Pedals vs Food — The JHS Show

Several decades ago, food themes started showing up in the graphics and names of guitar pedals. In this article (and in the JHS show episode we based it on), we're going to dive into what it means, where it can take us as a civilization, and how this may have already changed the history of rock and roll.

As always, you’re going to get more out of this article if you go back and watch the episode first. Not only do we have some tasty jams (see what I did there?), but this week’s episode has a little extra awesome sauce in the form of my good friend Ben Wood, the executive chef at City Barrel Brewery + Kitchen in Kansas City, MO. He serves up delicious food to compliment each pedal that we go through. You can’t eat it just by watching the episode (Willy Wonka hasn’t quite perfected that technology yet), but you can go and visit City Barrel Brewery + Kitchen and eat his delicious food. You definitely should.

All right, shake out your napkins, get your forks and spoons ready, because we’re diving into the meat and potatoes of the article**.

**Yeah, there’s going to be a lot of food puns. Just roll with it.

The Early History of Food Pedals

There are lots of guitar pedals with food themes, icons, and names. Tons of brands have taken part in this trend, most notably the Danelectro Food series. JHS has done a few of these, too, like the Keeley Steak and Eggs and the Muffaletta. And you guys know me. I’m a nerd. I’m a historian. I like to know exactly when stuff happened.

So, let’s take this one pedal at a time and try to figure out what came first.

In 1967, we saw the Honey Crying Baby, later re-released as the Super Fuzz. This could be the first food pedal. It all comes down to one question: was honey referring to sweet honey on your biscuit or was it like, “Honey, l’m home”? Could go either way.

In 1975, the Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer compressor hit the market. This is definitely easier to pin down than the Honey Crying Baby. You could prove this pretty well in a court case, because the Orange Squeezer name is clearly food-related. Specifically, orange juice-related. So, Dan Armstrong might've started this. There’s only one hang-up: the Orange Squeezer is not technically a pedal, since it literally plugs directly into the guitar. I love this thing. It's fantastic. I even based my Pulp ‘N Peel off of this. But can we count it as the first food pedal?

In 1976, we got the Crowther Audio HotCake. This one’s pretty dang clear. Looking at the pedal, I don't know what else this could be other than a hotcake, which is another name for a pancake. Pancakes are food, and that’s the name of the article. This could be the first food pedal, but only if you don’t count the Honey Crying Baby or the Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer.

I’m basically going to leave this section as a “Choose Your Own Adventure” moment, and I’m going to let you pick what you think was the first food pedal. Just don’t pick the wrong one.

Way Huge Fat Sandwich Distortion & Danelectro French Fries Auto Wah

Now that we've covered some history, I've chosen a series of pedals to go through (if you want to hear the epic jam sessions for these, go back and watch the episode). I want to talk about the food, the flavor, the sound, the pedal, the emotions, everything.

First up is the Way Huge Fat Sandwich. Jeorge Tripps built some of these in ’98, but I don't think it actually released as a product around 2008. It's a fuzzy distortion, and I actually don't know the circuit it’s based on. That haunts me, but I can deal with it. I’m an adult.

At this point, Nick suggested adding some french fries, and I didn’t argue. There’s literally never a bad time for french fries. In this case, we added the Danelectro French Fries Auto Wah, which was released at Winter NAMM in 1999. I’ll always have a special place in my heart for the Danelectro Food series, because this is largely how I got into pedals in the first place. These pedals let me try fuzz, distortion, reverb, and tons of effects that I had heard but never played.

Danelectro Grilled Cheese Distortion & Alexander Pedals Marshmallow Pitch Shifter

Next up is another pedal from Danelectro Food series, and it's called the Grilled Cheese Distortion. The pedal in my personal collection still has the original sticker that says Guitar Player Editor’s Pick Award. So, we know this pedal is quality, but the pedal itself is still a puzzle. Why is it called the grilled cheese? What does a grilled cheese sandwich sound like? All I can see here is the scene in the Good Burger Movie where Ed holds two hamburgers on either side of his head and declares that they “sound similar.”

The Danelectro Grilled Cheese is basically a distortion with a resonance knob, which to me feels like there's also a wah circuit in it. In the spirit of honesty, I have to say that it's not a greatly useful pedal, but it is a food pedal, so it belongs in this article.

Now, I’m a fan of marshmallows as well. Do I put them on my grilled cheese sandwiches? Maybe. Maybe not. But I do want to plug the Alexander Pedals Marshmallow Pitch Shifter here really quick. This pedal is best summed up with a quote from the company’s website: “It’s sweet, fun, and probably best consumed in small doses.”

Electro Harmonix Soul Food & Caroline Guitar Hawaiian Pizza

The Electro Harmonix Soul Food overdrive/distortion came out around 2014, and it’s basically a really faithful clone of the Klon Centaur. JHS did a modification on this for a while that we called the “Meat & 3 Mod,” basically a reference to the traditional Southern meal where you order one kind of meat with three sides. I'm very familiar with this meal concept (this is basically what I ate growing up) and because of the mod we did on it, I’m also a huge fan of this pedal.

In that same vein, I brought out the Hawaiian Pizza fuzz pedal, made by my friend Philippe Herndon at the Caroline Guitar Company. Ben and Nick weren’t convinced that Hawaiian Pizza could be considered a soul food, to which I would argue: Hawaiians have souls, yes or no? Yes. Then, by technicality, Hawaiian Pizza could be considered a soul food. I’m just sayin’.

Barber Electronics Small Fry & Lovetone Big Cheese

I knew we mentioned the Danelectro French Fries auto wah, but fries are delicious and I want to include more of them here. The Barber Electronics Small Fry overdrive came out around ’96, and it’s fantastic. First off, Barber is a killer designer. Secondly, this pedal walks the fine line between distortion and overdrive, and it does so perfectly. Coincidentally, if you’re the kind of person who likes putting cheese on their fries (and I’m pretty sure everyone does), then you could add the Lovetone Big Cheese into the mix.

Radiohead actually used this pedal on the bass track for one of their most popular recordings, so you know it’s quality.

DOD Milk Box FX84 & Ranger Effects Mini Bar

It’s come to my attention that this is not considered “normal,” but I think that the perfect beverage to go with a plate of greasy french fries is a tall, cool glass of milk. To that end, I’m adding in the DOD Milk Box FX84, a compressor from the Jason Lamb series released at Winter NAMM 1996. I love this pedal purely for the insanity factor. Lamb created the Milk Box compressor with actual cow udders and knobs labeled quarts, cream, etc. and it allows you to choose between skim, 1%, 2%, or whole milk. It also lets you adjust pasteurization level and spill. This man was truly ahead of his time.

Ben and Nick are requesting another drink option, so I’ll add in the Ranger Effects Mini Bar. This is truly a unique piece of gear. Basically, it’s built with a cavity in the center of the pedal, allowing you to add liquids to it as a form of resistance. This means that the liquid you put into the cavity affects and changes the resistance, resulting in different sounds. Again, this is nuts, but in the best way.

Honorable Mentions

I’m going to list a few extra pedals here that Nick and Ben weren’t super supportive about, but I think still count as food pedals. You’ll see what I mean in a second.

The Big Muff Pi

In 1977, we saw the pi symbol appear on the Big Muff Pi. Now, I know it's math related. I get that. But could pi actually be pie? Maybe that's where it all started. I mean, the seventies were a crazy decade. We had disco, the beginnings of metal, Saturday Night Fever. I think a food pedal with a trippy name perfectly fits here. Ben and Nick just didn’t agree with me.

Klon Centaur

Nick brought up a valid question here. The Electro Harmonix Soul Food is a Klon Centaur clone. This brought up a lot of questions. Could a Klon Centaur be called a food pedal? If you ate a centaur, would it be considered cannibalism? I said it would depend on which part you ate. Ben argued that you can’t just cook half an animal, and since he’s the chef, I’m going to defer to him on this one.

ProCo Rat

Now, hear me out. I travel sometimes, and I was in a country recently where they had cooked rats on a stick, like a kebab. I’ll admit that I might be stretching the definition of a food pedal for this, but food is just the stuff we eat, right? It doesn’t always matter whether we like to eat it or not.**

**Ben has asked me to clarify here that City Barrel Brewery and Kitchen does not cook rats.

In wrapping up this article, I’m not sure if I made the history of food names in guitar pedals much clearer, but I’m positive I’ve made you guys hungrier. I’ll call this a win.