Wayne Kramer

Well, back in the day, I had one of the first Fuzz-Tones. It must have been ’65 or ’66. That was the Maestro, and I was kind of underwhelmed with it. I thought it was a nice sound effect, but it didn’t really light a fire under me. I found I got a better sound by turning the amp up all the way. That natural harmonic tube distortion—that’s the sound I wanted.

So I got a DigiTech RP500, which is a multi-effects unit. This has the Whammy in it, along with every other effect that’s known to man—fuzz tones, delay, backwards chorus—you know, everything in one place. I won’t be bending over wriggling any cords, and I can pre-program it for the set I’m playing. And I’m using it now on the road.

Boss BD-2 Blues Driver is on his pedalboard in this post.

In this ‘Vintage Guitar’ article, originally from December 1998, Wayne Kramer says “I used a Big Muff distortion pedal and used that during the “Kick Out the Jams” era, since the wah-wah pedal hadn’t been perfected yet.”

‘Kick Out the Jams’ was recorded October 30 and October 31, 1968. It was released in February of 1969. “Kick Out the Jams” the single was released in March, 1969. The only Electro-Harmonix Big Muff available (in 1969) was the “Triangle” Muff. No “Ram’s Head” Muff existed until 1973. Therefore it is chronologically impossible that Wayne Kramer played a “Ram’s Head” during the “Kick Out the Jams” era. Moreover, the MC5 broke up in 1972 and since the “Ram’s Head” Big Muff didn’t exist until 1973, the “Triangle” Muff is the only Big Muff Wayne Kramer could possibly have been referring to having played during the entirety of MC5.