Tychobrahe Wah Pedal
Tony’s favourite wah pedal is an old Tychobrahe Parapedal. It was made in the
early seventies. They have not been available new for many years now although I
believe there is someone who has now started making clones called the Parachute.
Tychobrahe was a PA company that was founded in 1969 by Bob Bogdanovich, brother
of the famous film director Peter Bogdanovich. They worked with Sabbath on some
of their early tours of the US. Their chief engineer was Jim Gamble who designed
their speaker cabinets, amplifiers and mixing consoles. He also designed the
three guitar effects that were sold under the Tychobrahe name, the Octavia, the
Paraflanger and the Parapedal. It was on these tours in the early seventies that
Tony was introduced to the Parapedal and he has used it ever since.
It has an unusual circuit with two frequency peaks being tracked by the pedal
operation. It also has a dive bomb effect when the heel of the pedal is pressed
down hard against the rubber stopper.
They are very rare nowadays and we have a stable of three complete units and a
couple of original circuit boards. Here is a picture of it on the studio effects
board. It is on the right of the board.
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