The fOXX Down Machine is a wah-wah pedal designed for bass guitar, made by Ridinger Associates Inc of Chatsworth, California, in the early 1970s and dated to 1974. TONEHOME describes it as "presumably the first Wah Wah designed for bass," which puts it in a small company: most wah pedals of the era were voiced for electric guitar, and a bass player looking for that sweep had little built for the instrument. It belongs to the wider family of wah-wah pedals and, more specifically, to bass pedals voiced for low-frequency instruments.1
Who made it and when
Ridinger Associates Inc built the Down Machine in Chatsworth, California, in the early 1970s, with the pedal itself dated to 1974. The company's pedals appeared under the fOXX name, and Dave Hunter, writing in Guitar Player, listed the Down Machine among the fOXX products as "a bass wah-wah."2
The Down Machine was made by Ridinger Associates Inc, based in Chatsworth, California, in the early 1970s.1
Why working examples are scarce
The Down Machine has a documented reliability problem. TONEHOME states that "for unknown reasons the capacitors had a strong tendency to dry out fast," which took many units out of service. The same source calls the repair "an easy fix," but the pedals often never got that far: during the 1980s and 1990s, before players became aware of how good the Down Machines really are, people trashed their non-working pedals.1
"Working units are pretty scarce today since for unknown reasons the capacitors had a strong tendency to dry out fast."
For anyone looking at a used example, that history matters twice over. A unit that still works has likely survived the capacitor failure that claimed so many others, and a non-working one may be repairable. Scarcity is the norm: working Down Machines are hard to find today.1
Questions
Is the fOXX Down Machine a bass wah?
Yes. TONEHOME describes the Down Machine as presumably the first wah-wah designed for bass, and Dave Hunter, writing in Guitar Player, called it a bass wah-wah. It was built to shape the lower range of a bass signal rather than the guitar-focused sweep of a standard wah.
Who made the fOXX Down Machine?
The Down Machine was made by Ridinger Associates Inc of Chatsworth, California, in the early 1970s. The company's fOXX pedals, including the Down Machine, appeared under the fOXX name, with the Down Machine dated to 1974.
How much did the fOXX Down Machine cost new?
The fOXX Down Machine carried a retail price of $69.95 USD in 1974, according to TONEHOME.
Why do fOXX Down Machine pedals stop working?
TONEHOME reports that, for unknown reasons, the capacitors in the Down Machine had a strong tendency to dry out fast, which took units out of service. The fix is described as an easy one, but many owners discarded non-working pedals in the 1980s and 1990s before the pedal's reputation grew.
Is a fOXX Down Machine hard to find today?
Yes. TONEHOME notes that working units are pretty scarce today, largely because of the capacitor failures and because many non-working pedals were thrown away in the 1980s and 1990s before players recognized how good the Down Machine is.
Sources (2)
- TONEHOME, TONEHOME, 1974
- The Foxx Tone Machine Was the Fuzz of Choice for Peter Frampton, Billy Gibbons, and Adrian Belew, GuitarPlayer (www.guitarplayer.com), 2021-11-15
