The Echoplex was built to repeat your notes. Plenty of guitarists bought one, switched the echo off and kept the preamp, and the box that was meant to be invisible became part of the sound.
For most of recorded rock, amp tone was a one way door. You picked the cabinet, you placed the mic, you committed. If the mix later told you the guitar was too thin or too woolly, your options were to live with it or to book the band again. The device that quietly dismantled that […]
In February 1978, a 22-year-old on Van Halen’s debut album spent one minute and 42 seconds rewriting what a guitar was allowed to sound like. “Eruption” landed like a piece of alien technology, and for a generation of players the two-hand tapping that powered it became synonymous with one name. The problem with origin
