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Electro-Harmonix

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In the spring of 1968, a former IBM employee named Mike Matthews unveiled a small device at Chicago's NAMM Show that would quietly reshape guitar music forever. The LPB-1 Linear Power Booster—born from an discovery in a Bell Labs prototype testing facility—sold thousands of units through direct mail order within months, freeing Matthews to quit his day job and dedicate himself entirely to building effect pedals. It marked the beginning of Electro-Harmonix, a company that would become synonymous with some of guitar music's most iconic sounds: the sustain-heavy distortion of the Big Muff, the swirling phase sweeps of the Small Stone, and the spatial echoes of the Memory Man.

A New York Story

Mike Matthews was born to play piano. His mother taught him classical fundamentals as a child, but by eleventh grade, the boogie-woogie had taken hold, and rock and roll soon followed. He enrolled at Cornell University, where an all-black R&B group opened his ears to funkier keyboard styles—players like Wilson Pickett and the Isley Brothers became his models. Matthews made money during college by promoting concerts, gradually noticing how electric guitars dominated the New York City music scene he was beginning to inhabit.

The opportunity arrived with the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"—the hit that everyone wanted to cover. When guitarist Keith Richards used a Maestro fuzz pedal for the song's main riff, demand surged beyond the small company's ability to supply it. A local repair shop owner offered Matthews a partnership: they would build their own fuzz pedals. The partner eventually dropped out, leaving Matthews alone with the idea.

Matthews understood something critical about Jimi Hendrix's sound: the sustain came not from pedals but from finger vibrato, the way Hendrix bent notes and let them decay. He approached inventor Bob Myer at Bell Labs to design a "sustainer" effect that wouldn't produce distortion. But when Matthews visited Myer's lab, he was instead impressed by something else—a small, single-transistor preamp Myer was using to test prototypes. Pushed to overdrive even into clean amplifiers, the circuit sang.

With just $1,000, Matthews launched Electro-Harmonix in 1968 and exhibited Myer's preamp design as the LPB-1 at that year's NAMM Show in Chicago. The response was immediate. Thousands of units sold through mail order, and Matthews quit IBM to work full-time on guitar effects.

The Muff Fuzz and the Big Muff

The success of the LPB-1 spawned an entire product line built around the same compact form factor. The Muff Fuzz used a pair of transistors—named for its muffled sound quality—but in 1969, the company updated it to four transistors with the follow-up model: the Big Muff.

Guitarists noticed. Jimi Hendrix adopted it. David Gilmour adopted it. Soon, every guitarist who wanted sustain and harmonic richness had a Big Muff on their pedalboard. The brand's first major success arrived not from marketing but from sonic necessity—players discovering what this strange Russian-made transistor configuration could do to their tone.

But the Big Muff would prove only one chapter in Electro-Harmonix's story.

Phase Shifters, Delays, and Pitch Shifts

In 1974, another design shook the company. The Small Stone phase shifter was the first pedal created specifically for Electro-Harmonix by engineer David Cockerell—and it outsold even the Big Muff. The swirling, watery sweep of the phase effect became a signature sound across genres, with players finding ways to use it that Cockerell never anticipated.

Other hits followed: Memory Man delay effects (updated several times, including the Deluxe Memory Man with chorus/vibrato switches), Electric Lady flangers, and the POG pitch-shifting pedal. By 1978, Electro-Harmonix grossed $5 million and maintained offices in New York City, Toronto, London, and Tokyo.

But beneath this surface success lay financial fractures that would nearly destroy the company.

Bankruptcy and the Union

By 1982, Electro-Harmonix employed around two hundred people. Then a local trade union launched an aggressive campaign—few employees wished to join—and an alarmed financial backer pulled their funds. Matthews was forced to file for bankruptcy. He purchased the company back after selling some property, resumed production, but began losing ground rapidly to Japanese imports.

The situation became untenable when a Japanese parts supplier gave preference to Japanese effects companies over limited stock. Unable to manufacture certain pedals, Electro-Harmonix filed for bankruptcy again in 1984.

The Russian Turnaround

Mike Matthews pivoted toward business opportunities in Russia. He realized he could profit by exploiting significant price fluctuations of Russian-made integrated circuits—selling them to Western markets at a margin. By the late 1980s, vacuum tubes were considered obsolete technology, yet they remained popular among guitar amplifier manufacturers. Russia was one of the few places still producing them.

Matthews founded New Sensor Corporation and resold Russian vacuum tubes from his apartment. He contracted production under the Sovtek brand name—a brand that would eventually dominate guitar amplifier components worldwide. When the Russian military-industrial complex collapsed as the Cold War ended, Matthews purchased ProPul, the world's largest vacuum tube manufacturer, gaining ownership of brands like Mullard and Tung-Sol.

Within years, Sovtek became a major supplier to Marshall, Fender, and Mesa/Boogie—every major amplifier company wanted those Russian tubes. This success allowed Matthews to buy back the Electro-Harmonix name entirely and take advantage of growing vintage gear markets where original EHX pedals sold for significantly more than their original prices.

The Return to New York

Sovtek began releasing Russian-made versions of classic Electro-Harmonix pedals in 1992. They also produced amplifiers like the Mig 50, a modified Fender circuit. While sounds were good and costs remained low, reliability suffered—Matthews ceased amp production by 1997 to focus entirely on EHX's pedal line.

In 2000, Matthews returned production of Electro-Harmonix pedals to New York City, releasing both reissued classics and new designs. In 2006, the company introduced smaller "micro" and "nano" form factor effect lines using surface-mount circuit components—circuit boards were assembled in New York while manufacture was outsourced.

Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Electro-Harmonix faced a unique challenge: they were one of few American companies that didn't leave Russia. Matthews cited the irreplaceable expertise of his Russian employees in building vacuum tubes—the only other producer being Slovakia's JJ Electronics. Russia also exempted EHX from new export bans on certain products including vacuum tubes.

Had those restrictions been maintained, it would have spelled disaster for the audio market given Electro-Harmonix's dominant position supplying tubes to virtually every major amplifier manufacturer.

The Present and Future

Today, Electro-Harmonix produces pedals suitable for guitar, bass, vocal, keyboard, and other instruments—any instrument needing sound manipulation. They also sell rebranded vacuum tubes carrying the Electro-Harmonix brand name. The ExpoPul factory in Saratov, southwestern Russia employs over three hundred individuals, compared to approximately 125 staff in New York.

From that accidental preamp discovery at Bell Labs in 1968 to bankruptcy and resurrection across two decades of geopolitical upheaval, Electro-Harmonix has proven one of the music industry's most remarkable survival stories. The company continues releasing new pedals, reissuing classics, and building the strange, sustaining tone that Jimi Hendrix first imagined with his finger vibrato—over half a century ago.