page_title: Electro-Harmonix
section_title: Change of direction
hierarchical_section_title: Electro-Harmonix / Company history / Change of direction
caption_attribution_description: English: Four Electro Harmonix KT88 power tubes. The amplifier they are installed in is a Traynor YBA-200. The yellow glow is from the heater, the blue glow is from LED backlighting. Deutsch: Vier Electro Harmonix KT88 Endstufenröhren, installiert in einem Verstärker Traynor YBA-200.
context_page_description: Electro-Harmonix is a New York-based company that makes high-end electronic audio processors and sells rebranded vacuum tubes. The company was founded by Mike Matthews in 1968. It is best known for a series of popular guitar effects pedals introduced in the 1970s and 1990s. Unknown to most people, EH also made a line of guitars in the 70's.
  During the mid-1970s Electro-Harmonix established itself as a pioneer and leading manufacturer of guitar effects pedals. Electro-Harmonix was the first company to introduce, manufacture, and market affordable state-of-the art "stomp-boxes" for guitarist and bassists, such as the first stomp-box flanger, the first analog echo/delay unit with no moving parts, the first guitar synthesizer in pedal form, and the first tube-amp distortion simulator. In 1980, Electro-Harmonix also designed and marketed one of the first digital delay/looper pedals and a line of guitars in the 70's.
context_section_description: Electro-Harmonix stopped making pedals in the mid-1980s, and in the early 1990s started selling vacuum tubes re-branded with its name for guitar amplifiers, which it had also been making since the 1970s. However, due to demand and the high prices guitarists were paying for old 1970s pedals on the vintage market, it reissued the more popular old pedals in the mid-1990s, including the Big Muff Pi and Small Stone. In 2002 it started designing new pedals to add to its range. Company policy was that all reissued effects remained as close as possible to the original, vintage designs; however, casings, knobs and especially the old-fashioned mini-jack power plug were not up to later standards. In 2006 the smaller and more standardized "micro" and "nano" effect lines using surface-mount circuit components were introduced. Circuit board manufacture was outsourced, and the pedals assembled in New York.
caption: Electro-Harmonix Tubes (KT88)
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