12 Rare Pedals
Okay, a good parent doesn’t play favorites with his or her children. I think we can all agree on that. And (not to brag) I’ve done a pretty solid job of avoiding favoritism with my actual flesh-and-blood children.
With my guitar pedal collection?...Yeah, that’s a whole other ballpark.
Today I'm going to show you eleven really rare pedals from my pedal collection. Are these my favorite pedals? Honestly, it depends on the day and it depends on the mood I’m in, but I can say that this is some of the harder-to-find gear that I own, and I’m proud to show it to you. Just think of me as a proud father at parent-teacher night for the next few pages.
The Sovtek Red Army Overdrive
Let's start off with an extremely rare and important piece of pedal history. This is from 1991, and it's brought to us by the great Mike Matthews of Electro-Harmonix fame.
Allow me to set the stage here. Mike started Electro-Harmonix in the late ’60s. He sailed through the ’70s and ’80s as an innovator doing amazing stuff like the Memory Man, the Big Muff, the Pog, all these cool pedals, but in the early ’80s he got nailed with not one but two bankruptcies.
That’d be a hard recovery for anyone, least of all a gear entrepreneur. When the dust settled on the second bankruptcy, Mike decided to get involved with some old Soviet technology companies, old warehouses, old factories, and he started selling valve tubes. He sold tubes all over the world for people to put their own brand names on, and he quickly developed the reputation that, "If you want tubes, go to Mike Matthews and his new company called Sovtek.”
But when Mike saw the prices soar for his vintage pedals from the ’70s and ’80s, he decided it was time to get back into pedals. So he did. And the first pedal on our list just so happens to be the very first Sovtek pedal. You could say it's the very first modern Electro-Harmonix pedal, a kind of ‘post-bankruptcy/new wave’ Electro-Harmonix.
Purely going off aesthetic, this is one of my favorites. First of all, it just says ‘Mike Matthews’ and ‘Sovtek’ and that's pretty baller. No mention of Electro-Harmonix because there was no EHX at this point in pedal history. The knobs read volume, tone, and distortion. Don’t let the ‘overdrive’ label fool you. This is a Big Muff.
But what you have to remember is: this is the very first Russian Big Muff ever made. No big deal.**
**Translation: очень большое дело.
The Fulltone Full-Drive 2
Next up we have the Fulltone Full-Drive 2. You've all seen it: the blue pedal with two foot switches. But before that one, there was the label-maker version that Mike Fuller built in his garage. This pedal was basically the prototype phase of the production Full-Drive 2 and is just really, really fun. My pedal literally has an Avery sticker from like a school supply place on it. If you flip the box up, you see the serial number (171) literally written with an old school label-maker and the whole thing is signed by Mike Fuller, circa February 1996.
It sounds the same as the more polished pedals that came after it, but it's awesome because this model came out before Mike knew how much this pedal was going to change the pedal world. The Full-Drive went on to be one of the best selling pedals ever. It put him on the map, and afterwards he knocked it out of the park time and time again.
Diamond Memory Lane 2
This next one's a really cool find that I've had for years: the Diamond Memory Lane 2. Why is this on the list? Because it’s the first ever Bucket Brigade all analog delay that had tap tempo. Like the name suggests, it gave you the ability to tap in your tempo. The pedal I have is even more rare: it's a 2008 prototype. If you look at the back, it actually says, “Show demo August 6 of ’08" without any serial number on the back sticker.
So, this is a big piece of technology history. I’m a huge Diamond fan (I think they are some of the best pedal designers ever) and I love the way this pedal freezes the moment where they broke through and did something completely new. You can look at this and imagine what it was like to introduce this new form of delay into the world!
I was the second person to ever put out a tap tempo analog delay (the Panther delay), but that wasn't until 2011, so they beat me by three years. I’m not even mad. This is honestly just a really, really fun pedal to have. Plus, it sounds killer. The modulation on it, the way that it repeats, and the way that it regenerates is fantastic.
JHS 2012 SuperBolt
It's pretty unusual that JHS has a rare pedal, so I guess in a way this is doubly rare: the 2012 SuperBolt.
The pedal I have in my collection in particular is the tenth SuperBolt ever made. It was built in October, and it has something wildly different about it. No, it's not the fact that it's hand stamped. I stamped all my early pedals with rubber stamps. I didn't even label some of the knobs, and if I did, I put one letter. All the power jacks on my older pedals have an exclamation point.
But what makes this really crazy is the icon.
There are only 50 of these that we ever built that have a three stage lightning bolt. If you look at new SuperBolts, notice it's a four stage lightning bolt. I had to change this because I got a call from the guy who held the trademark for Supro, and the mark is actually the three bolt. It's that particular. Once we found out, we changed it right away, and that makes this a very, very rare and collectible pedal.
Electro-Harmonix Small Stone
Some people call me a pedal hoarder, pedal collector, etc. Personally, I just like to say that I'm a lover of pedals. And in this case, pedals that have never been out of the box.
Let me explain.
Number five on the list is a late ‘90s Electro-Harmonix Small Stone. I own it but I have never opened it. It still has the copper box seal. I actually don't even know what's in this. Like, it could be even more rare than I realize, because what if I open it and there's like, a small clone in it or something? Like, the wrong pedal? And then it's even more rare.
But I will never know. To quote Adrian Monk, it’s my gift and my curse.
This is the stuff that keeps me up all night. I just lay there thinking, "What's in the box?" But I can't open the box, because if I open the box, it's no longer special or cool. Like, I know there's a warranty card in there. But what if there's a card that says, "Mail in and get a free T-shirt"? What if I’m missing out on a free T-shirt?!
I go crazy thinking about what's in the box, but I don't know, and I'm making a choice to never know what's in the box. That said, I'm pretty sure that this Small Stone Phaser sounds great.
1981 ProCo Big Box Rat
Next up is a fun one. It is a 1981 ProCo Rat, a Big Box version. These are collectible, and yeah, there's a lot of these out there and they're rare, but there's not a lot of this one. Now, what makes this pedal particularly fascinating is the fact that the filter control is not called ‘filter’. It's called ‘tone control’.
Now, from 1979-1981 they said ‘tone control’, and the pedal in my collection is one of the last ones ever made with that label. ’81 was the transitional year. They made some with the new controls and some with the old. What you got in your order was basically the luck of the draw.
But either way, this is a rare bird that sounds really, really nice. I love the Big Box Rats. I love how they feel. I love how they look.
There are actually two even more rare than this: there's one where there are no lowercase letters and one where the tail of the R is a little chunkier.**
**When this episode of the JHS Show aired, I didn’t have this Rat. As of April 2020, I have the pedal. All is right in the world.
ProCo Bud Box Rat
Then there's the most rare Rat of all. It's called the Bud Box and it came out in early 1979. It looks nothing like the Big Box version. It has orange on the black and it has an actual rat on there. There's 11 or 12 of those on the planet.
So, if you’ve got one of those laying around, you know, hit me up. It's not that I want it. I mean, I do want it, but I don't have to have it. I don't have a problem.
I can stop whenever I want; I just don’t want to stop. Are you following me here?
BOSS DM-2
Next up is a BOSS DM-2 delay pedal.
“Wait, Josh, you must have made a mistake. There are easily tens of thousands of this pedal anywhere. You can find one right now on Reverb or Ebay. There's probably some at your local guitar store in the used bucket.”
True. It's not really rare. So, why am I including it in this article?
Well, the BOSS DM-2 isn’t rare, but the version I have definitely is. This is Korean-made delay DL-1. It's exactly the same circuit inside, down to the circuit board itself and the parts placement, and it is a frankly bizarre piece of gear. The BOSS DM-2 is from 1982, whereas this clone is from 1983. This means that someone, somewhere had a company (I don't know the company name, because they didn't bother to tell us) and they just straight up copied Boss pedals in a plastic enclosure and it sounds good, looks cool, ticks all the boxes. It's just a weird piece of history.
MXR Blue Box Fuzz
This one's fun because I found it at another pedal builder’s lair, John Cusack of Cusack Pedals**. He hunkers down in Holland, Michigan, and since I was up there on vacation, I stopped by. Long story short, John had some pedals lying around and this was one of them. It caught my attention and, dare I say, caught my heart.
**If you've never heard of his pedals, take a quick break and check them out. They're amazing.
This is an MXR labeled Western NAMM / Winter 1982. The pedal itself is a Phase 45, and apparently it debuted the year I was born, 1982. Coincidence? I think not.
Basically, this model has got to be crazy rare. I'm pretty sure they made this for employees or top dealers, so I'm guessing there's less than 10 of these out there. If anyone knows, let me know. If some of you MXR guys are reading this, I need the details. It's a cool piece of history, and it's cool because I found it, fixed it up, got it working again.
This is probably the rarest pedal that I own. If I ever end up at a rare pedal competition, this is the one I'm taking to the fight.
1966 Sola Sound Tone Bender MK 1.5
That said, the 1966 Sola Sound Tone Bender MK 1.5 is up there, too.
The Tone Bender came into play in 1965. We all know this. The versions 1 and 2 are rare, because frankly there's a lot of rare Tone Benders. Not like this one, though.
A lot of people didn't even know the MK 1.5 existed, because it was only made for a few months in the fall of 1966. For some reason, the three transistor Tone Bender MK 1/Version One just goes away for a few months, and this two transistor version (MK 1.5) is produced. Afterwards, the MK 1.5 goes away, and it's back to three transistor version in the MK 2, and so on.
Basically, it's a really, really strange pedal. There aren't many of these anywhere, because none were ever really made.
Now, there's another layer to this (already really cool) story. The 1.5 Tone Bender being around for just a few months and then disappearing is super interesting, because when we look at the classic Fuzz Face made by Arbiter, it is a part for part copy of the 1.5 Tone Bender. So, the Tone Bender goes from three transistors to two. It's only around for a few months. Dallas Arbiter copies it, part for part. This stays alive, but the Tone Bender goes back to a MK two with three transistors, and the Fuzz Face lives on.
Basically it’s the ending to the horror movie that we wish happened every time: everybody lives! This story is awesome, the rarity is amazing, and it is a beautiful, beautiful piece of pedal history.
Colorsound Octivider
This next one gets bonus points simply because it's British. British pedals are almost always better.** Naturally, I’m talking about the Colorsound Octivider.
**This is a fact. I read it on the internet.
It's a Sola Sound piece that Colorsound made in London, England. This goes all the way back to 1974. There weren't a lot of these made, and it's really, really fun. I’ll be honest, sometimes it feels like the amount of fun you have playing a pedal is directly proportional to how hard-to-find the pedal is. The Octivider is no exception.
This is old technology, a kind of primitive octave device. Technically it’s a sub-octave, and it actually tracks okay. The reason it’s really fun to play? It has some unpredictability, in the best way. I love these Fuzz pedals and Overdrive pedals. I love this brand, I love the look of them, and I love knowing that this is really rare and I got hold of one.
Klon Centaur 002
Alright, we're at the end. This is the last of the eleven rare pedals, and it is amazing. I love that I can look back and see this story unfold. I know that when this pedal was built, the builder had no idea how important it was going to be, or how this pedal that he had designed was forever going to change guitar pedals and the guitar industry.
This is the Klon Centaur 002, built in January of 1995. This is the first Klon ever built, and the first Klon ever sold, and because of my gift (or curse) of pedal hoarding, I am holding it right here in my hands.
Now, you may ask, "Why is it serial number 002 if it’s the first Klon? Wouldn’t 001 make a little more sense?" And that is a fantastic question. Bill Finnegan, the creator and the builder of this pedal had 18 orders, so he sat serial number 001 aside. He fulfilled the 18 orders, building 002 first. This means that when he built 001 it was actually the 19th built. He kept that, and rightly so, but the ‘second’ Klon ever built was loose out in the wild, and I got a hold of it.
Honestly, I think this is how Indiana Jones felt when he finally found the lost ark**. It is so amazing. Even the look of it is so nuanced; it almost looks like it's painted with a paintbrush. The original sales receipt said $285.00. They've definitely increased in value since then (which coincidentally is a theme you’ll see in pretty much every article I write: invest in quality gear, because the value for it is only going to go up.)
**Those movies are based on history, and I dare you to convince me otherwise.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of rare pedals. You could call up a collector like Jeorge Tripps, and his collection of rare gear might put mine to shame. That said, I really enjoy getting to share this stuff with other pedal enthusiasts, so thanks for letting me gush about my pedal collection for a while here.
And remember: buy quality gear. You won’t regret it.