Glenn Snoddy, credited with inventing 'fuzz-tone' sound, dies at Murfreesboro home

Engineer Glenn Snoddy, who opened Woodland Sound Studios and who revolutionized electric guitar sound with the distorted "fuzz-tone" heard on Marty Robbins' "Don't Worry" and, later, the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," died Monday evening at his Murfreesboro home. He was 96 years old. 

Snoddy, a native of Shelbyville, Tenn., was born May 4, 1922. He was an Army veteran who served in the South Pacific during World War II, and earned three Bronze Stars during his service.

He learned about radio and recording while in the Army, and after leaving the military, “I went to work at the Brown Brothers Transcription Company at Fourth and Union…we used to do a lot of radio shows out of there,” he told The Tennessean in 1987. “Some of us were also moonlighting at Castle Studio in the old Tulane Hotel. I was the backup engineer on the last Hank Williams recording session there. That’s a memory that doesn’t leave you.”

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After Brown Brothers closed in the mid-1950s, Snoddy started working at WSM as a engineer and did sound for the Grand Ole Opry every weekend. He also began working with producer Owen Bradley at the Quonset Hut. He became chief engineer in 1960 and stayed on after the Quonset Hut was sold to Columbia.

“I did so many records (there) I can’t remember them,” he said in 1987. One of those records was Johnny Cash’s 1963 chart-topper “Ring of Fire.” 

While working on a session with country artist Marty Robbins, a technical malfunction in the mixing console ("I'm pretty sure what happened was the primary transformer opened up," Snoddy told The Tennessean in 2013) turned session musician Grady Martin's guitar sound on Robbins' "Don't Worry" into something fuzzy, distorted and irresistible. 

"It was such a wild and unrestrained sound that was created by this quiet, gentle and scholarly fellow," said Peter Cooper, Senior Writer and Editor at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. 

"Don't Worry" topped the country charts and went to No. 3 on the pop charts in 1961. Soon other artists wanted to replicate that sound on their own records, but the problem with the mixing board got worse and couldn't reproduce that sound. 

So he got to work. "He was by nature a problem solver, but he did more than solve problems. He created solutions that nobody ever thought of or considered," said Cooper.

Snoddy built a pedal that guitarists could use to change their tone from clean to fuzzy with the tap of a foot, and brought it to Gibson president Maurice Berlin. Gibson applied for a patent and sold the pedal, dubbed the Maestro Fuzz-Tone FZ-1. 

It didn't fly off the shelves upon its 1962 release, but in the summer of 1965, the Rolling Stones released "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," a song that featured Keith Richards playing a signature hook on the fuzz box.

"Satisfaction" soon ruled charts on both sides of the Atlantic, and Snoddy's box (and subsequent imitators) became a part of most electric guitarists' arsenal.

While working for Columbia in the 1960s, Snoddy hired an aspiring songwriter named Kris Kristofferson...to be the janitor. “I hired him to clean up the studio,” he remembered in 2013. “What did I know about songwriting? Not much."

Snoddy opened Woodland Sound Studios in a former movie theater in 1968. Young country-rockers The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band recorded their landmark “Will the Circle Be Unbroken," a triple-LP of collaborations with country, bluegrass and roots music luminaries including Maybelle Carter, Roy Acuff, Earl Scruggs and Doc Watson, at Woodland.

That album introduced a new generation to those legends, and is considered one of country music's seminal recordings. 

“(Woodland Sound Studios) was the room that Glenn built and I’m mighty glad he did,” said the Dirt Band’s Jeff Hanna. “The studio was great; I love that room…it was the perfect garden for that record to grow in.

He was really gracious and welcoming when we – these hippies from California – came to Nashville to make a record and do Lord knows what.”

Loretta Lynn, Jimmy Buffett, Charlie Daniels, Kansas and Gillian Welch and David Rawlings (the current owners of Woodland) were also among the dozens of artists who made now-classic recordings at the East Nashville studio.

"In addition to being somebody of great importance and accomplishment, Glenn Snoddy was just a nice and thoughtful person, said Cooper. "It was a joy to get to know him."

View Glenn Snoddy's Obituary and express your condolences

Snoddy is survived by his son, James T. Snoddy, daughters Dianne Mayo (Lee), and Glenda Keller (Alan), grandchildren Kyle Mayo (Bracey), Michael Mayo, Curtis Keller and Corey Keller (Maegan) and great-grand daughter Magnolia Francis Mayo.

Visitation will be held 6-8 p.m. Thursday, May 24 and Friday at 1 p.m., with a funeral service at 2 p.m. at Woodfin Memorial Chapel in Murfreesboro. Burial will be in Evergreen Cemetery with military honors. Donations to the Nashville Engineer Relief Fund (theaudiomasters.org) can be made in Snoddy's honor.