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I'll be honest, a lot of times while digging through old catalogs and magazines I come across a pedal I've never seen before and it immediately sends me into a mental quandary; do I keep it quiet and try to find one for myself easily and cheaply, OR do I go ahead, write a post about it and risk making it significantly more difficult to find one, especially at a reasonable price?I have been sitting on these photos for a while and really just haven't been able to find any more information than what I could in a couple of old forum posts, which sadly wasn't much at all...
This is the Epiphone Distorsionador Fuzz-Bass, built in Argentina, I'm guessing some time in the 1970s. It has almost no way of being actually related to Epiphone, which makes it way more amazing!
I have no idea how this thing sounds, and it's pretty hard to figure out what's going on inside, but it looks cool as hell with that pseudo Fuzz Face vibe and the giant footswitch that definitely makes it look like a landmine.
Like I said above, as of now I have only been able to find photos of these two different units. Luckily the owners posted gut shots (I love when that happens). But it would be amazing to know more about these little round oddities.
Last year I really went deep into the Argentine pedal scene, one that started way back in the late 60s. And just like the stories I have come across from other countries like Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand, it was near impossible to get gear imported from the US or Europe at the time. So electronics pioneers decided to start their own brands, oftentimes biting names and products directly from other companies abroad. (there's actually an entire scene of Electro Harmonix ripoffs from South America that are truly hilarious in how brazen they were)
So as it goes with most of my mystery pedal posts, if you happen to own an Epiphone Distorsionador Fuzz-Bass pedal, or happen to know any actual details about them, please send me a message via
EMAIL or
INSTAGRAM.
thanks for reading,
-ed