
Electro-Harmonix was founded in 1968 by Mike Matthews with just $1000, launching with the LPB-1 Linear Power Booster that helped usher in the age of overdrive and profoundly influenced modern music. The company pioneered affordable stompbox effects, introducing classics like the Big Muff fuzz, Small Stone phaser, Memory Man delay, and Electric Mistress flanger, which made studio effects accessible to musicians. After financial struggles led to closure in 1984, Matthews revived the brand through the New Sensor Corporation and Sovtek vacuum tubes produced in Russia, expanding into over 150 pedals, amplifiers, and the world's leading vacuum tubes under brands like Tung-Sol and Genalex Gold Lion.