Glenn Snoddy - Inventor Of The Fuzz Tone.

Glenn Snoddy at Quonset Hut Studio

Glenn Snoddy made a career as a recording engineer. He learned this trade during WWII when he was in the Army, and stationed in the South Pacific. He was a radio and recording tech during the war, earning three bronze stars before he was discharged.

When his service ended, he moved to Nashville Tennessee and began working for the Brown Brothers Transcription Company, which was located in Nashville at Fourth and Union. During the 1940's, and 1950's, this company did a lot of radio shows.

Glenn Snoddy as an engineer at WGNS Radio

To make extra money, he moonlighted at Castle Studios, which was located in Nashville's Tulane Hotel. While working there, Snoddy was the engineer on Hank Williams final recording session. 

Grand Ole Opry cast in the 1950's

He also moonlighted  as an engineer at WSM, and ran sound for the Grand Ole Opry on the weekend.

Glenn Snoddy and Owen Bradley

Mr. Snoddy later took a job at Owen Bradley’s Quonset Hut studio, and by 1960 he became the chief engineer.

Glenn Snoddy worked with many of Nashville’s stars, and was the recording engineer on Johnny Cash’s smash hit, “Ring of Fire”.

Marty Robbins

While recording a song for Marty Robbin called “Don’t Worry”, an unusual thing happened. The sessions bass player was Grady Martin, who was one of Nashville’s most prolific guitar players.

Grady Martin

Snoddy believed that the primary transformer on the studio's Langevin 116 tube amplifier, which had a built-in amplifier malfunctioned, and though the notes could be heard, they sounded fuzzy and strange. Grady Martin wanted to do another take,  but Mr. Snoddy, and the session producer, Don Law, thought the sound was unique and decided to keep the take.  Martin later recorded a tune with the same faulty preamp, which he called "The Fuzz".

Don Law and Glenn Snoddy
on the right

“Don’t Worry” went on to reach the Country Top 10 on the Billboard Chart for that year.

Glenn Snoddy went on to design a device that could reproduce this sound. He called it The Fuzz Box. This was an outboard preamp circuit, that utilized a germanium transistor circuits.  This device could override the clean sound on a guitar amplifier.

Maestro Fuzz Tone FZ-1A

In 1962 he sold the rights to his invention to the Gibson Guitar Company, for which Mr. Snoddy received royalties. This floor pedal allowed guitarists and electric bass players to change the tone of their instrument from a clean sound to a dirty sound. Gibson called the device, The Maestro Fuzztone.

The Rolling Stones - Richards
has a Maetro Fuzz Tone on the floor.

Though this was available in 1962, most music stores did not carry it until 1965 when the Rolling Stone’s guitarist, Keith Richards, used one on their hit “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”.



After hearing the effect, every rock guitarist and garage band player wanted that sound, and could get it for less than $30.00 USD.

Other companies began producing similar fuzztones, some sounded worse and some sounded better. But the Maestro Fuzztone was perhaps the granddaddy of all outboard guitar pedals. Back in the late 1960's I owned a couple of them. I was frustrated that I could never emulate that Keith Richard's sound. I later realized it wasn't just the fuzztone, but also some great engineering work that produced that wonderful noise.

Maestro Fuzz Tone FZ-1A

The biggest problem with the original Maestro Fuzztone FZ-1A was the cheap cable that attached to your guitars jack. It easily shorted out, and most of us were not savvy enough to replace the cord with an input jack. Guitar cables in the 1960's were not that well made.

After the Quonset Hut was purchased by Columbia Records, Glenn Snoddy stayed on as one of their engineers, and worked with many other notable artists.

Will The Circle Be Unbroken

He was the engineer on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s epic album, “Will The Circle Be Unbroken”, which featured not just the band, but some of Country’s most prominent legends, such as Maybelle Carter, Roy Acuff, Earl Scruggs, and Doc Watson.

Snoddy also hired an aspiring songwriter named Kris Kristofferson, who began working as the studio janitor.

Glenn Snoddy

Later, Snoddy was instrumental in founding Woodland Sound Studios. Glenn Snoddy passed away on May 21st of 2018 at age 96.



He left not just a legacy of engineer records for some of County Music’s most famous stars, but set the stage for an entire new industry: Guitar pedals.

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