The Rush PepBox

Hey, guys, Josh here. For this week’s article/interview, I was really excited to sit down with Lucy Rush, daughter of pedal-builder Pepe Rush. Pepe Rush is the first pedal maker to create a distortion / fuzz pedal in the United Kingdom, the Rush PepBox, which was released in 1965. You can think of Pepe as the British Ivor Arbiter and/or Revis Hobbs. He was a brilliant inventor, and it was a pleasure to talk about his work with Lucy, who now runs the family business. 

**June 21, 2021 CORRECTION**

Since the release of the “Rush PepBox” JHS Show episode, we have found a few corrections: 1.) The Rush PepBox photograph at the 5:40 mark in the video is actually an image of a counterfeit PepBox. Ouch. 2.) The red 'Fuzzy' pedals mentioned in this interview have no connection to Pepe Rush whatsoever, and don't have any direct similarities to the PepBox other than the attack control, which is also labelled 'Pep'.

Let’s dive right into this interview, because it’s a good one!   

LUCY

My name's Lucy Rush. I'm the daughter of Pepe Rush, and my Dad invented the Rush PepBox.

JOSH

To get to know you a little bit more, what was the first album you bought with your own money?

LUCY

Limp Bizkit’s Chocolate Starfish [and the Hot Dog Flavored Water]. I was doing work experience. I don’t know if you do that in America…[In] our last year of senior school or high school, you go and work somewhere for a couple of weeks for basically nothing. And [the album] was there, and I had my eye on it the whole time, and I was hoping that the guy would give it to me as a present for working for him, for paying me nothing, but he didn't. So I bought it myself.

JOSH

What's your first memory of your dad's profession, him making things and creating things with electronics?

LUCY

His workshop, [and] sometimes not being allowed in. He used to let me play with the soldering [iron] ’cause I was fascinated by the way that the solder flows. He used to let me play with it. I used to be very careful...so I wouldn’t get burnt. I remember that.

JOSH

How did your dad get into electronics? [Was it] at an early age or was it something his family did? What do you know about him being younger and finding his way into making circuits and designing pedals and amps? 

LUCY

So he lived in Soho with his Mom and his Dad and his Granddad, and he was so close to his Granddad. He came home from school one day and his granddad was looking at something to do with amplifiers...I think he'd taken it apart, so he must have been looking at the inside. They just interested Dad so much that he was like, “Right. I want to learn that.” So I think they just started buying him books and he just started sucking up knowledge like a sponge.

JOSH

For all of us who never knew him or were never close to him...what was he like?

LUCY

He was hard work. Very temperamental. He came from a show business family, so he was very loud and confident. Great dad, and he did look out for me a lot, because I was his little girl. Hobby-wise, he loved photography and he loved comedy. He had a really odd sense of humor and he could drive people up the wrong way. Really, anyone that knows Dad can tell you that. That's part of his charm.

JOSH

The first guitar pedal ever made in the history of the world is called the Maestro Fuzz-Tone. It was made in Michigan, and it is what the Rolling Stones used on “[I Can’t Get No] Satisfaction”. So your Dad built a pedal here in 1964 [the Rush PepBox], that to my knowledge is the second fuzz pedal ever [made]. 

LUCY

So it would be the first fuzz pedal made in the UK.

JOSH

That's accurate. Your father built the first manufactured fuzz in the UK [in] 1964...It predates the Tone Bender, Sola Sound, [and] Vox. That's really crazy. In August 1965, there was a London Trade Fair. And there is an advertisement for the [first] version of [the Rush PepBox]. That's really significant, too, because that's kind of the same time or maybe a little before the Tone Bender. So there's a lot of things going on in England and he's right there in the middle of it. 

LUCY

I think somebody came into the factory (that’s how I was told the story) and...talked about distortion, and Dad just came up with a circuit. I think it had to do with one of his amps. He took parts from one of his amps, and put it together, and just made the noise. That was like Dad, to just do things.

JOSH

These original-- we'll call them version ones, I guess, germanium PepBox 1966 --they said W-E-M, Watkins Electronics Manufacturing. Now that was Charlie Watkins. How did your dad meet him? What's that story?

LUCY

I don't know how they met, but I know how everything went down with them. So he was building [fuzz pedals] and Charlie Watkins was selling them for dad. Now, at the time, [WEM, short for Watkins Electric Music] weren't kitted out to be able to build them, so he was building them. I don't know if you heard about the whole thing of WEM taking over. Charlie Watkins took a circuit of Dad's from the PepBox and put it into an amp. And Dad was like, “That's my circuit. If you're going to do that, you should at least tell me and offer me something for it.” That was about 1967, and that's when Charlie walked in and said to my dad, “You've had enough. I’m not giving you any more money.” But something that always gets me is the [pedal] that John Lennon is using [in] 1966 in the recording for Revolver or Abbey Road, that would be Dad’s [work]. People go, “No, it's a WEM.” It's not. It's a Pepe Rush [pedal], because it wasn't until 1967 [that] WEM started making them themselves. Any PepBox that was made before 1967 and up until then, it’s one that my dad made. He would have used the same engraving machine...It would have been like me making [PepBox pedals] for you and then [you] putting JHS [on the pedals] and then selling them. So that one that John has got is my Dad's.

JOSH

The Beatles are obviously a very popular band, and when you start digging into what equipment they used-- which a lot of people do --there aren’t a ton of photos that show things. It's pretty obvious they used Vox amplifiers, certain guitars, but you see some Abbey Road photographs, and the only pedals seen [are] the Tone Bender, a Maestro Fuzz-Tone, and we see a PepBox. That's kind of it as far as fuzz boxes. Having a pedal company, there's no better artist's endorsement than the Beatles. It's really cool. John Lennon's standing there in 1966, and [the PepBox] says WEM on it, but your dad was building them. So, in 1967 WEM was kitted up and started building [their own products]?

LUCY

Yeah, but I started using silicone transistors, and Dad always said that they were an inferior pedal. They just weren't like my Dad’s, weren't built as well, just weren't as good. 

JOSH

John Lennon's playing what we'd still call a version one, but it said WEM. Your dad's making them for Charlie Watkins. Then Charlie Watkins, you just clarified for me, started fully making them, but he drops the germanium transistor and goes silicon. So I would call that a version two just for my reference. Have you seen any of those or know any more of that?

LUCY

I only know about [other] people making them...Dad had a registered trademark for the Rush PepBox and I've had that put in my name, but [other] people are making them. British pedal companies are doing it. They are using germanium transistors. So they're technically copying the mark 1, but none of them are actually real. My [PepBox] is the real one. Obviously WEM took over and they're making them, but really it's not a real PepBox because of what happened. In fact, Charlie Watkins took over and made a silicone one. So any of those [WEM PepBoxes] that are out there, they're just not real. They’re clones.

JOSH

What are some of these other pieces of equipment that your dad designed and built that people may not know about?

LUCY

Bass amplifiers, guitar amplifiers... Jimi Hendrix came down to his factory (Dad used to love telling this story) and he’d built an amplifier, and Jimi tested it, but he didn't want it because “it's not dirty enough, man.” The Limiter for Pete Townsend, that was something he was very proud of, the fact that he was still using it and it lasted so well. The Equalizer, which I have at home, which I might try to reverse engineer and make. 

JOSH

Were these mass produced things or did he just build one-offs, like what was a lot of this other gear?

LUCY

Yeah, it would have been very much made-to-order one-offs. They won't be [more than] like 10, 20, 30 of them out there, which is why I've been having a hard time finding some of Dad’s stuff.

JOSH

Somewhere there's an amp that says “Rush Electronics” and Jimi Hendrix said it was too clean.

LUCY

No, it “wasn't dirty enough, man.”

JOSH

When did [your Dad] first teach you anything about electronics, soldering or anything to do with the circuits? Do you have any early memories of that?

LUCY

I was looking after him...I came to be his [caretaker] because it used to just worry me that he was on his own. He wasn't well. I was spending a lot of time at his house and it was quite boring. I needed to be entertained, because my brain is always going at a million miles an hour. I saw the PepBoxes, like the parts for them, and I think the boxes were there, and all the circuit boards. He was [originally] going to do everything with my brother, but then my brother just lost interest. I just said to Dad, “Can you teach me how to do this?” And it was literally that. And then next thing I know he's teaching me and [we’ve] sold first the 10 or 20 that I helped him build to Macari's. They went in like 24 hours. It was really cool that something I'd done with him [succeeded] and people wanted them so badly.

JOSH

This might be a sensitive question and you don't have to answer if you don't want to, but I couldn't find any information on how your father passed away. Would you mind just sharing [about that]?

LUCY

He hadn't been very well for some time. He was a diabetic as well. It was just a sickness, a bug [that] didn't go away. Then on a Sunday he had a fall. I went to the hospital and saw him Monday and he was very delirious and he kept talking to me about plugging something into the computer? So, even to the end, his mind was really technical. You know, he was still thinking about stuff like that, which I felt was quite [a] comfort. I went home, and my Mum called me, told me to come [to the hospital], but wouldn't tell me why. All the way there in the cab, I was like, “If Dad lives, I'm going to do this with him, and that with him, and I'm going to be a better daughter,” but unfortunately he had already died by the time I got there. When I was a little girl, I used to say, “I'm your daughter, daddy,” before I could speak properly. I went and saw him and I whispered that in his ear and I gave him a kiss. So at least I got to say goodbye to him.

JOSH

That's really beautiful. I think he'd be so proud of you...How did you decide “I'm going to take this over and run with it”?

LUCY

I think I got scared. Dad’s gone. What am I going to do? I can't lose this knowledge. I just rushed the PepBoxes [to] sell them, just [as a] comfort. It made me feel close to him. 

JOSH

A lot of the reason I love the history of pedals is that they are kind of unnoticed...But they, for me, are like these connecting points to history. I have a pedal collection, and I pick this pedal up from 1960-something, and it is like a physical link to things that are gone. So it is comforting. For you, it is a quite literal connecting point to your father, which is something I've never run into. You do a beautiful job with the box. 

LUCY

I have a metal worker in Essex...He makes them off of an old drawing. Dad taught me how to do all the old drawings. So whereas a lot of people would know how to draw things on CAD, I don't know how to do that. I know how to hand draw like that, which is not good, ’cause nobody wants my hand drawings, but luckily my metal worker’s cool. He let me do it. He took pity on me. 

JOSH

Talk about the machine that you use.

LUCY

[I use] an engraving machine, so you have a template and then you have tools. So you put one tool down and the other, and then you follow the template. You have to get the machine to the right size...I have different templates for everything, [which] is time consuming.

JOSH

Now you use a specific transistor. Can you talk about that? 

LUCY

Yup, a germanium transistor, AC41s and AC19s. Dad was starting to play around with [AC19s] because they had a really good sound that he liked, but [we mainly use] mainly AC41s. I’m mainly using old stock, so some of these [transistors] could be 40 years old. So you really would be getting a sound that people...got originally, but they're very temperamental.

JOSH

The detail on this is really cool. The original cable out of the side--

LUCY

Yes. Apparently a lot of [builders] don’t do that?

JOSH

Everyone kind of stopped that around 1967. Yeah. I just love that you build it exactly like the old ones...So how hard is it to make one? Talk about how many you build at a time.

LUCY

Sometimes it’s five at a time. Sometimes it's ten. There have been times I have been more, like twenty, but never more than twenty at a time. I’ve got so used to [building pedals], it's not so hard now.

JOSH

What are your favorite parts about circuits and design and just the things that you do when you build these pedals?

LUCY

It's building, getting the PCBs (printed circuit boards) and putting [in] the resistors and capacitors and soldering and the wires and just putting it neatly [together]. I have actually cried over them before, when I was really late getting an order out and I couldn't get the engraving to look right…“Level” was slightly lower than the “Pep.” My Dad couldn’t see it, and my Mum couldn't see it, but I could see it...then I had a little cry. Mum just said, “Look, just send them out today,” and everyone loved them and they never noticed that the “Level” was lower than “Pep.” 

JOSH

That can be maddening...Do you ever have people say, “Why is it so expensive?”

LUCY

Only one person. It was a Canadian guy I was trying to sell to, [and he] said, “It's very expensive. No one is going to buy it at that price.” And I was like, “Well, actually people bought it all over the world at that price, thank you very much.”

JOSH

When you wake up and you need to knock five of these out or ten of these [PepBoxes], what's that look like for you? 

LUCY

Well, I get up and feed my cats, but I'm not a sad, crazy cat lady, but I do love my cats. There are two of them, brothers. They’re beautiful. I just go into the workshop and start off from the day before. So say, I'd have to finish doing the PCBs or solder or put them into all the other components, like the pots, potentiometers, and put all those in. Just basically keep building them until they're ready to test and I can send them off

JOSH

What would be like a dream for you of moving forward? Where do you see yourself in five years?

LUCY

Um, I thought I'd still be building the PepBox. I know that there's probably only so many I can sell because it's such a niche market. Getting on with this Limiter…[and] the pre-amp as well...I see myself in five years having reverse engineered or helped make all of these products, so I'd have an array of products for different things.

JOSH

Yeah. It has to feel very interesting for you carrying on this pedal with such an awesome history. 

LUCY

We're really, really proud of it...It keeps me close to Dad as well. I never feel as close to my Dad as much as when I'm sitting in the workshop with a soldering iron in my hands.