Glenn Snoddy, inventor of fuzz pedal for guitarists, dies

[TexasTowelie]

MURFREESBORO, Tennessee (AP) — A recording engineer whose invention of a pedal that allowed guitarists to create a fuzzy, distorted sound most famously used by Keith Richards in the Rolling Stones' hit &quot I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" has died.

Glenn Snoddy was 96. His daughter Dianne Mayo said Saturday that Snoddy died Monday of congestive heart failure at his Murfreesboro, Tennessee, home.

Snoddy was helping record country artist Marty Robbins' song "Don't Worry" in 1961 when a malfunction caused the distortion in a guitar solo. When other musicians sought the same effect, Snoddy couldn't recreate it in the studio but invented a pedal where a guitarist could switch into the sound with a tap of the foot.

Richards' "Satisfaction" riff with the fuzz tone is one of the most recognizable ones in rock history.

http://www.wacotrib.com/news/ap_nation/headlines/glenn-snoddy-inventor-of-fuzz-pedal-for-guitarists-dies/article_9aa4b468-70a7-541d-8e82-a6364eaa35cc.html
(brief article)

[redstateblues]

1. That changed everything

[Nitram]

2. The original fuzz effect was just pushing speakers into distortion by sending them more gain than

they could handle. Or just cheap guitars with cheap pickups. It was white boys trying to reproduce what they heard on Chicago blues recordings.

[kysrsoze]

3. Cheap amps, actually. Specifically the Fender Champ

They would push the guitar’s signal too hard (particularly humbuckers) and turn the amp’s volume too loud, and the amp was unable to stay clean. It was a design flaw that created the distortion/overdrive and companies like Marshall started to build on that Fender circuit to create even more gain/distortion. I guess you could say fuzz and distortion are in the same realm. Not quite the same, but similar.

RIP, Snoddy. Ingenious invention.

[ProfessorGAC]

5. Dave Davies Actually Poked A Pencil Through His Speaker So It Would Do That

Then Randall Smith came along and started hot rodding Fender Harvard amps. Those became the Mesa Boogie, once he started making them 60 watts and REALLY loud.

[Hoyt]

4. Did not get into fuzz until a few years later when I got one of these Russian jobs --

Even used it with an acoustic tenor guitar for some snarly stuff through a Victoria Champ clone, among others.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. I Had A Big Muff Pi

I bought it at the music store where i taught piano (owner was a great guy, sold me stuff at cost and let me take Moog stuff out of the store to use for gigs and then just bring it back.)

I ran an old Vox Jaguar organ through it so i could beef it up and get that Jon Lord sound. (Of course, it didn't sound exactly like a Hammond, but better than the cheesy 60's organ sound that didn't work so well doing Deep Purple.)

Never played my guitar though it though. Of course i didn't even learn to play guitar for about another 3 years.

The only distortion units i regular used was the Rockman and the Satchurator made by Vox. Gives that ultrasmooth full distortion sound that Satch uses. Used the latter for jam nights where i could get a tone i liked without having to bring my Marshall or Boogie.