The DOD Lamb Series

THE DOD LAMB SERIES

In the early 1970s, DOD came onto the scene and almost instantly became a guitar pedal powerhouse, so much so that by the 1980s they were referred to as “America's pedals.” While other USA companies in the early ’80s (like Electro Harmonix and MXR) ended in bankruptcy, DOD lasted through the Japanese invasion of BOSS and Ibanez by adapting to the “new era” of guitar pedals. Started by two men in a humble Salt Lake City garage, DOD held on to their roots every step of the way. Their graphics, circuits, and company mantra were founded and sustained on the approachable, working-man idea of a simple quality product.

So it might surprise you that the Lamb pedal series, one of the most irreverent and oddball in pedal history, came from DOD in the 1990s.

But, boy, did it.

In the 1990s, as Digitech (the digital partner company to DOD) continued to expand, the leader of DOD, John Johnson, decided to go fully into Digitech and commit all of his time to its growth. In doing so, he handed over the entire DOD pedal line to a punk-rocking skateboarder named Jason Lamb.

Having recently designed a successful distortion pedal on the back of the booming Seattle Grunge scene, Jason showed promise for holding down the analog division as everyone else focused on Digitech. But there was no way to sugar-coat it: a young, punk-rocking skateboarder now steered the ship one of America's legendary pedal brands.

Given the identity of the man behind the curtain, it should come as no surprise that the “Lamb Series” line of pedals (a name that I am proud to have coined from my show) that closed out DOD’s American-Made era of the late 1990s are, by definition, as unique as it gets.

So, without further ado, let’s dive down the rabbit hole.

The Grunge

Jason Lamb's first contribution to DOD comes through the FX69 Grunge. The Grunge pedal had irresistible charm for any ’90s kid wanting to sound like Kurt Cobain (and let’s be honest: who didn’t?) Its control knobs didn't use annoying adult labels like Volume, Tone, or Distortion. Instead, it spoke its own language. Loud, Butt, Face, and Grunge is what it chose to say, perfectly expressing the angsty late-night MTV emotion of an era.

DOD is traditionally known for their plain-Jane aesthetic, using real, simple colors and normal fonts with typical knob controls such as level, tone, and distortion. But the Grunge threw any preconceived notions about pedal aesthetics out the window -- and, keeping in the spirit of the series, probably broke the window just for kicks.

The Grunge featured a multicolor airbrushed enclosure, crazy graphics, and knob controls that didn’t immediately make much sense: what was butt? What was face? What did the grunge knob actually do? Whereas the typical DOD pedal operated like a tried-and-true family van, the Grunge functioned more like a sports car with flames painted on the side: it would probably get you to the same location in the end, but the journey would be...different.

Although it strayed from tradition in every possible way (or, more likely, because of this fact), the Grunge pedal was highly successful, coming in on the heels of grunge and selling about 2,000 units a month.

The only thing that could amp up its popularity even more? Product placement by the great Kurt Cobain. Cobain got the Grunge pedal and put it on his board primarily out of fascination that there was a pedal that said ‘grunge,’ since Nirvana was the ultimate grunge band.

In a move that would make Jason Lamb proud, Cobain put the Grunge pedal on his board mainly to troll people, to have fun. His sound tech said it was on there for several months and he never even turned it on. Just the same, when MTV interviewed Kurt at a live concert and asked, "Why do Nirvana's guitars sound so cool? Why are they so awesome?" he held up the pedal and said, "Well, it's the DOD Grunge, of course."

From that moment on, Grunge pedal sales went from 2,000 sales a month to 8,000 sales a month. Long story short? This was a massively successful pedal and it sealed the deal for Jason Lamb’s future with DOD.

The Buzz Box

The second pedal from the series comes in 1994, one year after the Grunge: the Buzz Box FX33. This pedal was DOD’s attempt to capture the sound of the Melvins, specifically Buzz Osborne’s guitar. With the success of the Grunge a year earlier, they meant to capitalize on the Melvins’ popularity and the band’s endorsement by a young Kurt Cobain.

In a Guitar World February ’95 interview, they asked Buzz if he had anything to do with the DOD Buzz Box and he said, "I had nothing to do with it. I mean, does my guitar really sound that bad? The guys at DOD are kind of crazy and I have to give them credit for that. A guy there [Jason Lamb] was always bugging me at shows about how we got the sound on the Eggnog record. I use this thing called a Blue Box. It's an old octave from the early ’70s."

Buzz went on to explain how Jason visited Buzz at a live show, took a look at his MXR Blue Box’s inner workings, and set out to duplicate it and combine it with the Grunge pedal. The final product? The Buzz Box. It’s an odd endorsement that the titular Buzz is quoted as saying, “Yes, the Buzz Box is totally worthless. It sounds like a vacuum cleaner." In contrast to the Grunge Pedal (which distorted sound), the Buzz Box set out to deliberately sound broken. A crazy yellow splattered paint job (a far cry from the factory-produced aesthetic of the typical DOD pedal) surrounded controls labeled heavy, buzz, saw, and thrust.

Initially customers had issues with it, so much that dealers were getting returns under the assumption that the pedal wasn’t working. To help clarify that this was deliberate, DOD actually added the tagline into the marketing, "It's not broken, it sounds that way."

Much like the Grunge pedal before it, Jason Lamb was just as interested in making a statement with the Buzz Box as he was in producing a patently enjoyable sound. In this way, the series stayed true to the spirit of grunge and of the late ’90s.

The Death Metal

Later in 1994, DOD released the third pedal in the series: the FX86 Death Metal.

With this pedal, the best way to capture its sheer oddness is to read directly from the product manual: "The FX86 creates a grinding wall of noise perfect for harmonic corruption of the highest order. The FX86 emulates the death metal and grindcore sounds of napalm death, carcass, brutal truth, pungent stench, and others. One advantage of the FX86 is that it will oscillate when the rest in peace (R.I.P) control is turned up.”

As a genre, death metal started in the mid '80s and it reached its height in the mid '90s, right around the release of this pedal. Jason Lamb, being a punk rocker and a big part of the metal scene, knew this genre well, so he put a pedal into it and marketed it to that same crowd.

The Meat Box

In 1994, DOD also released the Meat Box FX32. This pedal had to be seen to be believed: it actually said USDOD Prime Meat Box on the case. For all its strangeness, the paint job was extravagantly beautiful, showcasing what was literally a slab of marbled meat. The box even came with a little set of fly stickers for the musician to decorate his or her own pedal.

Although the Meat Box was initially designed for bass guitar, electric guitarists used it even more. Electric guitarists utilized an octave distortion fuzz, a frankly bizarre octave device that went unusually low in the frequency range.

With controls like meat, rump, flank, and pounds, this pedal allowed musicians to hear a slab of meat for the first (and, as of 2020, the last) time in music history.

The Punkifier

In 1995, DOD released the FX76 Punkifier. ‘76’ was actually a tribute to the year that punk rock went mainstream: 1976. Given Jason Lamb’s identity as a punk rocker, this project had to be a personal favorite. In a unique twist, the pedal had a few different versions cosmetically, each design with a different undercoat. The exclusivity of this pedal -- and the entirely relatable need to have all the colors in one’s collection -- haunts collectors to this day.

The Punkifier was also well-known because the Blur guitarist used it on several records, along with his Pro Co Rat. The knobs were punk, slam, spikes, and menace. As with previous pedals, there wasn’t an obvious correlation between the control knob name and what it actually did, but musicians still loved turning up the ‘menace’ knob to see what would happen.

The Juice Box

The Juice Box (released at Winter NAMM 1996) was DOD’s first overdrive pedal since the FX53 Classic Tube. Like previous products in the series, individual pedals might be cosmetically different. Although the pedal itself functioned as a fairly straight-forward overdrive with offbeat controls like sweet, pulp, tang, and juice, the aesthetic still made sure the onlooker knew that the pedal was a Jason Lamb DOD original.

The Gonkulator/Modulator

Arguably the most iconic pedal in the series, the FX13 Gonkulator/Modulator was released at Winter NAMM ’96. Essentially built as the Grunge pedal with an added ring modulator, it included outrageous controls such as suck, smear, gunk, and heave. Much like the Grunge pedal, outside of the product manual there was no obvious clue at what each control knob did.

Once again, a quote from the manual helps sum up the oddness of this pedal: "The FX13 Gonkulator/Modulator is a ring modulator and distortion in one. The ring modulator or smear adds gong like gonk tones to your guitar's sound. With the suck and smear knobs you can create a multitude of bizarre distortion sounds that will not only enhance your solos, but it will keep the audiences wondering."

The Gonkulator was used and made famous by Incubus on a song called Glass. Initially, the Gonkulator pedals were not successful, but they later became extremely popular (and expensive) on the used market as collector’s items.

The Grind

In 1996, DOD also released the FX101 Grind, marketed as rectifying overdrive with echo. Pedal purists might argue that the Grind was not technically an overdrive; it was really a full blown distortion that could rip the user’s head off.

The Grind attempted to replicate the Mesa Dual Rectifier or Triple Rectifier sound with knobs like blast, rumble, burn, and fear. One factor separated this pedal from the others in the Lamb series: some Grind pedals showed the normal labeling with control knobs of level, lows, highs, and gains. With this pedal, DOD attempted to market to two crowds: the people who wanted to turn the fear knob, and those who just wanted to turn the gain knob.

The Grind came out on the same day as the FX100 Integrated Tube Even Harmonic Overdrive. They shared the same circuit board, both featured a cab emulator, and were nearly identical. Although this was definitely a Jason Lamb era design, the more conservative knob labels on some models caused a divide between fans of the classic Lamb series style and those who just wanted to know how to work the dang pedal.

Supersonic Stereo Flange

Also, from 1996 is the Supersonic Stereo Flange FX747. Even apart from the name, the Supersonic referenced jumbo jets with controls like payload, mach, altitude, and thrust. The Supersonic stands out as, frankly, a really good modulation pedal, even though it was essentially a re-cased FX75.

Milk Box Compressor

At Winter NAMM '96, DOD released the FX84 Milk Box compressor. Lamb created the Milk Box compressor with actual cow udders and knobs labeled quarts, cream, etc. and allowed the user to choose between skim, 1%, 2%, or whole milk. The user could also adjust pasteurization level and spill.

Purely for the fun factor, this pedal is still making waves with collectors across the world.

Ice Box Stereo Chorus

DOD also released the FX64 Ice Box Stereo Chorus in 1996, featuring controls called ice, cold, ice cold, deep and freeze, and deep freeze. Like the Grind, DOD produced this pedal with labels for level, speed, depth, and high EQ as well as the original knob names.

The Corrosion

The next pedal, the Corrosion, came out in 1997. When DOD had first released this effect pedal, it hadn’t done well, so they changed the paint scheme and gave it controls called dissolve, bottom, top, and rust. Very unusual for pedals in general, and especially the Lamb series, the Corrosion pedal came in a raw, unpainted enclosure. Like the Punkifier, this pedal featured different cosmetic versions of the same design.

Big Pig Fat Distortion

The final pedal released in the Lamb series was the FX70P in 1999, also called the Big Pig Fat Distortion. Its dirty pink color suggested a pig nestled in a mudhole, and it combined all the best features of the Grunge, the Corrosion, and the Metal X, even utilizing the same circuit board as the Grunge. Control knobs included wallow, snort, wheeze, and mud.

Conclusion

This is by no means a comprehensive list of pedals that Jason Lamb created during this odd and electric era. I’d encourage anyone who can to research other models from this period, as they are truly unique.

This article is dedicated to the amazing work of Jason Lamb, who sadly passed away in 2016. As DigiTech posted shortly after Lamb’s death, “The world is now a lot more stable and predictable without him in it, [which] is not a good thing.” Jason brought an original and appropriately anti-establishment spin to the DOD pedal, with product names and descriptions that invariably caused the musician to do a double-take to see if this pedal actually had ‘butt’ and ‘face’ listed as control knobs.

It's easy to overlook the fact that companies don't do things, people do. Jason's groundbreaking work was pivotal to this industry. It's pivotal to why there are still jobs in pedal-making. And it's pivotal to why we love guitar pedals.

Guest UserSeptember 5, 2019