It's also nice to put the pictures out there before that chunk of flaking paint just about clinging precariously to the case around the jack cable inevitably flakes off.
We don't know exactly when Pepe Rush started building pedals, but here's a rough timeline of relative-certainties:
- August 23rd-27th, 1965: "Watkins" presented the "Pep Box" at a trade fair in London
- April 2nd, 1966: the silver, wedge-shaped Pep Box is pictured in an advert in Melody Maker (but this ad might have been printed in earlier issues - idk, because I have lots of gaps between 1965-66)
- April 13th-14th, 1966: Beatles are famously photographed (at least three times) using a silver, wedgie Pep Box during the 'Paperback writer' sessions
- May 26th, 1966(?): Jimmy James & the Vagabonds are photographed performing on RSG, with silver Pep visible on the floor (note: I was told that they're using the Who's equipment here, incl. Entwistle's Danelectro Longhorn but I'm uncertain about the date of this picture because supposedly Entwistle had stopped using those back in 1965...)
- June 4th, 1966: the long red WEM Pep Box is pictured in an advert in Melody Maker
- July 26th, 1966: the Animals are photographed using a long red Pep, at a concert in Winston-Salem, NC
I'm also still unsure about the exact relationship between Rush and WEM. The four known surviving silver Pep Boxes do look rather WEM-ish in their parts selection. My pedal was missing one of its knobs, and it turns out that this type of knob would be utter-fucking-unobtanium, if not for the fact that they were occasionally fitted on Copicats and other WEM amps. The two known silicon-transistor wedges also have their PCB stamped with an ambiguous symbol, that we've seen before in other WEM products (e.g. the Project V, years later).
Because of this, I had speculated for a while that we hadn't actually seen one of Rush's builds before (whilst simultaneously begging jerms to trade me his) - that the construction of these things was perhaps taken over by WEM during the silver wedge phase. The fact that the Beatles' pedal looks different to the known surviving pedals only added to the murk. I am, however, a little more certain now that the silver ones were Rush's (or at least, I obviously like to think so), because mine came from someone who turned out to be an acquaintance of Pepe's, himself. At the time, the previous owner of this Pep was running a coffee bar (reportedly known for being a bit of a musician's hub, w/ regular live music etc) either next door, or very close to Rush's basement studio on Berwick Street. He seemed to believe that this pedal was a prototype (as we all like to), but while it does have some unusual features, I think he may have only thought so because he was already conscious about the later, 'long red' version of the Pep Box. There's a fun anecdote behind my pedal - apparently Tony Sheridan once used it to demonstrate some fuzz licks
Pedal sounds really gnarly and ripping though! It only works properly atm with croc clips - by itself it's a fartfest, but that's due to a problem with the battery connector. I'm not brave enough to attempt to fix even just that...