Welcome hardcore effects fiends! Behold the second best type of rare effect pedal. Why so? Because the very best type of rare pedal is well known, in addition to all its other attributes. However; it seems we're about to add , (slightly), to the mystique of this rascal, so pull up a chair. Here's how the old-timers tell it: Back in 1969 Ampeg Mfg. performed a little marketing experiment to see if there was a buck to be made, selling one of those increasingly popular Fuzz Boxes. The actual details seem to have slipped into the wind, but this much is fact: Somebody at Ampeg had a very progressive concept of signal processing, and the techno-chops to design, and build their ideas. The circuit in the Scrambler is extraordinarily bizarre, components are non-standard as well. It is not the pedal next door.
The legend also says that only one hundred pedals were manufactured, before the idea of making any more was put to rest. *^^^up-date^^^^ Ladies, and gents: we interrupt this presentation with an update on the Scrambler legend: In the name of trying to stick close to the facts, here's a wake-up call on the Scrambler's production figures. The original text for this page has been left in tact to show how the years, and active imaginations can creative a romantic option to the facts. Scramblers have now been reported to us with serial numbers of #204, & #2117. This would fit the much more believable estimate, (and still very short-run figure), that a little over two thousand were built. That "100 made" story has been repeated so often, that we never thought to look for the serial number! Live, and learn...this is still a way, way rare piece. You're more likely to fall in love at the gig this weekend, than to find a Scrambler at your favorite music store! ^^^ (end of up-date) ^^^*
Ampeg must have taken it hard...look at the neat steel box the pedal is made of, they didn't gear up like that to sell junk. People must have been bewildered by the Scrambler's "way out" effects in 1969. Those who were Experienced in the Hendrixian sense; were still a small minority of the listening public, and as we all know: musicians can rarely afford the gear they want! The Scrambler was finally loosed on the public's consciousness, when a band called "Cactus" used it on a album or two, which received FM Airplay in '70 & '71.
Ampeg's pedal has two controls: Texture, and Balance. It's possible to dial in a range from medium to heavy, thick fuzz...and MORE. Sweet spots can be found that allow subliminal, (at least), ring modulation, (multiple selected harmonics reinforced), as well. Some of them sound like an Octave-up; crystalizing out of semi-mysterious, alien, low frequency bombardment. However; technically speaking, we'd have to go with designer/builder Alfonso Hermida's reaction: "Mamma mia! that's some effect! what is it? sounds like a higher octave sometimes." Exactly! People, check it out: once you find one of these, and manage to "bring it back alive", you can call it anything you like! :-)
It's not too hard to set the textured fuzz; where you can pick harder to add ring modulation etc., and back off to avoid it. This is Ampeg's approach for working with semi-mysrerious overtones in a practical way. We ran the effects on the thick side below; so you'd be able to hear it in a short time. The Scrambler can be backed off a notch or two; and still be interesting, without creating a riot. Make love, not war!
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