Ed Kuepper touring with a Tym Club 76

For those of you who know me even reasonably well, you'll know I consider (I'm) Stranded by the Saints to be the greatest Australian album ever recorded. It's time and place, and isolation from "big city" influence make this incredible set of songs even more amazing.
Ed Kuepper wrote these songs on a small hollow body Hofner but progressed to an early 60's Gibson SG when the band started playing live and louder, with the help of one distortion pedal.



Last year I got to make the limited edition (Tym) Stranded distortion reverse engineered from Ed's original VERY early MXR Distortion + in honour of the 40th anniversary of Ed recording the 7". The story of this pedal is on my blog but it was the earliest "Bud Box" Dist + I (and all of my pedal nerd friends) had ever seen with original, but non MXR knobs and military surplus 1N276 germanium diodes. Ed mail ordered it from a fledgling effects company Rochester, New York in '74 and waited.

The Saints recorded three genre breaking albums in '77 and '78 after which Ed moved onto a prolific career in The Laughing Clowns and solo. This year Ed is reforming the Aints to play the classic early Saints material with a full band. These shows will consist of songs from that '73-'78 period and Ed will have only one pedal on stage, The Tym Club 76 distortion.



The Club 76 is the same circuit as the limited edition (Tym) Stranded, built into my smaller handmade stainless steel enclosures with approx 200 being made if there's demand. Only 40 (Tym) Stranded distortions were made to celebrate the release of the 7" but, I had to buy some NOS parts in quantities far greater than just making 40 pedals so with Ed's blessing, I released the Club 76, named after the venue the Saints ran here in Brisbane before it was shut down by health and safety.



There will be Tym Club 76 distortions on merch stands on this national tour and it will be, as always, available through Tym guitars either online or in the shop.

It's a huge honour for me to do stuff like this for people I not only admire so much, but are integral to the very existence of Tym guitars in the first place.



Check the dates for this tour and get along to one. You won't be disappointed. These songs have stood the test of time as all great songs do. They're as fresh and relevant now as they were 40 years ago and hearing them with Ed's SG running through a distortion pedal will be a religious experience delivered straight from the Saints, sorry, the Aints.

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