Big Country, Jimi and "secret gadgets".

Back in 1983 when "In A Big Country" by the Scottish band Big Country became a pop (and more importantly for me at the time, video) hit, I was in Grade 9.  I had a little group of guitar-playing friends and we would exchange licks and knowledge about the world of guitars, amps and pedals.  The scuttlebutt was that Big Country owned rare and coveted pedals (I remember a "Japanese distortion pedal" being mooted) that allowed them to achieve their trademark 'bagpipe' sound.

What was the source of the bagpipe tone? We're still speculating, it seems. According to this blog, they were using the MXR M-129 Pitch Transposer, a rackmounted device.  It certainly is rare.
 Another guitar gadget of legend was Jimi Hendrix's "secret switch", which I heard bandied about for a few years. It's now claimed that this switch really did exist, possibly installed by Dan Armstrong.  A Hendrix guitar with the switch, has, in any case, never been found.