MXR
company
MXR is a New York–based manufacturer of effects pedals from Rochester. The company was co-founded in 1972 by Keith Barr and Terry Sherwood and incorporated as MXR Innovations, Inc. in 1974. The MXR trademark is now owned by Jim Dunlop.
History
MXR co-founders Terry Sherwood and Keith Barr met as high school students at Rush-Henrietta Senior High School in Henrietta, New York, a suburb of Rochester, New York. Together they started Audio Services, an audio repair business, where they repaired stereos and other music equipment in their rented basement apartment. This experience led them to form MXR and they began producing their first original effect pedal design: the Phase 90. This was quickly followed by the Distortion +, Dyna Comp, and the Blue Box. Michael Laiacona joined this early MXR team in a sales position. Barr later left MXR and went on to found Alesis while Sherwood and four managers/engineers of MXR, John Langlouise, Phil Betette, Tony Gambacurta and Richard Neutrour, co-founded Applied Research & Technology.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q974486. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1972 and 1974.
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This entry incorporates text from “MXR” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.