It's All A Little Fuzzy
- lonamark
- Jun 3, 2024
- 1 min read
Many of us have experienced it. Some have played with it. Generations love it but did we realize that "Guitar distortion in Marty Gibbins 1961 song "Don't Worry" was due to an electrical fault in the guitarist's amp? Other musicians sought to recreate this "fuzz" sound leading to the first purpose-designed commercial distortion circuit being released in 1962." Source
Grady Martin played that bass guitar heard in Robbins' "Don't Worry."
Now listen to Martin's "The Fuzz." https://youtu.be/aL6MNGHeEuI
Engineer and recording studio owner, Glenn Snoddy, is credited with inadvertently producing the first Fuzz tone while producing "Don't
Worry" in 1961.
Now I ask...WAS "Don't Worry" the first recording with distorted bass guitar!?!!
According to "Ride the Feedback: A Brief History of Guitar Distortion", published on vice, Leo Fender got ahold of the 10-watt amp in 1947 and created the Super Amp, pushing it to 18-watts.
"Guitarists across the country scrambled to get their hands on a Super, quickly discovering that the device had something unintentionally beautiful to offer. When you turned its volume up all the way, the amp went into overdrive, wrapping guitar notes in fuzzy distortion."
Click Ride the Feedback: A Brief History of Guitar Distortion (vice.com) to read this article in its entirety. At the risk of showing my age, be forewarned that there is language and 'sensory language' and flashing images and, of course,
Rock 'n' Roll!!!
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