Glenn Snoddy, Inventor of Fuzz Pedal for Guitarists, Dies

MURFREESBORO, Tennessee (AP) -- A recording engineer whose invention of a pedal that allowed guitarists to create a fuzzy, distorted sound most famously used by Keith Richards in the Rolling Stones' hit "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" has died.

Glenn Snoddy at a mixing console at Bradley Studio in Nashville c. 1961. (Getty Images)

Glenn Snoddy was 96. His daughter Dianne Mayo said Saturday that Snoddy died Monday of congestive heart failure at his Murfreesboro, Tennessee, home.

Snoddy was helping record country artist Marty Robbins' song "Don't Worry" in 1961 when a malfunction caused the distortion in a guitar solo. When other musicians sought the same effect, Snoddy couldn't recreate it in the studio but invented a pedal where a guitarist could switch into the sound with a tap of the foot.

Richards' "Satisfaction" riff with the fuzz tone is one of the most recognizable ones in rock history.