fuzz pedals. He asked if I wanted to go in with him. One day, though, he sud- denly dropped out, and I was left making these fuzztones... well, I didn’t actually make them, I took them to a contractor. Then, one day, Al Dronge, the founder of Guild Guitar Company, called and said he wanted to buy all of them. By that time, Jimi Hendrix was hot, so Al decided to call them Foxey Lady. Hendrix’s sound wasn’t based on a fuzz tone, so you must have had something else in mind... Well, everybody then wanted to emu- late Hendrix using his finger vibrato to create this sweet, long sustain. So what did you do about it? A fellow salesman at I.B.M. intro- duced me to an inventor at Bell Labs named Bob Myer. I asked him to design a distortion-free sustainer, which in those days, was a very difficult thing. I went to his lab to test a prototype, which had a little box plugged into it. I asked, “What’s that little box for?” He said, “It’s a simple one-transistor preamp; the output of the guitar isn’t enough to drive the circuit. I needed another stage.” I plucked the guitar and out came this loud-as-hell clean signal. I turned to Bob, amazed, and that box became the first Electro-Harmonix product – the LPB-1 signal booster. In those days, if you turned an amp up to 10, it was still clean. But with the LPB-1, not only would it get a lot louder, with extra headroom, but if you continued to turn it up, it went into overdrive. It was the first overdrive unit in the market. I sold hundreds of thousands of them. I then exhibited at my first N.A.M.M. show, I had a room at the Hilton, in Chicago, and people waited in line to see it. Hartley Peavey waited 15 minutes to see what all the fuss was about; he often tells a story of waiting to buy one, taking it back to his shop, opening it up, and incorporating it into his first hit amp! time, while you worked full-time for So I hired a guy to build them and IBM... started selling mail-order. Soon after s a child of four, Mike Matthews’ mother taught him I graduated from Cornell with an that, I quit IBM. undergraduate degree in Electrical Do you get nostaligic about the how to play classical-style piano. Formal lessons fol- Engineering and a Master’s in Business LPB-1 and maybe other early pedals? lowed; the child took to the instrument, and performed at Management. I also had a band – a really Well, we still sell a lot of LPB-1s even elementary-school concerts from the time he was in first grade. great R&B band and I was promoting now, 40 years later. The first thing I did His interaction with the instrument led to one of his fondest – a lot of rock and roll shows in those after it caught on was bring out a few days, and I was always interested in other things in that same small box. and most prescient – childhood memories; as a fourth-grader, some business. And I had three nice One was a little overdrive I called a Muff he was once again set to show his skills to classmates, but... job offers after college; one was to join Fuzz, because of its muffled sound. Texas Instruments in sales, and at that Others included the Screaming Bird “I was a wild kid! I got into some As a way to stay involved in music time they only had a sales staff of six, so Treble Booster, the Mole Bass Booster, trouble for climbing the rafters, and the and make some money for his effort, it was a great opportunity. I liked Dal- and later came the Big Muff. I called teacher punished me by not allowing while still studying at Cornell Uni- las, but IBM gave me an offer to work it the Big Muff because by then we’d me to perform. So I quit playing piano.” versity, Matthews worked as a concert in New York, and I just felt New York established the Muff name – and yes, I For the founder of Electro-Harmonix, promoter. Ever-vigilant of the nearby would have more opportunities for me was goofing with the name! that rebellious nature not only surfaced N.Y.C. music scene, as the guitar became to eventually go into my own business. A lot of stars use the Big Muff, like early, but later pushed him to discover dominant in popular music, Matthews And I still had the music itch; I wanted David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, and even rock and roll. saw opportunity as certain guitarists to play in a band again, but I also wanted Hendrix bought one early on. The Big “When I was in 11th grade, rock and rose to prominence. The sum total of to make money so my wife would have Muff Jimi bought was at Manny’s Mu- roll was just starting to get hot, and I his experience and keen eye were the a little nest egg while I was out trying sic. I knew Jimi, so I went over to where started playing around with boogie- essential basis in his career direction. to rock and roll! he was recording, and sure enough, he woogie licks on the piano, then rock Today, E-H effects are as popular as What’s the story behind your first had one on the floor, plugged in. and roll,” he said. “Then, when I went ever. So popular, in fact, the company pedal, the Linear Power Booster, or People still love that old sheet-metal to college, one of the first things I saw has just moved its operation to a new LPB-1? packaging in a die-cast box. was an all-black band playing R&B. 90,000-square-foot facility overlooking At that time, Fuzztones were really Is there a particular pedal you view So I started to play keyboards in that New York’s East River. popular – the Rolling Stones had released as a company cornerstone? style – funky stuff like Wilson Pickett, “Satisfaction,” and Maestro couldn’t Well, we have about 70 pedals, includ- early Isley Brothers, ‘Twist and Shout.’ When you started Electro-Harmo- build them fast enough. But there was ing some very popular ones like the Nobody did originals until the Beatles, nix, you operated like a lot of boutique this guy, Bill Birco, who ran a repair Holy Grail, Cathedral, and the POG II. then everything changed.” amp or pedal builders today – part- shop on 48th Street and was making I’d say right now, the POG II second-

50 Vintage Guitar December 2011 VintageGuitar.com Matthews with George Clinton. Matthews lends a funky piano groove to a recent jam.

generation octave generator is a bigger to thank you.” I said, “Thank me? For Sometimes, though, songs on the radio me called and said, “Mike, I need you to seller than the Big Muff. what?” He said, “Well, years ago, I was actually give me an idea of what to go do me a favor.” I says, “What?” “Well, Do you have a personal favorite? a student and I came to the N.A.M.M. into. Like the last few years in pop music, I got this band, I’ve got a guy that plays My favorites are the ones that sell show with my teacher, and you were that auto-tune effect has been really big. with his teeth, he’s really good and I need (laughs)! If musicians dig it, and it sells... very nice to me. You let me try all the So we brought out the V256 Vocoder, you to take them for three nights, and I’ll it all still comes down to business. Unless pedals. I’ve always remembered that.” which also has autotune. Sometimes I give them to you for 600 bucks.” I said, you make pedals that sell, you won’t About 10 years ago, as a favor to me, he think I hear one of our products – the “I’m giving you 600 bucks for nothing... have the money to come up with lick on “American Woman” sounds people are coming to see Chuck Berry.” new stuff. And I guess one of like a Big Muff to me, but I’m not He said, “Please Mike, I need a favor. my best skills is picking the sure if that’s what Randy Bachman You can have them for three nights, 500 right product – the next thing bucks.” So I figured I’d do him to go after. I have a pretty a favor, then he’d owe me one. good percentage of pedals So, after Chuck Berry did that have become successful. “...the lick on his first set, this other band, It’s easy to start designing Curtis Knight, went on. I went complicated stuff that goes “American Woman” off the stage – I was tired and on forever in design, then had to check the gate – when doesn’t sell, so I try and stick sounds like a Big the guys in my backup band to simple ones. said, “Mike, that guitar player How did you get involved is really great.” in making vacuum tubes? Muff to me...It’s That’s when I met Jimi. He In 1979, I got an invitation was a very mild-mannered to do an exhibit at the first simple, sweet, and guy – quiet. In those days his trade show in Russia open to style was just a very loose R&B; Western companies. Usually, my cockatoo always he didn’t develop his more I’d take just a guitar player to spacey style until he went off demonstrate pedals, but that sings along to it!” to England and changed his time I took a whole band! name to Jimi Hendrix. This was a huge trade show, used. I really like the lick. It’s simple, But yeah, we used to hang out a lot. it was scattered over several sweet, and my cockatoo always sings While I was working at IBM, I’d meet buildings in Sokolniki Park, along to it! Jimi at lunchtime a couple times a week. in Moscow. We demonstrated You mentioned Hendrix. You He had a room in a fleabag hotel in Times product, then three times a day, had a fairly close personal relation- Square, a small room with no bathroom, the band would do a set. When ship with him, right? there was a shared bathroom down the we started playing, the whole spent two days We used to hang out a lot, going back hall. I’d go up there and we’d talk music fairgrounds closed down and everybody in a studio creating audio demos of the to when I knew him as Jimmie James. In talk about bands and this and that. He would jam into this one building to see Holy Grail. And Jack White, in the film fact, he invited me to all of his recording was a loner, and I was a loner, but we these crazy Americans (laughs)! That This Might Get Loud, with Jimmy Page sessions in New York City. I met him were best friends for a while. Jimi always gig later led to talking with the Russian and The Edge, was shown using a Deluxe when I was promoting Chuck Berry and had his hair set with these pink curlers. companies that made vacuum tubes. It Memory Man. At the very beginning of he was the second act with a band called One night, Curtis Knight was playing was at this trade show I met the brilliant the movie, Jack takes a board and puts Curtis Knight and the Squires. a club on the west side, and on break, Jimi and beautiful Irusha Bitukova, and she some nails in it, runs a string across it, What was the connection? Was it was telling me how he wanted to quit, but has controlled all my business in Russia hammers a pickup onto it, plugs into a simply that you were the promoter, he was a little scared of Curtis, because ever since. Big Muff and an amp, and starts playing. and so into the music scene? he was a gangster. Jimi wanted to have Which players, through the years, Later in the film, he plays again through I was promoting Chuck Berry and I his own band and be a headliner. I said, have done the most to keep E-H ef- a Big Muff. had him for two nights at this big club “If you do that, you’ll have to sing.” He fects at the forefront? You mentioned Gilmour also used a Big Muff, and I’m in Long Island. Chuck cost a thousand said, “I know. That’s the problem... I can’t Gilmour... pretty sure Jimmy Page used an Electric bucks a night and also traveled alone, sing!” And I said, “Well, if you work on it, I think almost every star has used Mistress. There were so many, I forget so the promoter had to get a backup you can do it. Look at Mick Jagger, look some Electro-Harmonix pedal. John who used what. band. I got a friend’s band who were at Bob Dylan, they don’t really sing, they Frusciante, with Red Hot Chili Peppers, When you hear certain songs on really into Chuck’s music to play, and I just phrase stuff out, and they’re great.” used a lot of our stuff. In fact, I met him the radio, do you hear E-H effects? played keyboards. About a week before And I think my encouragement helped at a trade show, and he told me, “I want Yeah, but it’s hard to exactly pinpoint. the gig, the agent who booked Chuck for him to start singing. He had that same

1-800-844-1197 December 2011 Vintage Guitar 51 style – more about the Mig 50, was de- soulful phrasing – he signed by Tony Bruno. wasn’t really a singer. It was just really an Any other favorite upgrade mod of an anecdotes? early Fender amp. And This isn’t directly the other amps were connected to Electro- designed by Russian Harmonix, but when guys. When I first I played with a band sold Sovtek amps, the here in New York, this prices were very low guy who lived in my and the sound was apartment building great. We had orders named Bobby Co- for thousands. But lomby jammed with the Russian mechani- me, and eventually he cal quality was poor was one of the found- and too many of the ers of Blood Sweat and amps broke and so we Tears. He once asked if lost that opportunity. he could use my loft, Eventually, costs went which was the first up. So I stopped with Electro-Harmonix the amps and focused factory, to practice. on the pedals. And they did a cou- Matthews with an original Sovtek amp. The original ad for the E-H LPB-1. How long were you ple times. They then making amps? rented an adjacent The amps were all loft where they often made in Russia, from rehearsed. ’91 or ’92 until ’96 I’ve had plenty of or ’97. wild experiences... Day to day, what doing that gig in Rus- occupies your time sia, fighting racketeers at E-H? both in the United Well, first of all, I live States and in Russia... at the factory... and ups and downs. In ...Literally? the early ’80s, I went Yeah, I live at the fac- belly-up, bankrupt. tory, in a small room At the time, we were near my office. There, developing – and first I have a jacuzzi and to have – low-cost weird sleeping habits! samplers. So I intro- Ever since I started go- duced the Japanese ing to Russia in the late electronics company ’80s/early ’90s, in those Akai to the technology days I went four times and the designer. They a year, and my body went to dominate the clock switched. So I go sampler market for to sleep around 8 p.m. many years. I also and then at 11 p.m. or tried to get them to midnight, I wake up for get into random-access an hour, then go back recording. In those to sleep for an hour, get days, you could do 16 Matthews with a ton of pedals in the E-H warehouse. up for an hour... I walk bits – four tracks – for to my computer and five minutes. And they said, “No, no, tested them – they were good, but the They told me, “Mike, either we sell our answer my foreign e-mail in those see no. You need 16 tracks and 20 minutes.” pins were a little bit smaller, so you company to you or we sell it to Groove hours of the night. And if they’d listened to me, they’d could only push them in by hand, not Tubes, or we just close.” Do you spend much time on the be in business today and would have with automated insertion equipment. So that’s how I ended up buying factory floor? dominated a bigger part of the industry Still, I started developing a market the factory. Also, about that time I Oh, yeah, I’m constantly monitor- than samplers. But whatever... for these Russian ICs. Then, in 1988, noticed how the Electro-Harmonix ing what production is going do and How did that Russian trade show I went to visit the central Ministry of products I made in the ’70s were selling keep an eye on which products work, evolve to getting you into amps? Electronics. There, hanging on the wall, at multiples of what I had originally how our new designs are progressing. Before I went to Russia, we were was a display of vacuum tubes. And I sold them for – the vintage market There are about 10 guitar players in the already selling E-H pedals in Hungary, thought, “Vacuum tubes... those are was beginning. It was amazing, this company that check over designs and Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugo- used in guitar amps.” So I got samples new market in electronic musical make valuable comments. slavia – all communist countries. So I and took them to my friend, Jesse, who products had evolved. So I hooked up How many people work in the thought we’d do well in Russia. At the designed our early amps, and he tested with another Russian military factory factory? trade show, there were a lot of organiza- them. The tubes were good, so I started in St. Petersburg and gave them the We’ve got about 70 here in New York tions that wanted to buy products, but selling them. At that time, I was all plans for the Big Muff, the Bassballs in production, shipping, sales, account- had no money. So I started thinking alone – I had the tubes in my apart- pedal, and the Small Stone. They then ing, purchasing and marketing. on the business side, “Well, they need ment and I stopped with the ICs and laid out circuit boards, designed chas- But you’re still hands-on. money. What can I buy from Russia?” focused on tubes. That grew really fast, sis, designed a footswitch... And that’s I’m very hands on. Some people So my first idea was low-technology in- and by the early ’90s, the Soviet Union how I got back into Electro-Harmonix, think I’m a micro-manager. But tegrated circuits, because I’m a manu- had collapsed, the Russian military- and I eventually started making some I’m here 24 hours a day, except on facturer. We would use some integrated industrial complex collapsed, and they of the old stuff here in New York City weekends! circuits called Jellybeans, which cost were all looking for work. The tube and a lot of new stuff. What’s next on your plate? $.15 to $.20 each. Then, every year factory was part of a big electronics Now, it’s to the point where Electro- We just rolled out the Ravish Sitar, and a half or two, when a new round conglomerate – they made ICs, they Harmonix pedals are a much bigger and I really dig it. And shortly, we’ll of integrated circuits would come out, made military equipment, they made part of our business than vacuum unveil a new pedal line that will be as the prices would go up to a buck, two digital clocks, and they spun all these tubes. revolutionary as anything we’ve ever bucks. I figured if Russia made quality different companies into little pieces. Did Jess Oliver design Sovtek done. They’re code-named “Magic,” ICs, I would be able to make a killing The tube factory borrowed money from amps for you? and all I can say is, don’t touch that in those cycles. So I bought some ICs, a Russian bank and couldn’t repay it. No. Actually one of the early amps, dial, they’re game-changers!

52 Vintage Guitar December 2011 VintageGuitar.com