About The RUSH PEPBOX ®

The “Rush Pepbox”

By Pepe Rush

The idea for the design came to me when I was working in my factory in Soho, London building Bass and Public Address equipment for some of the biggest groups in the middle 60’s. in about 1965 a guitarest from one of the big groups came in and said he had heard an American recording with a distorted sounding guitar and it sounded great.

I thought about it and a couple of days later came up with the design for what was to become the RUSH PEPBOX. I built a prototype using germanium transistors and tried it through one of the amps we were building and it sounded distorted, just what I had been working so hard to design out of our amplifiers. I sold quite a few. The Beatles, The Shadows and various other big groups of the time had them and they were used on a number of recordings. There is a picture of John Lennon with one at Abby Road Studios.

Pete Townsend

“I have Pepe to thank for introducing me to the inner mysteries of professional recording studio practices back in 1967. I used his equipment working on composing and making initial recordings for Tommy and Quadrophenia, and still use two of his hand-built limiter units today. For me he was a real star, kind and gentle, firm and informative. I wish I had seen more of him prior to his sad passing. I hope Lucy will fly the flag for Pepe’s unsung studio designs and I intend to play my part in shouting out. Pepe, if there is a special place for boffins up there, I imagine you’ll be realising many of your mortal dreams that were frustrated by years of ill health. At last perhaps your limiting will be unlimited! (sorry about the studio in-joke)”

Link to Musical Den Blog on the PEPBOX:

Simon’s Musical Den: I’m not an Italian – an interview with Pepe Rush (musical-den.blogspot.com)