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Download Example 1
Height at 50%, Freq at 50%, Bandwidth at Fat, Switched to Dirty. Fano JM6 through Fender '63 Reissue Vibroverb.
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Download Example 2
Clean Boost, Freq at 2 o'clock, Height at Maximum, Bandwidth at Thin. Fender Jaguar with Seymour Duncan Hot Jaguar pickups through Fender Pro Jr.
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Whether crusty, rich, brittle, or big as
a brick house, fuzz and distortion are
heavenly sounds to many ears. But from the
day Keith Richards kicked on his Maestro
Fuzz Tone for the first blast of “Satisfaction,”
guitarists have looked for ways to shape raunchy
sonics into something more individual,
musical, and malleable. Roger Mayer’s Octavia
was among the first to expand what a single
fuzz box could do by putting a little octave
brawn behind the buzz. And by the ’70s, more
adventurous manufacturers were giving players
even greater power to shape their distortion.
One of the cooler efforts of the era came
from Maestro in the form of their Maestro
Parametric Filter (MPF), a clever, clunky filter
pedal that a resourceful player could use for
everything from simple EQ to total fuzzification
of their signal. It wasn’t the nastiest distortion
or fuzz around, but it gave guitarists a lot
of ways to manipulate their sound.
In the years since the MPF first hit music
store shelves, 6-string adventurers, including
Alex Lifeson and Josh Homme, have used
the Maestro to sculpt their tones. Now, Stone
Deaf FX of Manchester, England, has created
a sturdier and more versatile evolution of
the Maestro circuit. Despite its formidable-sounding
moniker, the Stone Deaf PDF-1 Parametric Distortion Filter proves to be a
pedal of myriad applications beyond heavy
and blazing riff-rock. Like its inspiration, the
PDF-1 is not the most out-there fuzz or fattest
distortion. But it gives you access to sounds
that most run-of-the-mill pedals can’t deliver.
English Kraftwerk
Though we’re in a Golden Age for stompboxes,
a lot of great pedals suffer from looking
and feeling like everything else behind the
counter. Not the Stone Deaf PDF-1. The custom-
machined aluminum casing, top-notch
pots and switches, and stylishly engraved
3-ply plastic control panel are simultaneously
reminiscent of an Apollo capsule control panel
and the dash of a late ’60s BMW—elegant,
easy to navigate, and perceptibly well made. If
you love the way a good switch feels, you’ll dig
tinkering with the PDF-1.
For all the obvious quality, the PDF-1 is an
exceptionally light pedal. The 9-volt battery is
brilliantly stashed on the side of the enclosure
in a sliding access compartment that will have
you setting records for fast, onstage battery
changes. It’s a very cool-looking pedal too,
with a compact but distinctive ’70s-inspired
elevated profile that makes it easy to find on a
crowded pedalboard.
In terms of operation, the controls are
simple, if not completely intuitive at first.
The Height knob (each of the curious control
names are identical to those on the Maestro
MPF that inspired the PDF-1) drops or boosts
a given frequency by up to 20 dB. The Freq
knob selects the frequency between 65 Hz
and 3 kHz that you want to boost or cut. The
5-position Bandwidth switch moves from
Thin to Fat settings and reduces or widens the
signal’s bandwidth as a whole. Then there’s the
Clean/Dirty switch, which effectively changes
the Stone Deaf from a boost/parametric EQ to
a distortion/parametric EQ unit.
If your amp and guitar were feeling like a cramped cottage,
the Stone Deaf’s clean boost function is like adding
a sunroom on the back.
Shape Shifter
If the Stone Deaf were only a boost pedal, it
would still be an impressive and useful addition
to a pedalboard. And my first experiments
with the PDF-1, in the context of a
pretty boisterous band jam, involved heavy
use of the remarkably transparent clean circuit.
Running the pedal after a TS-9 Tube
Screamer and a Pro Co Rat, and into a blackface
Fender Tremolux, a Music Man HD212,
and a Fender Vibroverb demonstrated not
only how much character this pedal can lend
to your signal on its own, but how much it
can help you tailor otherwise ordinary overdrive
and distortion signals.
With the Stone Deaf set to clean, the
Height to approximately +5 dB, the bandwidth
to Fat, and the frequency to about 3 o’clock,
the signal from both a toaster pickup-equipped
Rickenbacker 330 and an E-series Fender
Stratocaster took on a wide, lively, full-spectrum
character. The tones displayed a sort of
natural compression more akin to the output
of an outboard studio compressor than a comp
pedal—a pretty delicious addition to an already
lovely single-coil and 6L6 tone recipe.
Sweeping the Frequency knob up to maximum
gave individual notes and arpeggios a
bright, but not-quite-spiky presence—especially
nice for bridge pickup work—that also
left a lot of room for shaping sound with a
guitar’s volume or tone knob. If your amp and
guitar were feeling like a cramped canyon cottage,
the Stone Deaf’s clean boost function is
a little like adding a sunroom on the back—it
creates a lot of bright, airy space. It can also
take the sound of a very aggressive distortion
like the Rat and add even a touch more girth
or snarling focus, depending on where you set
the Bandwidth and Frequency knobs.
The dirty circuit is where a lot of rock
players will live with this pedal. It’s certainly
not a high-gain distortion path, nor does it
crank out the most hornet-buzzing fuzz. But
switch the Bandwidth all the way to fat and
the Height and Frequency knobs all the way
clockwise, and a humbucker-equipped Les
Paul will turn into a throaty, roaring monster
that makes chords thick and wooly, and leads
simultaneously warm, rotund, and defined. It’s
no wonder that Josh Homme has taken to this
pedal as well its inspiration.
The Dirty switch isn’t just about fat
and furry stoner-rock tones. Moving the
Frequency knob to 3 o’clock, the Height all
the way clockwise, and Bandwidth to any
of the three thinnest settings produced a
cool sound in between a cocked wah and an
envelope filter, and—depending on the input
from your guitar or additional pedals—a
fuzz that ranged from quacky and prickly to
muscular and super-focused in the high-mid
zone. Try this setting with some P-90s and
a cranked Champ or Pro Junior, and you’re
neck-deep in Texas boogie mud.
The Verdict
Where simpler or more radical distortion circuits
transform your tone entirely, the Stone
Deaf PDF-1 is really best at lending more
color and control to your existing rig. And if
you’re more-or-less content with sounds you
get, but just need a little more breathing room,
command over equalization, or a stretch of
sonic two lane where you can open up the
throttle a little, this Stone Deaf is an elegant
and very capable tool.
Buy if...
you want to expand your range of color and command with a tried-and-trusted rig.
Skip if...
you’re looking for over-the-top or high-gain distortion and fuzz.
Rating...
