Before the distortion pedals and fuzz pedals that later filled shop walls, there were custom boxes built one at a time for session players. This is one of them: a distortion pedal that Roger Mayer built for Jimmy Page, first made in 1964, when Page was working as a London session guitarist1.
What it does
The pedal distorts the guitar's signal, and its defining feature is simple: a switch that turns the distortion on and off. Page described the moment Mayer brought it to him1:
"I met this guy called Roger Mayer at a gig in Surbiton."
That on/off control is what players take for granted on every stompbox today, but at the time it meant a session guitarist could hit the distortion only where the part called for it, then drop back to a clean sound1.
How Page came to it
Page met Mayer at a gig in Surbiton, and Mayer went away and built the box for him1. Mayer first made pedals for Page in 19641.
The pedal made an impression in the studio. In Page's words:
"It was phenomenal," adds Page. "When I started taking it to sessions, the other guitarists were blown away."
Videos
Ron Houben
JapanVintageFX
Sources (1)
- Jimmy Page talks about Roger Mayer bringing the distortion pedal into his life, MusicRadar, 2019-09-19
Jimmy Page
