I’m sure that like me, many of you got the “itch” to get a guitar pedal shortly after you started playing. Perhaps also like me your first guitar pedal happened to be an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff? No? Okay, fine I’ll go away…
Anyhow, the world of guitar effects pedals, vacuum tubes, and maybe even music as a whole would not be the same had it not been for EH founder Mike Matthews starting the company all the way back in 1968. Matthews grew up in The Bronx and always had a fierce business sense that started with him fishing baseballs out of the sewers at the young age of 8 to sell to people in his neighborhood. This fire continued to burn and when The Rolling Stones released their smash hit “Satisfaction” Mike (who was working at IBM at the time) decided to start making fuzz pedals to keep up with the demand that exploded after people heard Keef’s fuzzy guitar tone for the first time. EH blew the heck up after this and continued to thrive into the eighties until they finally had to declare bankruptcy.
Now OBVIOUSLY the story doesn’t end here, but instead of ruining the fun I will let you all watch this awesome walkthrough of the EH factory and hear the rest of the Mike Matthews story. Hint: Russia is involved.
Shop for Electro-Harmonix on Sweetwater.
