Del Casher

Del Casher is a guitarist whose name sits behind two pieces of gear history: the wah-wah pedal as guitarists know it, and the Ecco-Fonic tape echo. He worked for Vox as an artist demonstration guy, a Thomas Organ demonstrator and multi-instrumentalist who had already been featured on television shows like The Lawrence Welk Show and Green Acres¹². He did not invent the wah circuit, but he asked for it to be put in a pedal, and he was the first guitarist recorded playing one¹³.

The wah itself came out of accident and cost-cutting. Vox says the effect was discovered during the design of the VOX Super Beatle amplifier in 1966⁶. Thomas Organ engineer Brad Plunkett was assigned to find an inexpensive replacement for the amp's $4 Mid Range Boost transistorized switch, and he played with a 30 cent potentiometer, using it to adjust the tone instead². The Wah-Wah pedal was invented in November 1966 by Lester Kushner and Brad Plunkett working at Warwick Electronics, a division of Whirlpool that owned Thomas Organ Company and Vox⁷.

Demonstrating effects for Vox

Casher's contribution was to see what the new circuit meant for guitarists. Guitar.com's Huw Price reports that Casher claims he suggested using a Vox organ volume pedal instead of a control knob so guitarists could use the effect while playing⁸. In JHS Pedals' telling of Casher's own account, the request was direct:

The effect needed a champion once it existed. As of 1967 it still wasn't a hit with guitar players, so Casher decided to cut a demo record to show how it worked on a guitar¹. Not everyone was convinced along the way. JHS Pedals recounts that Casher was told by James Brown that the wah pedal was pointless and it wouldn't be cool, which, as the writer puts it, "just goes to show that even our heroes can be wrong occasionally"¹.

The "Crybaby" demo record

Two recordings mark Casher as the first guitarist to record with the effect:

Stompbox Book describes him as the Thomas Organ demonstrator who convinced Vox to record an album of him using the wah, becoming the first guitarist to be recorded using the company's newly minted effect³. The following month he went further on his own with the demo 45, recorded with session drummer Jimmy Troxell, laying the tracks quickly:

The effect found its audience soon after:

• Eric Clapton used it on Cream's "Tales Of Brave Ulysses"²
• Jimi Hendrix used it on "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)"²
• Jimmy Page used it on Led Zeppelin's "Dazed And Confused"²

JHS Pedals notes that in a 2019 interview in Casher's living room, they asked him if he was aware that his creation ended up being used by guys like Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton¹.

Echo design and the movable playback head

Before the wah, Casher was already working with tape echo. He advised Tubin on the Ecco-Fonic's movable playback head design, an idea he described to Vintage Guitar:

The point of the swinging head was speed: the echo could be set to any speed while keeping the tape speed constant at 7.5 IPS to avoid wow and flutter⁵. Casher used the Ecco-Fonic for years in his studio and recorded with it all the time, including:

• a production with Frank Zappa around 1965⁵
• the New Zoo Review television show for children in the 1970s, where he used it quite a lot because only four musicians were on the recording sessions⁵

He took the prototype to Las Vegas and then Japan in December 1959, performing with the Three Suns⁵. Alongside Casher, the Ecco-Fonic won the endorsements of country music star Hank Thompson and "Western Ranch Party" star Joe Maphis⁵.

The Japan trip produced a longer echo of its own. A roadie there who rented the Three Suns a Hammond B-3 and repeatedly tried to buy Casher's Ecco-Fonic turned out to be Mr. Kakehashi, president of Roland⁵. Vintage Guitar also credits Casher with an association with Roland's first guitar synth, alongside the Vox Wah-Wah and Elvis' Roustabout, pointing readers to Willie Moseley's interview in the January and February 1997 issue of VG for the full account⁵.

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