WEM Rush Pep Box

[redeyeflight]

Rad!

[peps1]

nice one! would love to see the trace side of the board...

+1

[Graham]

Simon might be in a position to add something following his recent interview / contact, but I understood that Pepe Rush was planning a reissue sometime - so a polite word might be sensible before releasing everything onto the web.

When I put up my thread on these pedals I was tempted to show the trace side - also several people here approached me asking that I stick up the shots (and two businesses who told me they were thinking of doing a clone) - (still do but for family reasons have been unable to progress my work very much the past 15 months)

But since I was hoping to eventually interview Pepe and had already also been in touch with Charlie Watkins who although elderly was still very much in business with his wife - albeit principally accordions. So I decided that it might be best to avoid upsetting them by doing anything that might have any bearing on either future business plans or possible copyright issues.

This is not me telling you what to do Ian - you should know me well enough by now and that I try to keep out of other peoples business and wouldn't dream of interfering (unless it's to help the odd small builder with one of my originals every now & then) - just that in my case I felt ill at ease specially since I knew Pepe was actively planning on doing them again, when I loaned you that Dizzy I felt it unlikely that they'd reissue those pedals again -

Although I didn't put so many posts up here in the last year or two - everyone can see how many pedals I "have" covered here - and the issue of possibly infringing anybodies business plans was often a private concern and the reason why I didn't always show all the stuff fully.

I think Bart had spoken to him about his plans for a reissue - and he is definitely planning a comeback as he has a website under construction http://www.rushamps.com/

Maybe he has already said something in Simon's new mag - I didn't get round to sending my money off yet - THOUGH WILL OF COURSE!!!!

It is interesting that another has shown up - they are extremely scarce in any form.

Mine (accessible through the link above - though you'll need to hunt down my "Project" fuzz & guitar elsewhere on the forum)

My two basic "pep" fuzzes look the same (apart from the logo area and method/material used - One is not so well biassed but the second is divine - almost identical to a fuzz face or most other early 2 tranny fuzzes - The project V is a totally different beast - a SUPER superfuzz (octave fuzz on steroids with its treble boost functions) My other 2 Rush pedals are an early little red wedge that is nice enough & probably a maestro like attempt and one of the "Lennon" style (called that from a piccie of one used in the Paperback Writer sessions - WEM RUSH Pepbox - in a shallower grey wedge with an engraved trafalite logo - That is the pedal that "Toop" (think that's the name of a guy who wrote an article on them - I stashed it somewhere on one of the forums) More of a ring modulator than fuzz though that might be poor biassing too!!

If Pepe reads this then please get in touch via PM - I would love to talk to you or even travel to meet up.

Cheers - Graham

[Electric Warrior]

The grey wedge and the two large boxes should have the same or very similar circuits. If it's any similar to the germanium version it should basically be a FZ-1 without the first stage. That's what I'm trying to confirm

I don't think the red "Fuzzy" pedal is an early attempt, though. It's based on the FZ-1A and has 11/66 date codes on the electrolytics...

[capricorn_1]

hey Graham no worries, I try my best not to tread on any toes!
I have also heard about a run of the Ge version (which this is very similar to! ) so I have no big immediate plans for this or anything!

[redeyeflight]

Hasnt JMI already done a clone of these?

[Electric Warrior]

Theirs seems to be a fuzz face like circuit with pepbox component values.

[Graham]

Theirs seems to be a fuzz face like circuit with pepbox component values.

I assume you are talking about their Studio pedal - I never saw one though I was asked if I'd let them take a look at mine - I politely refused despite some persistance on their chap adam's part - I was citing the previously mentioned reasons. I haven't ever spoken to anyone who bought one of theirs so couldn't say what they sound like

I heard later that there were problems finding the right circuit for that particular pedal but that eventually they scored an example from James Stevenson (James wasn't sure what it was he had on his hands - just some unnamed wedge [which I could have had for a song if I had kept my mouth shut! but James is a real nice guy!] - but anyway it was missing the nameplate & various other bits AND it had obviously received a fair bit of internal work so I left it alone telling him exactly what it was and saying that it was probably worth putting on to eBay as a non-original but still genuine Pepbox, Would still be a very rare pedal - I'm pretty sure James told me Justin had snapped it up so I'd guess he managed to get the "Studio" pedal of theirs a lot closer to the original. Maybe the earlier JMI ones are different - did you say fuzz face like? - to the later ones??

Eventually after gaining a new engraved Trafalite [pick guard laminate] label along the way (SUCH A COOL WAY TO DECORATE PEDALS) I believe it resold pretty well on eBay - recall having one or two mates give me a kick that I hadn't pointed it out to them when James had it on sale at a cool price - SORRY!

- my real straight one is super weird - gates like hell - that "Toop' pdf article I mentioned described theirs in precisely the same way calling it a "noisemaker" that he had grown very attached to - W hy I mentioned ring modulation like performance - I guess its like a scrambler in that it will respond very differently depending on what pickups or other pedals you have in line.. Personally I can't get on with my scrambler unless I use something in front - small booster or suchlike - to goose it up some.
G

[Electric Warrior]

Yes, I was talking about the Studio 2.
IIRC they released it months before they scored the pedal from Stevenson. I don't think they changed anything about it afterwards. The one they advertise on their site is still some PTP wired BC107 model that appears to be based on a Fuzz Face-ish toplogoy.
Jerms is the owner of the Stevenson pedal now: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=9881

have you tried adjusting the trimmer in your grey wedge?

[1bottlerocket]

Jerms made me a clone of his Pep Box and it is everything I expected, and then some. I find the circuit does gate and I can hear the MK I heritage in there. I absolutely love it, a big shout out to Jim on this one! I guess the only thing that could be an improvement, if you could call it that, would be original components. Saying that I wouldn't change a thing on the unit I have.

Yes, JMI did produce a run of these. I have seen and played a few locally but they didn't really do it for me.