First opamp or chip effect

[Toddy]

I know somebody here will know this. You folks are hard to stump.
What was the first effect pedal to use a chip or opamp? And, what was the number on it (the opamp)?

I know the first mass produced consumer product with a voice chip was the TI Speak and Spell. I have one and it is still cool to play with, especially when you spell curse words. I know some guys who have taken chips from video games and made effects from them.

Thanks for your expertise. (Psst, Mark Hammer, do you know this one? You're pretty good at trivia.)

Thanks,
Toddy

[R.G.]

The first integrated opamp with wide distribution was the 709, followed soon by others; the first easily usable, internally compensated opamp with wide usage was the 741. I'd bet a modest sum that the first effects opamp was the 741, but that's just a guess.

[frequencycentral]

The first integrated opamp with wide distribution was the 709,

Not a guitar effect, but more of a 'noisy box', the Kraakdoos used a 709: http://www.eam.se/kraakdoos/

[teemuk]

Do those epoxy-potted modules count?  
e.g.


Didn't they appear before OpAmps were used in a larger scale?

[R.G.]

Do those epoxy-potted modules count? 

Didn't they appear before OpAmps were used in a larger scale?

Then there were the Philbrick 12AX7 based opamps, even earlier.

[Solidhex]

Do those epoxy-potted modules count? 

Didn't they appear before OpAmps were used in a larger scale?

Then there were the Philbrick 12AX7 based opamps, even earlier.

Ha. Someone build a tube screamer with one! Much more mojo than the jrc!

[Toddy]

OK, then. With the hypothesis that the 741s were probably the first OpAmp chip, then my guess is that they were by Texas Instruments. Then another hypothetic guess comes from that, that an American company like MXR made the first chip effects. Just a stab in the dark. I know the Electro Harmonix Pulsar, the first version with the 741, came out around that time, also.

The historical aspects of pedal development intrigue me and give each pedal a significant design logic that is often lost or forgotten. If those same pedals were made today instead of 30 or 40 years ago they would probably be totally different. It adds to why and how certain musicians creatively used the tools available at hand at the time to write what have become musical anthems that may have sounded totally different if they wrote them today.

Teemuk, what is that effect with the big orange epoxy module thingy in it?

Holy crap. I hope I didn't bore you with my philosophical rant.

Toddy

[Mark Hammer]

This'll be a tricky one.  There is much documentation and debate about "firsts" in the pedal world, but most of those transpired when things were all discrete.  All of those early things from Maestro, Shin-Ei and EHX were all discrete.  The Uni-Vibe was discrete and a great many of the other effects were too.  Likely the only effects that would not have appeared first in a discrte form would have been the time-based ones, like flanging and chorus, although discrete reverb circuits certainly abounded.  But no one has really spent all that much effort noting when chips entered.  I find it hard to believe that something like the MXR Distortion+ would have been the first chip-based effect, but I gotta tell ya, I'm racking my brains to find another.

I think we should also consider that chip-based EQ or tremolo - even if in an amp - counts too.  We shouldn't focus our gaze too much on things like distortion.

[teemuk]

Teemuk, what is that effect with the big orange epoxy module thingy in it?

A Rosac Nu-Fuzz. ...Or basically just a rebranded Mosrite Fuzzrite.

The story is that the Fuzzrite effect became so popular that Mosrite hired Sprague to make those epoxied modules (carrying the Fuzzrite circuit) and they were sold to many different companies like Guild and Electro-Harmonix who used them in their pedals. You can bump into these SM001/MM001 modules carrying at least Mosrite, Rosac and Sprague/Sierra labels. Rosac was a company founded by Ed Sanner, who was a former employee of Mosrite and the designer of the original Fuzzrite.

[tiges_ tendres]

What about the Gretsch Contro-Fuzz?  What year did that come out?