I’ve been buying and selling guitar effects pedals for a long time; I currently have maybe 60, and have probably had 300-400 pass through my hands at one time or another. There are just so many of the fkkn things out there that I’m bound to find at least a couple every month for $5 – $10 at the yard sales and flea markets of Southern CT. I also have all the available books on the subject, but even still, there were just so many of these things made that I am bound to be surprised regularly. Here are three interesting units that I have never come across. Above: The VestaFire R-1X digital reverb c. 1988.
Above: Sescom, 80’s maker of some pretty excellent DI boxes, also made a guitar compression pedal in 1981? Probably worth checking out. This thing was crazy expensive at the time, btw, $254 in ’13-bucks. Anyhow, as deep+ wide as the pool of vintage pedals is, can you even imagine how nuts its gonna be 25 years from now, what with the huge explosion in ’boutique’ and ‘DIY’ pedal-craft of the past decade. It’s really taken on folk-art proportions.
Above: The Castle Phaser III of 1981. Goddamn folks loved the shit outta Phase Shift way back when.