FUZZ WAS THE FUTURE PART TWO: ACCIDENTS HAPPEN
Last month, I explained how a ride in my dad’s truck soundtracked by Marty Robbins’ 1959 LP Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs stoked my passion for music – and how, to my surprise, I later learnt how instrumental Marty was to the evolution of the guitar’s sound. This week, I want to break down exactly what happened during one of Marty’s should have-been-normal recording sessions and address why it ended up being one of the most important moments in music history. Yeah, I know that's a bold statement but stay with me.
Like many other milestones in guitar history, this one was an accident. It all starts in a New York factory, where a none-the-wiser technician put together three recording consoles before having one of them shipped to the Quonset Hut studio in Nashville.
Unbeknown to the recipients of this custom-ordered studio desk – Glenn Snoddy and brothers Harold and Owen Bradley – these consoles had a few issues – and by “a few”, I mean 35 improperly calibrated output transformers. As Glenn explained in an interview with NAMM’s program, “prior to making the transformers, they misjudged the windings somehow or other, and there were 250 volts going through the winding instead of the transformers, and one malfunctioned at the exact
