Misplaced Pages

#805194

50-569: In the late 1950s, guitarist Link Wray began intentionally overdriving his vacuum tube amplifiers to create a noisy and "dirty" sound for his solos after an accidental discovery. Wray also poked holes in his speaker cones with pencils to further distort the tone, used electro-mechanical echo chambers (then usually employed by singers), the recent powerful and "fat" Gibson humbucking pickups , and controlled "feedback" ( Larsen effect ). The resultant sound can be heard on his influential 1958 instrumental , " Rumble " and Rawhide. In 1961, while recording

100-644: A Grammy Trustees Award for lifetime achievement in 1970, the Polar Music Prize in 2001 and a Special Merit/ Technical Grammy Award in 2002. In 2012, to celebrate Moog's birthday, Google created an interactive version of the Minimoog as its Google Doodle . In 2013, Moog was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame . On July 18, 2013, Moog's widow Ileana Grams-Moog announced plans to donate Moog's archives, maintained by

150-464: A touchscreen -operated piano. Moog married Shirley May Leigh on June 15, 1958. They had four children, Laura (1961), Renée (1963), Michelle (1967), and Matthew (1970). They divorced in 1994. On May 19, 1996 Moog married Ileana Grams. Moog was diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme brain tumor on April 28, 2005. He died on August 21, 2005, at the age of 71 in Asheville, North Carolina . He

200-577: A Go Go in Los Angeles from May 15–19, 1974. He later did numerous concerts and radio broadcasts in the Bay Area, including at KSAN and at promoter Bill Graham 's Winterland Ballroom venue, with Les Lizama later replacing Hutchinson on bass. He toured and recorded two albums with retro- rockabilly artist Robert Gordon in the late 1970s. The 1980s to the present day saw a large number of reissues as well as new material. One member of his band in

250-427: A PhD in engineering physics at Cornell University . He developed his synthesizer in response to demand for more practical and affordable electronic-music equipment, guided by suggestions and requests from composers. Moog's principal innovation was the voltage-controlled oscillator , which uses voltage to control pitch . He also introduced fundamental synthesizer concepts such as modularity , envelope generation and

300-442: A debilitating recession. Moog remained employed as a designer at the company until 1977. He said that he would have left earlier if his contract had not required him to remain employed there for four years to cash his stock. By the end of the decade, Moog Music was facing competition from cheaper, easier-to-use instruments by competitors including ARP , Aries, Roland , and E-mu . In 1978, Moog moved to North Carolina and founded

350-459: A follow-up to 1958's "Rumble", and "Whole Lotta Talking", recorded in 1970. The recordings were issued as a 45rpm single in April 2018. Easy Eye released another 45rpm single of newly discovered/unreleased material for RSD 2019, "Vernon's Diamond" b/w "My Brother, My Son". "Vernon's Diamond" was recorded circa 1958-59 and is an early version of "Ace of Spades", and "My Brother, My Son" was recorded at

400-668: A gang fight. Before, during, and after his stints with major labels Epic and Swan , Wray released 45s under many names. Tiring of the corporate music machine, he began recording albums using a three-track studio he converted from an outbuilding on his brother's property that his father used to raise chickens, in Accokeek, Maryland . He wrote and recorded the LP Link Wray (1971), on which he wrote about his frustrations. The Neville Brothers have recorded two tracks from it, "Fallin' Rain" and "Fire and Brimstone". While living in

450-410: A guitar." Mark E. Smith of The Fall wrote in his autobiography: "The only people I ever really looked up to were Link Wray and Iggy Pop... Guys like [Wray] are very special to me." Iggy Pop and Neil Young have also cited Wray as an influence on their work. Bob Dylan refers to Wray in his song "Sign Language", which he recorded as a duet with Eric Clapton in 1975: "Link Wray was playin' on

500-511: A juke box I was payin'/ for the words I was saying, so misunderstood/he didn't do me no good" Both Dylan and Bruce Springsteen performed Wray's tune "Rumble" in concert as a tribute to the influential musician upon his 2005 death. In 2007, musician Steven Van Zandt inducted Link Wray into the Native American Music Hall of Fame with a tribute performance by his grandson Chris Webb and Native artist Gary Small. Wray

550-650: A keyboard, dubbing his creation the Clavivox . Moog married in 1958 and continued building and selling theremin kits from his own home in Ithaca , before establishing the company's first commercial space at 41 East Main Street in Trumansburg, New York in 1963, all while continuing to pursue his postgraduate education . At Cornell, Moog began work on his first synthesizer components with composer Herb Deutsch . At

SECTION 10

#1732793289806

600-500: A new electronic instrument company, Big Briar. He also worked as a consultant and vice president for new product research at Kurzweil Music Systems from 1984 to 1988. In the early 1990s, he was a research professor of music at the University of North Carolina at Asheville . In 2002, he renamed Big Briar to Moog Music after retrieving the rights to the name. In later years, he continued to design electronic instruments, including

650-415: A poor businessman. Moog had pursued the development of his synthesizer as a hobby, stressing that he was regarded as a businessman but had not known what a balance sheet was. He likened the experience to a theme park ride: "You know you're not going to get hurt too badly because nobody would let you do that, but you're not quite in control." Moog only patented his filter design; David Borden , one of

700-542: A year. His stay concluded with the removal of a lung, which doctors predicted would mean he would never be able to sing again. Building on the distorted electric guitar sound of early records, Wray's first hit was the 1958 instrumental " Rumble ". The record was first released on Cadence Records (catalog number 1347) as by "Link Wray & His Ray Men". "Rumble" was banned in New York and Boston for fear that it would incite teenage gang violence, "rumble" being slang for

750-552: The Boy Scouts , and especially enjoyed spending time with his father, a Consolidated Edison engineer , visiting Manhattan 's Radio Row and working on radio and electronics projects. He became fascinated by the theremin , an electronic instrument controlled by moving the hands over radio antennae . In 1949, at the age of 14, he built a theremin from plans printed in Electronics World . He graduated from

800-682: The Bronx High School of Science in 1952. He earned a Bachelor of Science in physics from Queens College of the City University of New York in 1955, and a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science under a 3-2 engineering program in 1957. He earned a PhD in engineering physics from Cornell University in 1965. In 1953, Moog produced his own theremin design, and in

850-613: The FZ-1S Super-Fuzz, which had a distinctly different look and sound than previous Fuzz-Tone models. Gibson briefly re-issued the Maestro FZ-1A Fuzz-Tone in the 1990s, but later discontinued the model. It has not been manufactured since. Other brands have offered models attempting to replicate the sound of the FZ-1 and FZ-1A. In 2022, Gibson announced a new lineup of Maestro-branded effects pedals, including

900-682: The Ku Klux Klan . Wray later said: "The cops, the sheriff, the drugstore owner—they were all Ku Klux Klan. They put the masks on and, if you did something wrong, they'd tie you to a tree and whip you or kill you." His family listed themselves as White on census records. Three songs Wray performed during his career were named for Indigenous peoples: "Shawnee", " Apache ", and "Comanche". Wray lived with his family in Portsmouth, Virginia from 1942 until 1955. He and his brothers Ray and Doug (born July 4, 1933 – died April 29, 1984) drove cabs during

950-579: The Marty Robbins song " Don't Worry ", a fuzzy tone accidentally caused by a faulty preamplifier in Bradley Studio B 's mixing console distorted session musician Grady Martin 's guitar part. Later that year Martin recorded an instrumental tune under his own name using the same faulty preamp. The song, released on the Decca label, was called "The Fuzz", and Martin is generally credited as

1000-546: The RCA Mark II , had created sound from hundreds of vacuum tubes . Instead, Moog used recently available silicon transistors with an exponential relationship between input voltage and output current . With these, he created the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), which generates a waveform with a pitch that could be adjusted by changing the voltage. Similarly, he used voltage to control loudness with voltage-controlled amplifiers (VCAs). One innovative feature

1050-582: The RCA Synthesizer introduced a decade earlier, and much cheaper, at US$ 10,000, as compared to the six-figure sums of other synthesizers. Whereas the RCA Synthesizer was programmed with punchcards , Moog's synthesizer could be programmed with knobs and patch cables and played via keyboard, making it attractive to musicians. New Scientist described it as the first commercial synthesizer. At this time, Moog and then Fred Cochran constructed

SECTION 20

#1732793289806

1100-423: The pitch wheel . He is credited with introducing synthesizers to a wider audience and influencing the development of popular music . Moog pursued his work as a hobby, and he is regarded as a poor businessman. His only patent was on his transistor ladder filter design; commentators have speculated that he would have become extremely wealthy had he patented his other innovations, but that their availability in

1150-482: The public domain helped the synthesizer industry flourish. In 1971, Moog sold Moog Music to Norlin Musical Instruments , where he remained as a designer until 1977. In 1978, he founded the company Big Briar, and in 2002 he renamed it Moog Music after reacquiring the rights to the name. In later years, Moog taught at the University of North Carolina at Asheville and continued designing instruments for

1200-620: The 1980s, session drummer Anton Fig , later became drummer in the CBS Orchestra on the Late Show with David Letterman . In 1994, he played on four songs of the album Chatterton by French rocker Alain Bashung . He went on to release two albums of new music: Shadowman (1997) and Barbed Wire (2000). In November 2017, Easy Eye Records announced the future release of two recently discovered recordings, "Son of Rumble", presumably

1250-570: The ADSR envelope shape), and Wendy Carlos . His other early customers included choreographer and composer Alwin Nikolais and composer John Cage . Universities established electronic music studios with Moog synthesizers. In 1970, Moog released the portable fixed-architecture Minimoog , described as the most famous and influential synthesizer in history. Though commentators have praised Moog's engineering abilities, some have also described him as

1300-545: The Bob Moog Foundation, to Cornell University . The foundation offered her $ 100,000 but Grams-Moog would not sell the archives. She felt that Cornell could provide better access for researchers and that the foundation had not made enough progress toward a planned museum to be worthy of maintaining the collection. The foundation responded that it had sufficiently preserved the collection and had made efforts to improve storage, although it could not yet afford to build

1350-542: The Fuzz-Tone FZ-M. This version features a new housing and two different fuzz circuits, one of which is designed to sound like the original FZ-1. Link Wray Fred Lincoln " Link " Wray Jr. (May 2, 1929 – November 5, 2005) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist who became popular in the late 1950s. His 1958 instrumental single " Rumble ", reached the top 20 in the United States; and

1400-539: The Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone in 1962, the first commercially available fuzzbox to gain widespread acceptance, and U.S. patent 3,213,181 was issued to Snoddy and Hobbs on October 19, 1965. The Maestro FZ-1 contained a three germanium transistor circuit with RCA 2N270 devices, powered by two 1.5-volt batteries, and a lead cable to connect it to an instrument (bass as it was originally intended, or guitar). Germanium devices are temperature sensitive, and

1450-569: The Maestro featured prominently on the intro and main riff of the Rolling Stones ' 1965 hit " (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction . Stones guitarist Keith Richards had laid a FZ-1 scratch track to guide an intended but never used brass section, but against Richards’ wishes, the scratch track remained. The popularity of Satisfaction caused every Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone to sell out as it became a favorite of many garage rock and psychedelic bands of

1500-537: The San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1970s, Wray was introduced to Quicksilver Messenger Service guitarist John Cipollina by bassist James "Hutch" Hutchinson . He subsequently formed a band initially featuring special guest Cipollina along with the rhythm section from Cipollina's band Copperhead, bassist Hutch Hutchinson, and drummer David Weber. They opened for the band Lighthouse at the Whisky

1550-562: The day while working at night clubs in the Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia area. Wray's first bands, The Lucky Wray Band and The Palomino Ranch Gang, formed in Portsmouth and included brothers Ray, Doug, and Vernon (born January 7, 1924 – died March 26, 1979) and two other musicians, Dixie Neal and Shorty Horton. Wray served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War (1950–53). He contracted tuberculosis , which hospitalized him for

Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone - Misplaced Pages Continue

1600-531: The discoverer of the "fuzz effect." Shortly thereafter, the American instrumental rock band The Ventures asked their friend, session musician and electronics enthusiast Orville "Red" Rhodes for help recreating the Grady Martin "fuzz" sound. Rhodes offered The Ventures a fuzzbox he had made, which they used to record "2000 Pound Bee" in 1962. As "Don't Worry” topped the country charts and crossed over to

1650-536: The early 1960s laid the blueprints for " heavy metal , thrash, you name it." "Rumble" facilitated the emergence of " punk and heavy rock", according to Jeremy Simmonds. Wray has influenced a wide range of artists. Jimmy Page described Link Wray as having a "real rebel attitude" and credited Wray in the documentary It Might Get Loud as a major influence in his early career. According to Rolling Stone , Pete Townshend of The Who once said, "If it hadn't been for Link Wray and 'Rumble,' I never would have picked up

1700-472: The effect responds to the incoming signal's amplitude (volume) consistently. Upon release, Gibson/Maestro made a demonstration disc available, featuring sound samples of the different settings of the pedal and guitar combination, emphasising the "brass-like" quality of certain tones. The circuit made its way into the body of Gibson's EB-0F "fuzz basses" (circa 1964). Sales of the Maestro FZ-1 jumped after

1750-546: The first users of the Minimoog, felt that if Moog had patented his pitch wheel design, he would have become extremely wealthy. According to Sound on Sound , if Moog had created a monopoly on other synthesizer ideas that he created, such as modularity, envelope generation and voltage control, "it's likely the synth industry as we know it today would never have happened." Beginning in 1971, Moog Music absorbed investors, merged with Norlin Musical Instruments and moved to "less than ideal" premises near Buffalo, New York , amid

1800-513: The following year, he published an article on the theremin in Radio and Television News . That same year, he founded R.A. Moog Co. , building theremins and theremin kits in his parents' home and selling them via mail order . In 1956, Moog and his father visited Raymond Scott 's Manhattan Research facility, and Scott purchased a Moog Model 305 theremin. Scott rewired the Moog theremin to be controlled by

1850-563: The inventor of the first commercial synthesizer , the Moog synthesizer , which debuted in 1964. In 1970, Moog released a more portable model, the Minimoog , described as the most famous and influential synthesizer in history. Among Moog's honors are a Technical Grammy Award , received in 2002, and an induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame . By 1963, Moog had been designing and selling theremins for several years while working toward

1900-599: The museum. In August 2019, the Bob Moog Foundation opened the Moogseum, a museum dedicated to Moog's work, in Asheville, North Carolina. The displays include rare theremins, prototype synthesizer modules and Moog's documents. Moog has been the subject of books about his life and work, including the 2004 book Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer by Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco and

1950-482: The pop charts, the unique sound of the faulty mixing console channel rapidly became sought after in Nashville studios, but the transformer had failed completely, so recording engineer Glenn Snoddy partnered with fellow WSM radio engineer Revis V. Hobbs to design and build a stand-alone device that would intentionally create the fuzzy effect. The two engineers sold their circuit to Gibson , who introduced it as

2000-523: The revived Moog Music. He died at the age of 71 in Asheville from a brain tumor. Robert Moog was born at Flushing Hospital in New York City on May 23, 1934. His father was George Conrad Moog, of German descent. His mother was Shirley (Jacobs) Moog, of Polish-Jewish descent. He was raised in Flushing , Queens . When he was a boy, Moog's mother forced him to study the piano. He was active in

2050-525: The same sessions as "Whole Lotta Talking" in 1970. Wray's first three marriages, to Elizabeth Canady Wray, Ethel Tidwell Wray, and Sharon Cole Wray, produced eight children. In the early 1980s, Wray relocated to Denmark and married Olive Poulsen, who became his manager. Wray died of heart failure at his home in Copenhagen , on November 5, 2005, at the age of 76. He was survived by his nine children, 24 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Wray

Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone - Misplaced Pages Continue

2100-521: The so-called Moogtonium for the composer Max Brand. It is still operational and exhibited in the Langenzersdorf_Museum near Vienna (Austria). Moog described himself as a toolmaker designing things for his users, not himself. His development was driven by requests and suggestions from various musicians, including Deutsch (who devised the instrument's keyboard interface), Richard Teitelbaum , Vladimir Ussachevsky (credited with devising

2150-421: The time, synthesizers were enormous, room-filling instruments; Moog hoped to build a more compact synthesizer that would appeal to musicians. He believed that practicality and affordability were the most important parameters. In 1964, Moog began creating the Moog modular synthesizer. It was composed of separate modules that created and shaped sounds, connected by patch cords . Previous synthesizers, such as

2200-741: The time. Other early fuzzboxes include the Mosrite FuzzRITE, and the Sola Sound Tone Bender MkI . A few years later others followed, such as the Arbiter Group Fuzz Face used by Jimi Hendrix , the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi used by Carlos Santana . In late 1965, the FZ-1 circuit was revised, using 2N2614 or 2N2613 transistors, with pertinent biasing network, powered by a single, 1.5-volt battery. This updated model

2250-462: Was a featured collaborator on Robert Gordon 's 1977 single " Red Hot " (Private Stock 45–156). The single peaked at No. 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Robert Moog Robert Arthur Moog ( / m oʊ ɡ / MOHG ; May 23, 1934 – August 21, 2005) was an American engineer and electronic music pioneer. He was the founder of the synthesizer manufacturer Moog Music and

2300-559: Was cremated, and his ashes were buried in the crypt of the Christian's Church, Copenhagen . Link Wray's 1950s recordings "straddled country and rockabilly ". He later performed surf influenced garage rock in the 1960s, swamp rock and country rock in the early 1970s and hard rock in the late 1970s and onward. Wray is credited with inventing the power chord . According to AllMusic 's Cub Koda , Wray's instrumental recordings starting with "Rumble" through his Swan singles in

2350-457: Was its envelope , which controls how notes swell and fade. According to the Guardian , Moog's 1964 paper Voltage-Controlled Music Modules , in which he proposed the Moog synthesizer modules, invented the modern concept of the analog synthesizer . Moog debuted the instrument at the 1964 Audio Engineering Society convention in New York. It was much smaller than other synthesizers, such as

2400-905: Was one of the earliest songs in rock music to utilize distortion and tremolo . Rolling Stone ranked Wray at No. 45 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. He received two nominations for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame , prior to being inducted in the Musical Influence category in 2023. Wray was born on May 2, 1929, in Dunn, North Carolina , to Fred Lincoln Wray Sr. and Lillian Mae (née Coats), whom her son identified as being of Shawnee descent. He recalled living in very harsh conditions during childhood, in mud huts, without electricity or heating, going to school barefoot, barely clothed. He recounted that his family experienced discrimination, including times when they had to hide from

2450-517: Was re-designated as the FZ-1a , keeping the same wedge shaped enclosure as the original FZ-1. In 1968, the FZ-1 was updated again with a different look and sound, with a circuit designed by Robert Moog using a 9-volt power supply and alternatively two or four silicon transistors , and designated the Maestro FZ-1B . The FZ-1B went through three circuit revisions. In the 1970s Maestro introduced

2500-645: Was survived by his second wife Ileana, four children, one stepdaughter and five grandchildren. Moog has had a lasting influence on music. The BBC describes him as a pioneer of synthesized sound. According to the Guardian , his inventions "changed the complexion of the pop and classical music worlds." Moog's name became so associated with electronic music that it was sometimes used as a generic term for any synthesizer. Moog's awards include honorary doctorates from Polytechnic Institute of New York University ( New York City ), Lycoming College ( Williamsport, Pennsylvania ) and Berklee College of Music . He received

#805194