2 Replies to “The History Of Distortion”

  1. Nerd alert: the pin-in-the-cone story behind the distortion in Rocket 88 is probably not true. According to the guitarist (I’ve forgotten his name), his amp fell off the top of the car while travelling to Memphis to record at Sun. According to Ike Turner, the amp was in the trunk, and rain leaked in and damaged it. According to Sam Philips, the amp fell out of the trunk while they were unloading it. Either way, Sam Philips loved the sound, so they used it. But it’s unlikely these guys would have stuck pins in a speaker. Amps weren’t cheap, and they didn’t have cash to burn. Anyway, they could have distorted for free by cranking the volume and overloading the tubes (although that may have been difficult in a small room like Sun).

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