Bell Electrolabs / Module System Mother / 1970's / Effect For Sale
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Bell Electrolabs Modular FX System Mother PSU at 220-240 Volt EU Plug late 70's s/n 70617 made in the UK in very good condition. Thoroughly tested and in perfect working order.
Quoted from Jon at Black Guitars UK ;
1977-82 BELL Electrolabs Pedals
There has been very little written or indeed known about Bell Electrolabs pedals, leading Tonehome website to recently opine "There is hardly any other pedal manufacturer as enigmatic as Bell Electrolabs. Production period? Unknown. Production numbers? Unknown. Where did the company come from, why and where did it disappear? Unknown."
UK Companies Registration records show that Bell Electrolabs Limited was first registered by Mike Bell on 24 May 1977 from Reeds Farm, Stokenchurch, Bucks UK.
Pedals seems to have been given frequent cosmetic and specification upgrades in roughly this order: 1977 - Stylised Calligraphic Logo in large border - Big flat coloured knobs (Black, White, Light Grey, Dark Grey, Blue, Red)
1978 Solid Futurist Logo in large border - (big flat knobs or by 11-Sept 78 barrel-shaped knobs
1979-80 Striped Futurist Logo in small border - barrel knobs with coloured lids, (Black, White, Grey, Blue, Yellow, Red)
1981- Colour printed striped ALL CAPS Logo in small border - barrel knobs with coloured lids, (Black, White, Grey, Blue, Yellow, Red). Fibreglass PCB
The Company was dissolved 27 August 1985, although production could have ceased much earlier, since by January 1985 Mike Bell had opened the newly renamed and refurbished Golden Portobello pub in Notting Hill - where he still is today after 29 years!
I have recently been lucky enough to locate and correspond with freelance electronic designer Tony Koorlander who worked with Bell from 1977-81. Prior to this, Tony had also independently marketed some pedals under his own marque 'Precinct Electronics' whilst holding down a day job at the BBC, as well as performing occasional repair work for the Macari brothers (Colorsound) in Charing Cross Rd... "I let them tryout my phaser before we marketed it as Bell......
A production 'SMOOTH' Sustainer by Precinct Electronics, 1976
"My original work as a freelance designer building custom electronics for guitars, had started as far back as 1976, whilst at the BBC and it was there that I designed the ‘Smooth’ guitar sustain pedal as an accident of fate – a fault in wiring up a new auto level circuit I’d designed for News Studio talkback circuits was taken home to fix on my day off. I had no microphone handy, so plugged in my guitar to try it – good grief – what a gorgeous sound! I then started making them under the label Precinct electronics. Smooth users included Brian May, Gordon Giltrap, to name a few and Paul Day loved it and promoted it so well that Burns started marketing it under their own brand name at one point." (Tony quoted from flatericbassandguitar.blogspot.com)
Tony kindly answered some of my questions about his time with Bell Electronics :
Bell Electrolabs was started by Mike Bell in a barn at his cottage farmhouse home in Stokenchurch. There were three of us working with Mike: Me (on a part-time basis); I designed the sustain, the phaser, the adt, and a digital echo... Chris, who 'lifted' the Flanger from the Electric Mistress, then left it to me to finish the improvements and design details... and Stan Wilson, who designed the Fuzz... To be honest - the Bell Fuzz was originally an improvement on the Big Muff Pi... Stan worked on it for ages until it gave him the sound he thought was best with the best tonal range. I just left him to do the testing and setting up on those - it was his design.
The ADT was actually the first to market... we beat EH and MXR; they were blown away! Mike Bell used to play me a Little Feat track 'Time Loves A Hero' (released May 1977) which had a glorious guitar riff with studio ADT...he said he would pay me to design it. That was how I started working with them. Then they had the Sustain off me - modified - as a bonus. The Flanger came hot on the heels of the Electric Mistress but before Boss or anyone else got to grips with it. All made possible by the availability of Reticon SAD512 devices; bucket brigade delay lines with simple interfacing which are no longer available these days, so that raw pseudo digital flanging with all the filtered clock signal artifacts is no longer available.
When we were launching the ADT (late 77?) we were approached by a company called Sarasota Engineering in Chandlers Ford who had £15k to invest in a diversification project and thought us suitable. After significant help with production engineering and advertising they sold on to PA:CE (circa 1981?), at which point I left to do more direct freelance work for Chandler Guitars amongst many others: HH Electronic, Fleet Music, Peter Cook and Ashley Pangborn guitars, and anyone else who paid... I was designing a two channel guitar amp with fx for Technovation after 1981, so really dropped out of the Bell picture after the PA:CE thing started.
The logo changed typeface when we went from one supplier to another I think. Mike changed the artwork using Letraset. The circuit - well as time went on we changed capacitors to a smaller and more modern type, same as I was using in my own pedals... and I finally convinced them to get fibreglass pcbs made instead of the old bakelite ones... for longer life.
BEP - Boutique Effect Pedals, Netherlands 
Bienvenidos a nuestro monasterio BEP, donde yo, junto con otros monjes cazadores de pedales muy bien formados y educados, estamos en la búsqueda del pedal más sagrado de todos. BEP se especializa en pedales de efectos vintage y boutique. Actualmente, nuestro principal objetivo es vender pedales de efectos fuera de la UE debido a las normas fiscales confusas dentro de la UE, con las que nos enfrentamos actualmente. Cuando se resuelvan estos problemas fiscales, volveremos a realizar envíos dentro de la UE. Sin embargo, el lado positivo es que BEP realiza envíos regulares a EE.UU. UU., Canadá, Japón, China y Australia con costos de envío subvencionados por nuestra parte, por lo que estas normas fiscales confusas dejan de ser válidas. A partir de junio de 2021, BEP ha sido honrado con la distinción de convertirse en distribuidor oficial de pedales de efectos Ibanez, GuitarSystems y MTFX. BEP ha aceptado estas oportunidades y nos gustaría que otros fabricantes de pedales se pusieran en contacto con nosotros. En BEP tenemos nuestro propio departamento de reparaciones, por lo que todos los pedales se han enviado después de haber sido probados varias veces. Algunos nos llaman el Louvre de los pedales de efectos vintage, pero otros preferirían el Versalles de los pedales de efectos vintage gobernados por Miss Domina XXL XIV. Antes de que se envíe su pedal o compra, se probará para detectar problemas comunes, como interruptores de encendido/apagado pegajosos, potenciómetros agrietados, clips de batería sueltos, etc. Estas pruebas se grabarán en video, principalmente para la participación de los clientes de Reverb, pero estará disponible si lo solicita. De acuerdo con el plan de protección de Reverb, está cubierto durante 7 días después de la entrega. Si surge algún problema, comuníquese con nosotros primero. Tenga en cuenta que todo el trabajo de BEP está protegido por derechos de autor, incluidas las fotografías, el texto y las descripciones. gracias
Bienvenidos a nuestro monasterio BEP, donde yo, junto con otros monjes cazadores de pedales muy bien entrenados y altamente educados, estamos en una búsqueda para encontrar el más sagrado de todos los pedales.
Estamos procesando 1300 pedales de efectos vintage, ¡así que estén atentos!
BEP se especializa en pedales de efectos Vintage y Boutique. Actualmente, nuestro enfoque principal es vender pedales de efectos fuera de la UE debido a las reglas impositivas difusas dentro de la UE, con las que estamos lidiando actualmente. Cuando se solucionen estos problemas impositivos, volveremos a realizar envíos dentro de la UE. Sin embargo, el lado positivo... BEP realiza envíos regularmente a EE. UU. UU. UU. UU. UU., Canadá, Japón, China y Australia con costos de envío subsidiados por nuestra parte, por lo que estas reglas impositivas difusas dejan de ser válidas.
A partir de junio de 2021, BEP ha sido honrado con convertirse en distribuidor oficial de pedales de efectos Ibanez, GuitarSystems y MTFX. BEP ha aceptado estas oportunidades y nos gustaría que otros fabricantes de pedales se comunicaran con nosotros. En BEP tenemos nuestro propio departamento de reparación, por lo que todos los pedales se han enviado después de haber sido probados varias veces. Algunos nos llaman el Louvre de los pedales de efectos vintage, pero otros preferirían el Versalles de los pedales de efectos vintage gobernados por Miss Domina XXL XIV. Antes de que se envíe su pedal o compra, se probará para detectar problemas comunes, como interruptores de encendido/apagado pegajosos, potenciómetros agrietados, clips de batería sueltos, etc. Estas pruebas se grabarán en video, principalmente para la participación de los clientes de Reverb, pero estará disponible si lo solicita. De acuerdo con el plan de protección de Reverb, está cubierto durante 7 días después de la entrega. Si surge algún problema, comuníquese con nosotros primero. Tenga en cuenta que todo el trabajo de BEP está protegido por derechos de autor, incluidas las fotografías, el texto y las descripciones. gracias
Our pedals are sold on a personal level and are thoroughly tested on battery power and with an adapter. These tests include sticky on/off switches and cracky potmeters and all tests are recorded on video. Before any pedal is shipped we make sure that they work 100%.If for any reason your ordered pedal is not working properly then please contact us first, so we'll make sure the correct Power Supply Unit is used ( Boss ACA vs PSA Adapters for example ). Please do not open the pedal yourself, not even for a battery replacement, unless it has a separate battery compartment such as regular Boss pedals, but contact us first. If you do open the pedal we can not accept a return.
Nuestros pedales se venden a nivel personal y se prueban minuciosamente con la alimentación por batería y con un adaptador. Estas pruebas incluyen interruptores de encendido y apagado pegajosos y potenciómetros que crujen, y todas las pruebas se graban en video. Antes de enviar cualquier pedal, nos aseguramos de que funcione al 100 %.Si por alguna razón el pedal que pediste no funciona correctamente, contáctanos primero, para que nos aseguremos de que se use la fuente de alimentación correcta (por ejemplo, adaptadores Boss ACA o PSA). No abras el pedal tú mismo, ni siquiera para reemplazar la batería, a menos que tenga un compartimento de batería separado, como los pedales Boss normales, pero contáctanos primero. Si abres el pedal, no podemos aceptar una devolución.
