different ways, but each time I come up with nothing.

Is that inscription somehow related to where these were built? Each effect in the series has the letters "IDEAN" etched into their boards, but is it simply a mark of the company who printed the PCB's? Or, is it just some inside jargon that's basically meaningless to the outside world?

I would LOVE to find out!

Another interesting detail I discovered was that the Uecks version featured a cardboard box as their packaging, while Kay opted for a more department store-friendly plastic hanger-box style. And while this was a clear difference, both brands did appear to use the exact same image of a guy playing guitar for their marketing and packing materials. This suggests to me the strong possibility that both brands received the pedals from the manufacturer already packaged and to their preference. 

So wherever these were built they must have had the capability to make the pedals and also ship them out, ready to sell. And that is typically the mark of company that not only had their own factory, but also sold their own branded products. Which could very well mean that Ueki Gakki was the original manufacturer!

Except we have to remember that right around this same time they were selling the Ueck's Mini Fazer, which was clearly an OEM product built for them. And unfortunately, that fact brings us right back to the beginning of this search.

Not often talked about in the world of pedal history is HOW LONG a pedal was in production/being sold. As we saw in the article about the Ace Tone FM-2, it had a surprising decade-long run; found in catalogs from 1968 all the way to 1979!

And now that we know the Kay pedals began showing up in print around the Fall of 1973, the next question is, when did they finally disappear?

Well I was able to track down a few newspaper ads (see below) that mentioned the Kay pedals. The top image, from April 1977,  shows what a appears to be a music/pawn shop advertising the "New Kay" Fuzz and Wah. While the image below it, from a different shop, just a year later shows the same two pedals now discounted.

I believe, from everything I have seen (so far) that the run dates for the original 3 Kay pedals are, late 1973 - early 1978. Which helps a bit to explain the amount of these that are still out there, popping up for sale pretty consistently over the last couple decades. While they are not abundant by any means, you could almost certainly buy a Kay Fuzz or Kay Wah right now if you wanted to.

While looking into the Kay Fuzz I also took a quick detour to see what I could find on the other effects, because maybe we could garner even just one more helpful clue.

And after staring at the Kay Wah for a while, it finally hit me that it was very similar to the Univox Uniwah! In addition to the obvious (they both use plastic treadle enclosures) both effects also run off of C batteries (the Kay uses one, while the Uniwah uses three). 

Additionally, and it's something you'll want to look into for yourself because I don't understand the technical aspect, but apparently the ways both pedals produce the wah effects is very similar only to each other, and not like the typical Vox or Crybaby styles that most other brands rip off.

This may indicate that the designer took inspiration from the Univox Super Fuzz for the Kay Fuzz and the Univox Uniwah for the Kay Wah, but was then asked to make a cheaper version of each? That being said, I don't believe there was any connection between the two brands beyond this. 

I thought I was finished with this article, but decided to explore down one final avenue I hadn't yet, just to be sure...

Like we said earlier, for decades the Kay Fuzz Tone has been thought of as a "relic of the late 60s"; with most people guessing it's inception falling somewhere between 1968 and '69. And while I feel pretty good that we confidently disproved this already, I still wanted to find more hard evidence. So I looked into the history of the company itself.

It turns out that in 1968 Kay, and its parent company Valco, were going bankrupt. Sales were falling off as competition with import brands became too costly to fight. And within a year the rights to Kay were being auctioned off to the highest bidder. It would take almost an entire year before a buyer would be solidified, and this is where W.M.I. would take over. Weiss Musical Instruments corporation, located in Indianapolis,  had been around since the mid 60s, mainly as an importer of both Japanese guitars (Teisco, for example) and various instruments from around Europe. By 1969 they had grown large enough to acquire the Kay brand and begin an effort to revive its name.

Over the next three years W.M.I. would slowly reintroduce Kay by way of rebranding imported Teisco guitars from Japan. And in 1973, with a full lineup of "new" products, Kay was finally back! 

That initial 1973 relaunch would include a lineup of guitars (electric and acoustic), a variety of banjos, and a set of four amplifiers. There were no effects present, but we now know that's because they wouldn't be available until the Fall of that year.

Each piece of gear with a "Kay" branding was now imported, with the vast majority originating in Japan. So it's no surprise that when they were ready for their own set of pedals they would stick to the same route.

I have tried to dig in even more to see if maybe there was some connection between the effects, the amps, and the guitars, but nothing has come up. Which is pretty typical for the time. Even large US brands like Guild would sell a mixture of instruments originally built all over the map. At one point they were simultaneously selling pedals made by Electro Harmonix, fOXX, Top Gear, and Applied Audio, but all rebranded with the "Guild" logo.

Knowing now that W.M.I. was the company responsible for this era of Kay, and also knowing that they found their success as a brand between 1965 - '67 as a major importer of Teisco guitars, there could possibly be a connection here that puts Uecks back on top as the missing link for the pedal line.

If Uecks was in fact owned by Takenori Ueki, then that would mean he was working for Teisco in 1965/'66 and was possibly aware, or even previously acquainted with W.M.I.. As we've discussed before, Honey was born in 1967 after Kawai had acquired Teisco some months prior (*this also resulted in birthing Firstman, Idol, and Yukichi Iwase's "Voice, Singing Electric" brand). Ueki was previously head of the Sales department at Teisco and as a result could easily have dealt with W.M.I. at some point in the previous two years. And while this is just my best guess, it's not without at least a little justification. :) 

But even if this were the case, it wouldn't necessarily mean that Uecks was the original manufacturer of the pedals (as tempting as that conclusion is to make). And if we look back at everything we've covered in this article, it would be very difficult to say that they were anything more than a simple go-between for Kay and whoever did build the effects. As of now we have only ever seen these pedals under those two brandings. 

Which leads me to believe the best possible guess here is that POTENTIALLY W.M.I., attempting to rebuild the Kay brand, reached out to Takenori Ueki for help. He then hired a local builder to make a set of cheap stompboxes. And after the deal was struck it led to both the Kay pedal line (export) and the Uecks effects (domestic).

That's the best I got so far.

--------------------------------

By the end of the 70s W.M.I. had moved most of their import business from Japan to Korea. Moreover, they even started manufacturing very low-cost guitars in their Chicago warehouse around 1980. So 1978, as I had guessed earlier, makes even more sense now as the final year of the Kay pedal line, which corresponds perfectly with the disappearance of the local newspaper advertisements.

The brand profile above, taken from a 1977 Music Trades magazine, mentions a "trimmed down" Kay offering that would only include "fast-moving" items. Which is something that screams of a company in decline, desperately trying to save money where they can. And yes, we have again arrived at the part of the post where we're just guessing, but I do believe we've done an otherwise pretty good job piecing together what most likely occurred with the Kay pedals from its inception to its final days.

As always we will keep searching for any missing information on our end, and obviously we welcome any additional bits that you might have! So if you happen to have more info on either Kay or Uecks please feel free to comment here or reach out via Email, Substack, or Instagram.

thanks for reading,
-ed

History of the Elk Big Muff Sustainar

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This is one I've been working on for a while. 

There's still some unanswered questions and puzzle pieces out there just floating in the ether, but at this point I feel like we have enough for a decent article.

So let's dive in, to the previously unknown history of the Elk Big Muff Sustainar.

This is going to be a long one...

Back in 2017 a listing popped up on Reverb.com for three Elk Big Muffs. Up until then it had been extremely rare to see one for sale in the US, let alone three different versions all at the same time! So without hesitation I pulled the trigger and snatched them up.

By that point it had become common knowledge in the vintage pedal world that there were a few different versions of this infamous Japanese Big Muff clone; the Elk Super Fuzz Sustainar, the Electro Sound Big Muff Sustainar, the Elk Gakki Co. Big Muff Sustainar, and the unbranded Big Muff Sustainar. Additionally, there were also two more oddities in the mix; the Maccanbell Big Muff Sustainar, and the This Sounds Better Big Mag. All of which were very hard to find, and any information about them was nearly impossible to track down, save a flight to Japan. 

And if you're a regular reader here then you know that any time there's a combination of, Pedal + No Hard Evidence, it almost always = Misinformation. Which is exactly what happened with the Elk. The story ranged from "These were made as early as 1970!" to "we've only ever seen really clean examples of the Elk Big Muffs, so maybe they were made in the last decade and just appear old!" And this could have gone on forever, but finally in 2018 a very pixelated 1974 Elk catalog surfaced on the internet, and inside you could clearly see an ES-960 Super Fuzz Sustainar!

Now that I knew they were indeed vintage, and pictured in a catalog, it was time to start digging.

So over the next few years I was able to find even more appearances in print, along with photos of the actual pedals. By 2020 the Japanese market was beginning to open up to the US, and more and more resellers were not just willing to ship across the world, but actively listing on sites like Reverb.com and Ebay. 

With each new piece of evidence we were beginning to get a (sort-of) clearer picture of the Elk Big Muffs. And in 2022 we got this important breakthrough when one showed up for sale with its original box! (*note, the knobs are NOT original on this unit)

But while we felt like we were making some ground on the history of the Elk Muffs, there were still loads of unanswered questions.

So in 2024 I made it a mission to seek out all of the Elk catalogs I could possibly find. And with the help of my good friend Marcelo from Guitar Restos, we were able to track down pretty much every Elk catalog and brochure from 1970 - 1976! 

The earliest appearance I could find of the Elk Super Fuzz Sustainar was from a 1973 Elk catalog. Listed as the "ES-960 Super Fuzz Sustainer" it sat right next to Elk's other pedal offering at the time; the WF-880 Wau Fuzz. The following year's catalog would replace the WF-880 with the WF-1100 Wau-Fuzz, and also include the WS-1400 Wau & Sustainer. Either version of the Wau-Fuzz was clearly made by a third-party manufacturer (and possibly even an OEM deal) because the same pedal could be found as early as the 1971 Guyatone FS-5 Wah-Fuzz. The Wau & Sustainer was even more interesting because it seemed to be a Big Muff circuit + Wah, but neither the transistors or the clipping diodes match those used in the Super Fuzz Sustainar. The enclosure is a clear ripoff of the Cry Baby, which we also see in the Ibanez/Maxon/Greco Blubber Wah and Pedal Phaser; which all lead me to believe that these brands simply purchased from the same supplier and slapped their logos on the effects, rather than manufacturing them in-house.

Unfortunately even though we were able to find all of these catalogs, we seemed to hit a dead-end when the Big Muff completely disappeared in 1976. And after seeing the two wah pedals, that almost certainly weren't made by Elk, a new question arose; did Elk themselves even build the Big Muff Sustainar?

Above are photos from the Elk manufacturing facility in Utsunomiya from the mid 70s. And all together I probably have 10+ more images just like these, but zero of them show pedals being built. We see amps, guitars, possibly an Echo Machine in the one above, but no Wau-Fuzz, no Wau & Sustainer, and definitely no Big Muffs.

So WHO actually built the Elk fuzzes? This part of the story is one I am still trying to find answers to, but luckily there appears to be enough available info that we can, at the very least, create a timeline of when each version was released and which of them were official Elk products and which, probably were not...

June 1973, Music Life magazine, gave us not only the earliest image of an Electro Sound Big Muff, but also answered many questions we had been asking for years!

For one, it confirmed that the pedal had been released as early as 1973. This would have, in Japan at least, meant that the Elk version and the Electro Harmonix "Triangle" Big Muff could have potentially been sold side-by-side (which is kind of hilarious to think about).  This also means that it was, almost certainly, the earliest Big Muff copy to have been made in Japan, beating out the Ace Tone FM-3, the Mirano Exciting Fuzz, and the Sekova Big Muff.

This ad also confirmed that the Electro Sound Big Muff was 100% an Elk product. Very few people were ever questioning this, but there are other ads, that we'll post soon, showing "Electro Sound" as the manufacturer, which did make it somewhat confusing.

And maybe the biggest question answered, in regards to the "Big Muff" labeled version, is which came first; the SustainAR spelling, or the SustainER spelling. And as we clearly see on both the ad and the pedal itself, the "ER" spelling was indeed the original.

Just two months later, in the August 1973 issue of Music Life magazine, we get two ads featuring the pedal. But this time they are divided as the Elk "ES-960 Super Fuzz Sustainar", and the Electro Sound "Big Muff Sustainer". With the latter now stating that "Electro Sound Co." is the manufacturer.

They even went as far as putting completely different addresses and contact information for both brands. Which I found odd, because it's clearly the same company selling both. Even the image on the box from the Elk, that we posted up above, is the same sketch of Santana that's in this Electro Sound advertisement. So what was actually going on here?

Enter, my favorite ad from this era. Deep in the pages of the 1974 Music Mita instruments catalog is this ridiculous section showing an Elk Super Fuzz Sustainar at the bottom and an Electro Sound Big Muff Sustainer at the top. Although you probably, and very quickly noticed that it says "Electro Harmonix" under the pedal!

In the early 70s Electro Harmonix had almost no distribution outside of the US. This led to some very blatant copies (and in the case of the Soviet Union, very blatant counterfeits). And while I have no evidence for this statement, I believe that Elk could have intentionally named the brand "Electro Sound" in order to confuse and potentially mislead their customers into thinking they were buying a true Electro Harmonix product.

If this is accurate it would explain the two brand names, the separate ads, the two different addresses/contact numbers, the different spellings of "Sustainer/ar", and also this Music Mita catalog. But again, total speculation on my part.

Moving on from my tinfoil hat conspiracy theories, in the Spring of 1974 we get to see two more ads for the Electro Sound Big Muff Sustainer. One, showing a wider silver-topped knob and the other showing the same black knobs we've already seen. 

Both of these were listed as being Elk products and have those cool, but completely unnecessary descriptions of what each part of the pedal does. lol  

 

I have to imagine that Elk was in possession of the two examples above of original Electro Harmonix Big Muffs in order to make their copies. But unless we talk to someone who was there in 1973, there's no way to know for sure.

Throughout 1974 and 1975 Elk continued to use the "SustainER" spelling in their ads and on the boxes, but the pedals themselves appeared to have all changed over to the "SustainAR" spelling (some time in 1974).

In September 1975, from what I can tell, Elk discontinued (or at the very least, stopped advertising) both the Electro Sound Big Muff Sustainer and the Elk Super Fuzz Sustainar. Instead they introduced the "New Big Muff" under their Elk Gakki Co. brand.

This tends to be the most common version of the pedal, and were made seemingly by the thousands. It's very possible that production even lasted through to the end of the decade.

Taking all of this information into account, a basic timeline has started to emerge; with the Electro Sound Big Muff Sustainer coming first, then almost immediately after, the Elk Super Fuzz Sustainar, then finally the Elk Gakki Co. New Big Muff Sustainar. But it would take looking inside these pedals to get an even better understanding of what came when.

Pictured above is what I believe to be one of the very earliest examples of an Electro Sound (Elk) Big Muff. There are a few details that immediately stuck out to me the first time I saw this that were completely different than any other Elks I had seen before.

First is that small "Elk Inc." sticker on the front of the pedal. Which I originally thought was put there by a past owner, but since I discovered this example I have found 3 more just like it (same sticker, but the placement can vary).

The second is that circuit board. Not only is the shape not a perfect rectangle, like all other Elk Big Muffs, but the PCB layout is totally different as well! It's clearly the same circuit, and mostly the same components you'll find the early rectangular boards, but they apparently chose to redesign it at some point so that the Sustain pot wouldn't need the additional real estate. I have yet to find one for myself so I can not comment on any tonal differences, but even within the three I do have, they all sound drastically different. So at least Elk's inconsistency was authentic to Electro Harmonix's.

This was also the first time I noticed the difference in spelling with "SustainER", and after seeing the early ads determined that most likely this was the original version of the pedal. It's definitely possible that the added "Elk Inc." stickers were done for some shops that preferred to have their branding on the pedal, and if these predate the Elk Super Fuzzes then this would make sense, as there were no other options at the time? But as of now, we can't say for sure.

So if the last pedal was "V1" then this would be considered "V1.b". It's essentially the same exact effect, but in the "Elk Super Fuzz Sustainar" labeling. And had I not seen an Electro Sound like this but without the "Elk Inc." sticker I would have just assumed that it came out the same time as the V1.

Both of these were very short-lived, as they're still difficult to find. But with the amount that have shown up over the last decade I would guess that somewhere between 500-1000 were probably produced.

Again, the sound in every version (and even unit to unit) tends to vary enough that it's hard to say one sounds "better" than another. The transistors used in both V1's are silicon 2SA495's. Which you're about to see is just the first of many that Elk will use along their Big Muff journey.

Next we move on to what I would consider "V2". And with it, we see a couple big changes.

The first is a brand new PCB layout and board shape. One that Elk will continue to use all the way through to 1976/77. Another small detail is the battery holder changed from the exact style that Electro Harmonix used in their pedals to a folded metal style that again, Elk continued to use throughout the remaining versions. Other than resistor choice, the general component selection is the same; including the 2SA495 transistors. And while I haven't mapped it out, I would put money on the circuit being identical to the V1.

The next big departure here is the Electro Sound version has switched over to spelling it as "SustainAR". I'm really curious why this decision was made, or even why they spelled them differently in the first place, but for whatever reason, now both the Elk and Electro Sound pedals spell it this way. 

Oddly enough, three contemporary Japanese Muff copies chose to stick with the American spelling; the Guyatone FS-6 SustainER, the Aria Distortion SustainER, and the Aria Super Fuzz SustainER (which I feel it's safe to assume was a rip of the Elk). 

 

The switchover date to V3 is hard to pin down. While the new knob selection should have made it easy, I have yet to find anything in print where Elk highlighted these updates. So as of now my best guess is, "some time in 1974". 

That being said, some time in 1974 (or maybe even '75) Elk introduced two new knob options on both the Super Fuzz Sustainar and the Big Muff Sustainar. In addition to these cosmetic changes they also made a handful of updates to the circuit itself; keeping the same basic layout but changing the transistor type and some resistor/capacitor values.

Above are three different examples of the V3 Elk Muffs. Each one features four 2SA733 transistors, and a mixture of different components, but going off of possible dates on the caps, it seems as though they were all built within a year of each other.

Again, it's hard to know exactly when each of these were made, or if there's any relation at all between build-style and timeline. But what we do know is that a ton of V3's were made, and most of them featured the black Radio Shack knobs. The silver top hat knobs I wouldn't consider "rare" necessarily, but they were used significantly less. 

This era is still a bit of a mystery, but luckily for us Elk had big plans for the Fall of 1975...

In the September and October issues of Music Life magazine Japanese fuzz fanatics would get their very first look at the NEW Big Muff Sustainar (or for the purposes of this article, "V4"). With a complete cosmetic overhaul, nearly everything about the look had changed. A new "Big Muff" logo, a new almost cartoonish font choice, a dark blueish text, a new set of knobs, and even a new company name, Elk Gakki Co.,

But, initially at least, the New Big Muffs would use the same exact PCB and component selection as the V3's. Even the same 2SA733 transistors were used, which most likely means that while they discontinued the older look of the pedals, they planned to use the already populated boards for the new design. And since the enclosures are identical, it may be safe to assume that they could have stripped them clean of the V3 text and replaced it with the V4?

Next up was what I'm calling V4.b. This unit again uses the same V3 PCB and the majority of the same components, except there was a brief switch over to the classic 2SC828 transistors (most notably used in the Univox Super Fuzz, and were also used in the Maxon D&S / Ibanez OD 850, which may or may not have a deeper connection here). And I haven't yet taken the time to see if any component values changed, but it is a possibility as well. (*note, I have found 3 examples of a V4.b, so I felt it was safe to assume this was a legitimate build)

This is a little harder to confirm without holding one in my hand, but I also believe that Elk moved from the dark blue text back to black for the V4.b, which would continue through to the final run some years later.

From 1975 on, it's difficult to pin down exactly when each new version was released. Which means we don't have the hard evidence to say 100% that this one came next and what year that happened. Either way, I do feel very confident that this ("V5") was next.

V5 kept in line with V4.b when it came to cosmetic appearance, but inside it was a complete overhaul! New PCB layout, a new way to mount the board, new component values, new 2SC495 transistors, and a tonal departure from its predecessors; the "NEW Big Muff Sustainar" could finally live up to its name.

Judging by the sheer amount of V5's that still exist I would have to assume that they were manufactured for a much longer duration than any previous version. But as of now, that's still a bit of a guess. Either way, if you happen to buy an Elk Gakki Co., Big Muff there's a good chance that the circuit pictured above is what you'll find on the inside.

Much of the information for this article was gained through mining the pages of Japan's Music Life magazine; mostly issues from the years 1973-1976. So there is a good chance that more info is still out there waiting to be discovered.

Luckily, reader of the blog, Pedakichi, reached out about a month ago and sent me a few Elk Big Muff related ads that I had yet to find. One of which is from an April 1979 issue of Music Life (see above).

It's hard to tell exactly what is going on in the full page, as it appears to be an ad for an upcoming guitar show. But in the bottom corner is this section where they highlight an Elk Gakki Co., Big Muff Sustainar (that seems to be used?). So with only this confusing bit to go off of, we can't say for certain that Elk was still selling the pedal this late.

Living completely in the land of mystery are the This Sounds Better Big Mag and the Maccanbell Big Muff Sustainar. Between the two, I was able to find a "Maccanbell" branded guitar online, so I'm guessing it was either a music shop or small distribution company? But unfortunately I have found no information for the hilariously named, "This Sounds Better" brand.

As of now we don't know who made these, when they were released, or where they were sold. But after looking at photos of the two it's plain to see that they are identical to each other, and were certainly made by the same manufacturer. They both use the same combination of components, including 2SC710 transistors. And another clue is that they both feature an on/off LED, which did not become commonplace until the early 80s. Another indication that they were possibly made around this time is that the pedals themselves are much smaller than all of the Elk branded versions. The Boss and MXR influence had really changed the pedal game by 1980.

There are some additional clues here that point to a relation between these and the Elk pedals. For one, the layout of the PCB is very similar to the V5 Elk Big Muff, and of course that odd vertically mounted board that's also found in the V5. Another interesting thing I noticed was that the font used for the control knobs and the jacks is the same exact font found on the V5 Elks.

So were these the true successors to the Elk Muffs (the V6)?

It's very possible, and if they were made in any other country I would feel quite comfortable assuming that was the case, with all the similarities we've found. But this is Japan... and one thing I have learned is that stuff just worked differently there. So it's possible that Elk themselves had nothing to do with this, and if they were using a third-party manufacturer the whole time maybe that company tried to continue building the pedals after the Elk deal was done, and these were the only two clients they had? Another option, is that a completely different manufacturer just straight up copied the Elk Gakki Big Muff, shrunk it down, added an LED, and licensed it to these two random companies?

Here's the one you've all been waiting for me to talk about...

I promise I didn't forget it! What has become affectionately known as the "Wata Muff" (based on the legendary Boris guitarist, and inspiration for Earthquaker Devices Hizumitas fuzz) is long thought to have been the earliest and original version of the Elk Big Muff Sustainar.

Unbraned, with that oddly-chosen-font "Big Muff" blazoned across the front, this is the one that everyone seems to want! But what's the deal with it? Did these really come out first? And were they even made by Elk?

Let's have a look, and you can decide for yourself.

The unbranded Big Muff Sustainar is a bit of an outlier when compared to the Elk units. In addition to the obvious, it also has differences like the font for the control knobs, different transistors, and those strange yellow and black clipping diodes. The PCB layout doesn't seem to match any version of the Elk, and even the battery holder piece is cut to a smaller width (*note, the earliest Elk/Electro Sound Big Muffs used a completely different battery holder style).

One glaring piece of evidence that, at the very least, points away from this being the "original" version, is that it uses the name "Big Muff SustainAR". Because we now know from all of the earliest advertising that the Electro Sound Big Muffs spelled it as "SustainER". Another important difference is that PCB layout, which seems much closer to the V5 Elk Gakki Big Muffs than it does to any V1's (but it is important to note that the unbranded Big Muffs and the Electro Sound Muffs both use PNP transistors, while the V5 Muffs switched over to NPN, suggesting it was a copy of an earlier version). And while the unbranded version above appears to have ceramic capacitors dated to August 1973, the Sustain pot (and it has now been confirmed that all 3 pots share the same code) was clearly dated to 1976 (although earlier codes have been seen on other examples, giving us a potential date range from 1973-1976 for these).

This is all to say that I now have big doubts that this either came before the Elk/Electro Sound Big Muffs, or was even made by the same manufacturer! But if it had no relation to Elk, then who was responsible for the unbranded Big Muff Sustainar???

The Pearl CF-1 Cry Fuzz is a Japanese-made fuzz wah that's probably from the mid-70s. And while it's most recognizable feature is the completely ridiculous sketch of a baby peeing on the logo... it's also known to possess a particularly great sounding fuzz circuit.

One day a little while back I was randomly looking through photos of the Pearl, trying to figure out what type of fuzz it used, and then I noticed something I hadn't before. The Pearl had two sets of clipping diodes, and appears to use 4 transistors for its fuzz section. It was almost certainly a Big Muff variant and even showed similarities to the Elk Wau & Sustainer  (as more of an inspiration than a descendant).

But the next realization I had was that the clipping diodes were the same, very unique, yellow and black ones found in the unbranded Big Muff Sustainar. And not only that, the Pearl also used the exact same 2SA564 transistors that the unbranded Muff uses! And upon further inspection, I realized that the circuit in the Pearl is nearly identical to the one found in the Elk Wau & Sustainer (which is essentially a Cry Baby wah circuit with a Big Muff attached). With the main differences being the circuit layout and that instead of using an inductor for the wah, it uses a transformer (which oddly enough, is what you find in the Elk Wau-Fuzz!). 

So is this a scenario where a totally different manufacturer is essentially copying Elk and just selling the pedals as an OEM situation? Is it also possible that the Pearl could be an earlier (or later) build by the same manufacturer of the unbranded Big Muff? And if so, who was responsible for all of this?!

*WARNING, you now are about to enter into:
The Complete Speculation Zone!

You may remember our last post where we talked about the extremely rare CS. Cathey pedals, and particularly the AS-01 Sustainer fuzz from that series. Going by the description and control labels alone it really sounds like the Sustainer was a Big Muff copy. Unfortunately we weren't able to find any photos of what's inside those, but there was a possible clue hiding in the knobs that were used. Featured on Univox, Sekova, and Melos branded effects, those tall black silver-top knobs are not found in very many other vintage effects. And the tie that binds them all is Melos. So is it possible that whoever was responsible for building the Melos pedals also built the CS. Cathey Sustainer? 

If you're wondering why I'm bringing this up, it's because the Pearl Cry Fuzz uses the exact same knobs. And after doing some more digging, I figured out that both the unbranded Treble-Bass Booster (which may or may not have a relation to Melos) and the Melos FL-1000 Flange/Delay use the same 2SA564 transistors found in the Pearl and the unbranded Big Muff Sustainar. So what are the odds that a single manufacturer is responsible for all of these pedals? All of them, except the Elk Big Muffs that is.

Obviously this argument is a bit flimsy, but I think we can all agree that there's at least more evidence supporting this idea than the long-held belief that the unbranded Big Muffs were made by Elk.

BUT ED!!! WHAT ABOUT THAT UNBRANDED BIG MUFF WITH THE ELK STICKERS???!!!

I am well aware of this pedal.

It first appeared four years ago on a certain Japanese gear seller's Youtube video. And then again just last week when it apparently sold.

The lore of the unbranded Big Muff goes way back to at least the mid-2000s, and even then it was thought of as being an official Elk product, sans evidence. That considered, I don't really know what to make of the two "ELK" vinyl stickers haphazardly stuck to either side of this pedal.

Neither the sticker style or even the logo itself matches what we saw on the earliest Elk Muffs. And I could not find any other examples of an unbranded Big Muff with even the faintest outline of past sticker residue on its sides, let alone another one with any type of "ELK" branding. But I supposed we have to at least leave it open to possibility.

Could it be that Elk contracted two separate manufacturers to build their Big Muffs? But if that was the case, then why are there dozens of ads throughout the 70s for the Elk Super Fuzz and the Electro Sound Big Muffs, but there are NO ads (at least that I have found yet) for the unbranded version? 

The logo on the stickers appears in Elk catalogs at least as early as 1972. And I was able to find an additional example of one (albeit a different type of paper was used) on what looks like the side of an amp, but it's hard to tell for sure what amp, and sadly there were no more photos available. 

There's also another thing about this particular pedal; which is the obvious outline of a circular sticker that clearly used to be on the front of it, right in the middle overtop the logo. So we have evidence that at some point an additional sticker was placed on this unit and later removed. To me at least, it's very unlikely that any brand would cover up the name of the pedal itself in this fashion. But what do I know?!

Well this was definitely a super long one, but I promise it was all necessary to suss out what was going on with this iconic piece of fuzz history.  So thank you for sticking it out and reading this far. I hope you got something new out of it! 

And like always, if you happen to have any additional info on Elk that you think could help us, or if you know anything about the unbranded version, please leave a comment or feel free to send me a message via Email, Substack, or Instagram!

thanks again,

*after posting this we made a few more big breakthroughs that I will present as a new post in the near future! So watch this space for those updates to our evolving history of the Elk Big Muff. :)
-ed