Dimebag Darrell’s Pignose Legendary 7-100

Dimebag received a Pignose amp, together with a Les Paul guitar, for his 11th birthday in 1977. This was the first guitar and the first amp that he ever used, and he honed his skills on these, practicing hours in his bedroom.

I didn’t get my first guitar until my next birthday. I was about 11, and he gave me a Les Paul copy and a Pignose amp.

Initially, I just used the guitar as a prop. I’d pose with it in front of a mirror in my Kiss makeup when I was skipping school. Then I figured out how to play the main riff to Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water on just the E string.

Dimebag Darrell – the Far Beyond Driven interview: “I knew it was going to be one bad motherf**ker – refreshing, new, and that’s what it was”

Pignose is a small 5W battery-powered amp invented by Richard Edlund and Wayne Kimbell in 1969. The two sent out prototypes to the popular guitarists of that era, including Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, and Terry Kath. This led to the amp gaining some notoriety, so the inventors decided to form a company, and start producing the amp for everyone. The amp was officially revealed at the 1973 NAMM (an annual event in the United States that is organized by the National Association of Music Merchants), and was named Pignose Legendary 7-100.

The amp was powered by six AA batteries or an optional AC and was housed in a hinged case design, allowing for some storage. It also had a preamplifier output jack on the rear, allowing it to be connected to a larger amplifier for use as a guitar distortion effect.=