I just interviewed Ed Sanner, the legendary electronics guy who invented such iconic guitar effect pedals as the Mosrite Fuzzrite, the Rosac Nu-Fuzz, and the Fuzz Blender.
In our four-hour interview, Ed told me about his hillbilly music origins in Los Angeles in the early 1950s (he was best pals with guitar maker RC Allen, and they used to go to all the country music shows together back then).
Ed hooked up with Mosrite after getting out of the Air Force. He moved from El Monte in the Los Angeles area to Bakersfield and began working on designing both the Fuzzrite pedal and the Mosrite line of solid-state amplifiers.
After Mosrite went bankrupt, Ed joined with some other ex-Mosrite employees and formed Rosac electronics, where he made pedals and amplifiers until the company folded in the mid-1970s.
Since that time, Ed has built his own “Sanner” amplifiers and worked as a repairman for various musicians around Bakersfield and Lake Isabella, where he now lives.
In recent years, he has hand built a number of boutique pedals for Hallmark, which you can still purchase from Hallmark Guitars.
Ed is eighty-eight years old and has some memory issues, but as he told me, “If it’s about something that happened a long time ago, I can remember. I just can’t remember anything happening right now.” When I showed up at his door, I don’t think he remembered me calling a couple of days ago and scheduling the interview, but he was nice enough to give me four hours of his time and tell me everything I needed to know about his role in the history of Mosrite.
When we got around to taking photos, he asked if he could wear his Air Force cap. I told him, of course. He mentioned that when he goes to local restaurants, if he’s just wearing a normal cap, he gets treated like a bum. But if he wears his Air Force cap, they treat him with respect. Good Lord—if only Ed knew just how many rock ’n’ roll guitar players have used and loved his fuzz pedal designs over the years since the 1960s. Ultimate respect for a true legend!
See more photos at Deke’s original Facebook post!
