Leigh StephensPedalboard, 1966
Leigh Stephens names two effects from his Blue Cheer years, 1966 to 1969: an Arbiter Fuzz Face and a wah, used with SGs, Stratocasters and stacks of high-power amplifiers.
Blue Cheer fuzz-and-wah core
Order evidence: No source publishes this sequence; the order is reconstructed
Inside the rig · 2 units
Pedal roles & evidence
How each unit fits Leigh Stephens's 1966 setup. Board-specific roles and the evidence behind each identification and position.
Reconstructed orderIdentity and position are evidenced separately. Reconstructed positions are not observed connections.
Gain
Arbiter Fuzz Face
Front of amp
Role in this rig
Drove the saturated, ragged edge of Stephens' high-volume Blue Cheer guitar sound.
- Identity
- Documented
- Position
- Reconstructed
Filter & EQ
Wah pedal (model unverified)
Front of amp
Role in this rig
Added foot-controlled filter sweeps to the band's extreme-volume psychedelic guitar vocabulary.
- Identity
- Documented
- Position
- Reconstructed
Documented equipment · Reconstructed order · Serial path
Asked by Vintage Guitar for his main Blue Cheer gear, Stephens names the guitars and Marshall stacks before explicitly listing a Fuzz Face and wah-wah. The same interview dates his tenure as 1966-1969 and ties him to the first two albums, both released in 1968. A community-hosted period photograph independently supports the presence of a long treadle wah and labels it a King Vox, but its original metadata and identifying details are not strong enough to promote that exact model here. No source establishes jack-to-jack order, settings, exclusivity or use on a particular recording. The display therefore follows Stephens' spoken enumeration and is marked as a reconstructed sequence rather than a cable trace.
No source publishes this sequence. The units are ordered by conventional signal-chain practice, and any documented routing zone is kept as recorded.
Cited sources
MethodologyQuestions about Leigh Stephens's 1966 pedalboard
- What pedals did Leigh Stephens use in 1966?
- This dated entry lists 2 units: Arbiter Fuzz Face, Wah pedal (model unverified). This is the recorded inventory, not a claim that every connection or model identification is confirmed; see the evidence and routing notes.
- What order were Leigh Stephens's pedals in?
- The complete order is reconstructed, not observed. The layout follows the cited routing constraints and the archive's signal-chain convention where the sources are silent: Guitar → Arbiter Fuzz Face → Wah pedal (model unverified) → amplifier.
- Is this Leigh Stephens's full guitar rig?
- No. This dated entry covers 2 units in the effects path, not every piece of gear Leigh Stephens owned or used. Floor pedals, rack units and routing devices are included only where recorded; omitted equipment and uncertain connections are explained in the notes. It is not a complete or current rig inventory.
- When and where was this pedalboard used?
- Blue Cheer tenure, 1966-1969. Original Blue Cheer live rig. This is the core signal path documented for that period, not a career-wide gear list.
- How does the archive know what was on this pedalboard?
- 2 cited sources, listed above with the date each was read, including Vintage Guitar, Equipboard. Among them an interview and a photograph. The units are recorded as documented equipment, and the page was last audited on 2026-07-18.