The 11-minute opus that closes Yes’ 1971 album, Fragile, begins with an urgency and chaos of frenetically blended guitar and bass notes that lead into a gentle coo of rolling, rhythmic waves.
With a flick of a wrist, maestro Chris Squire breaks the soft groove with his unusual lead bass guitar, punctuating everything with intensely building lines and a haunting melodic immediacy. The two musical ideas furiously dance until suddenly the former dangerous vibe becomes infectious, and the unpredictable mystique and intrigue of the climb peaks. It’s as if the song is trying to tempt a listener to come along—make the voyage.
“Heart of the Sunrise,” is an appropriate soundtrack to set sail with on Cruise to the Edge, a progressive-rock themed tour of the Caribbean that travels from Miami to Honduras and Cozumel, and back again, in five days. It first set sail in 2013, making its second run in early April this year.
Yes, the band that started it all, are gracious hosts. The spectacle includes mood-setting touches both subtle (like the iconic psychedelic artwork of Roger Dean, which made its way from projector screens to fest-goers T-shirts, to the art gallery at the ship’s top deck) and over-the-top (wizard-themed nights encouraging cruisers to wear capes around the deck).
More than 2,000 guests sailed with about 25 bands, so it appears prog-rock is alive and well. Yes is releasing Heaven & Earth on July 8, with the lineup of guitarist Steve Howe, bassist Chris Squire, drummer Alan White, and Geoff Downes on keys and programming. It’s the group’s 21st studio album, and the first with new vocalist Jon Davison. The plethora of friends they brought along for this boat ride—Marillion, UK, Queensrÿche, Saga, and Italian proggers Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM), to name a few—are enjoying similar late-career renaissances.
“I don’t think I’ve met anyone who hasn’t said they were happy,” said guitarist Steve Hackett, reflecting the general sentiments of the prog-rock passengers. “Besides perhaps those who’ve fallen over and been horribly injured,” he joked, referring to an apparent mishap on the first Cruise to the Edge in 2013. “Mind yourself on those corridors, the stairs, and the wet patches.”
Lay of the Land
For those who’ve never been on a cruise before (like this writer), the majestic MSC Divina is quite an introduction. Boasting multiple decks, fine-dining restaurants, and even a spa, the European MSC line’s newest ship is like a luxurious ocean-going village. Pair the 24-hour all-you-can-eat buffet with an all-you-can-hear menu of various subgenres of symphonic rock, and what you get is a prog-enthusiast’s dream vacation.
Collaborations made Cruise to the Edge 2014 special. Here UK’s Eddie Jobson is shown playing electric violin with the Stick Men on the Pool Stage. Photo by Armando Gallo.
As the ship glided away from the Port of Miami, guests settled into what would be their home at sea for the next five days. Sporting black Cruise to the Edge T-shirts for the blackout-themed disembarkation party, the fans gathered to hear Saga kick off the music festivities on the Pool Stage. The central and highest performance area on the ship, the Pool Stage featured two-tiered concert seating, lawn chairs, hot tubs, and plenty of island-style booze concoctions.
The music went from sun up to, well, almost sun up. A typical morning might include breakfast at the Manitou buffet, followed by some sunning or a dip in the pool while the first performers welcomed you into the day.
Inside the ship, there were a half dozen stages and more things to see than there was time to see them. The Atrium stage provided a nice focal point in the middle of all the activity, and bands had the opportunity to play a variety of shows: a larger concert, an intermediate lounge show, and a stripped-down acoustic or Q&A/meet-and-greet event in a setting reminiscent of Inside the Actor’s Studio.
The classy Black and White Lounge—one of the midsize venues—would be right at home in a 5-star hotel in Vegas. Outfitted in state-of-the-art furniture, it was a favorite among cruisers for its quaint ambiance. For those who might have had their fill of odd time signatures, other vices were at the ready. One could gamble in the casino, shop in the ship mall, puff it up in the cigar lounge, exercise in the well-equipped gym, or gorge in the fine-dining experience at the Black Crab (with bands like Yes and Genesis playing on the overhead speakers at any given time). And for two days, guests could take excursions like scuba diving or explore the Cozumel port at will. (The Honduras stop was cancelled due to storms this year, but most of the music fans didn’t notice.)
Marillion's Steve Hograth rocking the cruise ship with his Rickenbacker Blue Boy. Photo by Robert Juckett.
Onboard Gems
There was no shortage of intriguing instruments aboard the MSC Divina on Cruise to the Edge, so in the spirit of celebrating aspects of offbeat musicianship, here’s a look at a few eccentric tone toys used on deck.
Blue Boy: Marillion guitarist Steve Hogarth showed off his Rickenbacker 360 with a Blue Boy finish. The 6-string was originally made as part of a limited run of 40 for the U.K. market in 2002. In 2004, Rickenbacker issued the Blue Boy in the U.S.
Touchy Stuff: Let’s be honest, the Stick Men’s touch instruments are a little mysterious. Tony Levin is well known for playing a Chapman Stick, but most people don’t know that it’s a stereo instrument that combines both a bass and a guitar on one fretboard—five or six strings devoted to each on opposite sides. “It’s a touch style, so you don’t pluck it, you just thump it with all your fingers on each hand,” Levin says. “Which means you can play a lot of notes.”
Moon Safari bassist Johan Westerlund grooves with his Gibson Victory bass with Moog electronics, 24 frets, and two active pickups. Photo by Klaus Bornemann
For Tony’s standard electric bass rig, he says doesn’t need an amplifier. “I’m going direct into the house. If there’s an amp onstage it’s just for me. I like the sound of the bass and if I didn’t, I’d be looking for another bass.” The Stick, however, is a little more complex. He runs the bass strings through a compressor directly to the front-of-house, and processes the guitar side with a pedalboard of effects.
Stick Men guitarist Markus Reuter also plays Chapman Stick, but he currently uses his own brand of touch-style instruments that he co-designed with luthier Ed Reynolds. Reuter has two models of Touch Guitars, the U8 and U10. He tunes the middle six strings to the New Standard Tuning (NST) developed by Robert Fripp for his Guitar Craft workshops. “My tuning is mostly in fifths,” Reuter says. “It starts in a low Bb and the top is a minor third and major second.”
Space Bass: Swedish bassist Johan Westerlund of Moon Safari plays something of interest to fans of rare Gibsons. His futuristic, antique fireburst 1981 Gibson Victory Artist bass has 24 frets, two active pickups, Moog electronics, and an unusually shaped pickguard. “It was supposed to be like a Y, which is kind of weird, but it was inspired by Yes,” says Westerlund. “I like the sound. It’s really thundering—it’s like a Precision bass, but with some strange electronics from the ’80s.”
Journalist and rock biographer Jon Kirkman welcomes guests aboard Cruise to the Edge 2014 at the Pool Stage. The ship’s sail-away party included a performance by Saga. Photo by Robert Juckett.
Storytellers
Fans of Steve Hackett enjoyed a rare intimate performance, which he began with a classical guitar composition before launching into his signature “Horizons.” Flawlessly picking his Alvarez Yairi cutaway nylon-string, he closed it out with another Genesis classic, “Blood on the Rooftops.”
For the question-and-answer part of the hour, host Jon Kirkman asked him a few toughies. For example: What do the other former members of Genesis think about Hackett revisiting the group’s music through worldwide tours? Hackett joked they probably just wish they’d thought of it first. But he maintains he does it because he has a great affinity for the discography. “You could either take a competitive approach, or you could say I was in a band with people who were a bunch of fantastic songwriters,” Hackett said. “There wasn’t a duff songwriter amongst the band when I was part of it.”
When a fan suggested that he do the Genesis concept album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway live, Hackett agreed it was “probably a really good idea.” But new, original music is his focus for the future, and Hackett said he might actually end up being his own opening act on an upcoming tour. He quipped that a third Genesis redux would be “very cheesy.”
Hackett’s two performances in the ship’s formal Pantheon Theatre were full-on shows, with the master guitarist wielding his beloved 1957 goldtop Les Paul as Nad Sylvan belted out Genesis classics like “Dance on a Volcano” and “The Musical Box,” while UK’s John Wetton guested on “Fifth on Fifth.” Hackett was charming and warm throughout, playfully asking his devout followers: “All those numbers in 7/8—can you dance to that?” (Of course they could.) It wasn’t exactly a Squackett reunion when Chris Squire joined his old friend onstage to jam on a rendition of “All Along the Watchtower,” but it was a memorable moment.
During the UK Storytellers session, Eddie Jobson and Wetton discussed their time in King Crimson with Robert Fripp in the early ’70s, as well as UK’s brief life from 1977-80 (the current lineup with drummer Gary Husband and guitarist Alex Machacek reunited in 2011), and also about their time playing with other legendary acts like Roxy Music and Frank Zappa. Wetton performed several acoustic numbers, too, including “The Night Watch.”
There probably weren’t many casual proggers among this crowd, so the caliber went quite high for questions asked by the audience, many of them musicians themselves. Kirkman bravely asked Tony Levin what it was like to work with John Lennon in the studio on Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey before he was killed. While Levin said he had a tough time dealing with Lennon’s death, the working relationship was special—even smooth.
Yes plays in the Pantheon Theatre on Cruise to the Edge. This venue spot was for the flagship shows, which included two big shows per headliner and guests were assigned to one of the shows. Photo by Robert Juckett.
“It was really confrontational in a New York kind of way, and being a New Yorker myself at the time, I was comfortable with that,” Levin shared. “He came right up to me and said, ’They tell me you’re good, just don’t play too many notes.’ And I said, ’Don’t worry, I won’t. We got along excellently because of that.”
Levin and the other two Stick Men—guitarist Markus Reuter (King Crimson) and drummer Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson, Mr. Mister)—discussed their sophisticated instruments [see sidebar, “Onboard Gems”], and Levin even admitted to putting away the fretless for many years when Jaco Pastorious came around. “He played the way I didn’t realize I was dreaming of playing.” Levin also revealed how upright bassist and composer Oscar Pettiford subconsciously informed his work from a young age. (Levin is currently revisiting this early-’50s “cool” jazz influence as a side project with his older brother Pete.)
Many in the audience were curious about Reuter’s multi-instrumental talents, prompting an explanation of why his heart is in guitar. “I love playing the guitar because my finger touches the string directly and I have the impression that the divine influence can go directly into the string and translate.”
Sea Talk with the Stick Man Tony Levin
How did you become part of the lineup for Cruise to the Edge 2014?
It almost came together the year before, for The Crimson ProjeKCt to play it, but that didn’t work out. So, for this year’s cruise I contacted the promoters and asked if Stick Men could be part of the fun. I’m happy it all worked out.
What were your initial thoughts of the cruise, and how did the actual experience measure up?
I expected it to be fun and relaxing, but it was more of both than I’d expected: Great bands to hear, great facilities, and a very nice atmosphere with all the people who share a passion for progressive rock. I’ve been part of festivals that had many groups playing, but the thing that makes this stand out is sharing the week with the fans and with the bands, and in a setting that’s in itself a lot of fun.
If you were giving a state of the union on the matter of progressive rock …
I’m no expert on the current status of the industry. We in Stick Men, and I, in other projects, just enjoy playing our music. We don’t try to make it specifically fit into a genre, we just make the music we want to be playing. But it certainly is progressive rock, and we can’t help but notice that a lot of those who gravitate to our music also like King Crimson, Yes, and other classic progressive groups.
I can’t predict how the genre will fare in the coming years, but I think that some music takes more effort to get into—to understand—than others, and I think there is an additional value to that complex music, both for the listener and the players. So I’m happy to be enveloped in that adventure, wherever it takes us.
What is the essence of “prog rock” to you?
I keep using the word “progressive”—here’s why. To me, progressive music implies music that’s not settling for the way things have been done, but trying to forge new directions. Terms get complex because the bands that did that back in the ’60s and ’70s—and knocked the socks off many of us who hadn’t heard anything like it—those bands were playing progressive rock that got called “prog rock.”
So, does that phrase refer to music that is looking for new directions, or to music that sounds like those bands did in the ’60s and ’70s?
Both are valid, and there are some great bands doing either or both. For us in Stick Men, we’re not trying to sound like the classic prog bands did, we’re trying to push ourselves to do new things, whether we succeed or not. So it seems to make things clearer to describe that as progressive, rather than prog.
Can you comment on performing at sea? Did any Stick Men get seasick?
We were all, happily, comfortable at sea. The pool show, with high winds, was a challenge … everything needed to be fastened onstage or it’d blow away. But having Eddie Jobson sit in with us on a few pieces and jams more than made up for that distraction.
What were the highlights of your experience? Did you have a favorite stage or other general area on the MSC Divina?
I liked the ship a lot, so I didn’t spend much time in Cozumel. If I had to pick high points, it’d be our opening night in a club … great turnout and a lot of excitement about the music, even though we’d all just arrived on the boat. And just the general days of hanging out among fans of the music. It’s not at all like after shows, because you’re not running off, so there’s none of the hurry that’s there when you meet people after shows.
The Squackett team of Steve Hackett and Chris Squire reunites for “All Along the Watchtower,” with a little help from UK’s John Wetton. Photo by Robert Juckett.
Motion of the Ocean
This event also provided a rare and special opportunity for everyone aboard to socialize and mingle with their fellow passengers.
This wasn’t Kurdt Vanderhoof’s first cruise, but Presto Ballet’s founder and guitarist said it was the first one where he wanted to see every show. “I hate to see it end,” he shared after his performance in the Atrium on the last day of the cruise. “I like all the bands, and I love most of them.” Vanderhoof, whose other band Metal Church is a far cry from the sounds filling the Divina, started Presto Ballet to pay tribute to the progressive rock bands he cut his teeth on. “We’re regressive prog!” he says laughing. “We play regressive rock.”
It can be hard for bands like his to find paying gigs. In fact, Presto Ballet has been around for six years and has released five albums, but Cruise to the Edge was only the group’s fourth live gig. For Vanderhoof, it was the gig: “It’s a boat full of people who are actually going to listen.”
The ship’s relaxed atmosphere provided many opportunities for the relatively young group of musicians in the Swedish sextet Moon Safari to meet some of their heroes. “It’s like talking with your record collection,” says lead singer/guitarist Petter Sandström. “You could just go around with a beer and talk with everyone, and a lot of the old legends would just hang around in bars late at night. I talked a lot with Eddie Jobson. He was hanging at the late-night prog jam almost every night.”
For Moon Safari’s bassist Johan Westerlund, it was a chance to witness some of the greatest trailblazers of adventurous bass playing, like the great Squire. “He revolutionized it,” Westerlund attests. “In the mix of Fragile, you can hear something really strange going on, something that was brand new. They just played all over the place, the guitar can be low … there was no logic to it. It was not the same way it was done before. He used the bass like an actual instrument, not just to fill out the bass range. You can tell that everyone wants to play like him.”
Guitarist Steve Hackett chilling backstage before one of his several performances during the 2014 sea-faring festival.
Photo by Armando Gallo.
And so it would make sense to go to the source and ask the man himself: What is prog? “Generally it’s a term used for anything that’s a bit more complicated than three-chord songs—even though there’s nothing wrong with three-chord songs in their own right,” Squire says. “But prog rock has always had a classical influence, more interesting chord changes, and generally more complicated styles of playing. That’s really what prog rock means to me. I think most artists that have been involved in prog have generally been more clever players than is necessary to be in a lot of rock ’n’ roll, which is all about feel. We in Yes have always developed our interest in that as well, to promote the feel side of music as well as the musicality.”
As Genesis’ “Land of Confusion” played in the background, Vanderhoof offered a heartfelt reason for why he made the trip. “For me, progressive rock is about going against the grain, and music is the main focus. Music is paramount. It’s not about money, it’s not about fashion, it’s not about hits, it’s not about being cool, it’s not about chicks, it’s not about drugs, it’s not about beer—it’s not about any of that. It’s about music.”YouTube It
Go ahead and skip to 1:30 to remember why Chris Squire and Steve Howe are such highly regarded musicians, as Yes plays “Heart of the Sunrise” from their 1971 album, Fragile.
Steve Hackett, Chris Squire, and John Wetton surprise by jamming on “All Along the Watchtower” on Cruise to the Edge 2014.
Moon Safari shows off its six-part vocal harmonies on Cruise to the Edge with “Mega Moon” from their latest album, Himlabacken Vol. 1.
This clip of Italian band PFM gives a view of the ship’s center Pool Stage and also gives a glimpse of the variety of progressive tastes aboard.
Effects Bakery MECHA-PAN BAKERY Series MECHA-BAGEL OVERDRIVE
Konnichiwa, guitar lovers! 🎸✨
Are you ready to add some sweetness to your pedalboard? Let’s dive into the adorable world of the Effects Bakery Mecha-Pan Overdrive, part of the super kawaii Mecha-Pan Bakery Series!
🍩 Sweet Treats for Your Ears! 🍩
The Mecha-Pan Overdrive is like a delicious bagel for your guitar tone, but it’s been upgraded to a new level of cuteness and functionality!
Effects Bakery has taken their popular Bagel OverDrive and given it a magical makeover. Imagine your favorite overdrive sound but with more elegance and warmth – it’s like hugging a fluffy cat while playing your guitar!
It would have been easy for Wampler to simply make a Mostortion clone and call it a day, but they added some unique twists to the Mofetta pedal. While the original Mostortion had a MOSFET-based op amp, it actually used clipping diodes to create its overdrive. The Mofetta is a fairly accurate replica and includes that circuitry, but also has a toggle switch for texture, which lets you choose between the original-style diode-based clipping in the down position and multi-cascaded MOSFET gain stages in the up position.
Luscious Low Gain and Meaty Mid-Gain
The Mofetta’s control panel is very straightforward and conventional with knobs for bass, mids, treble, level, and gain. The original Mostortion was revered for its low-gain tone and is now popular among Nashville session guitarists. Wampler’s tribute captures that edge-of-breakup vibe perfectly. I enjoyed using the pedal with the gain on the lower side, around 9 o’clock, where I heard and felt slight compression that gave single notes a smooth and silky feel. I particularly enjoyed the tone-thickening the Mofetta lent to my Ernie Ball Music Man Axis Sport’s split-coil sound as I played pop melodies and rootsy, triadic rhythm guitar figures. The Mofetta has expansive headroom, and as a result there’s a lot of space in which you can find really bold, cutting tones without muddying the waters too much. Even turning the gain all the way off yields a pleasing volume bump that would work well in a clean boost setting.
There’s a lot of space in which you can find really bold, cutting tones without muddying the waters too much.
Switching the texture switch up engages the MOSFET section, introducing cascading gain stages that elevate the heat and add flavor the original Mostortion didn’t really offer. Classic rock and early metal are readily available via the MOSFET setting. If you need to stretch out to modern metal sounds, the Mofetta probably isn’t the pedal for you. Again, the original Mostortion was, first and foremost, a low-to-mid-gain affair, so unless you’re using it as a boost with a high-gain amp, the Mofetta is not really a vehicle for extreme sounds.
One of the Mofetta’s real treats is its responsiveness. Even at higher gain settings the Mofetta is very touch sensitive. You can tap into a wide range of dynamic shading just by varying the strength of your pick attack. I enjoyed playing fast, ascending scalar passages, picking with a medium attack then really slamming it hard when I hit a high climactic note, to get the guitar to really scream.
The Verdict
Wampler is a reliably great builder who creates pedals with a purpose. I own two of his pedals, the Dual Fusion and the Pinnacle, and both are really exceptional units. The Mofetta captures the essence of the Mostortion and makes it available at an accessible price. But even if you’ve never heard or played an original Mostortion, you’ll appreciate the truly versatile EQ, touch sensitivity, and the bonus texture switch, which expands the Mofetta’s range into more aggressive spaces. The wealth of dirt boxes on the market today can make a player jaded. But Wampler pushed into a relatively unique, satisfying, and interesting place with the Mofetta.
Filthy, saturated fuzz is a glorious thing, whether it’s the writ-large solos of Big Brother and the Holding Company’s live “Ball and Chain,” the soaring feedback and pure crush of Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady,” or the sandblasted rhythm textures of Queens of the Stone Age’s “Paper Machete.” It’s also a Wayback Machine. Step on a fuzz pedal and your tone is transported to the ’60s or early ’70s, which, when it comes to classic guitar sounds, is not a bad place to be.
Catalinbread’s StarCrash is from their new ’70s collection, so the company is laying its Six Million Dollar Man trading cards on the table—upping the ante on traditional fuzz with more controls and, according to the company’s website, a little more volume than the average fuzz pedal, while still staying in the traditional Fuzz Face lane.
The Howler’s Viscera
Arbiter Electronics made the first Fuzz Face in 1966. The StarCrash is inspired by that 2-transistor pedal, but benefits from evolution, as did almost all fuzz pedals in the ’70s, when the standard shifted from germanium to silicon circuitry to improve the consistency of the effect’s performance. The downside is that germanium is gnarlier to some ears, and silicon transistors don’t respond as well to adjustments made via a guitar’s volume control.
While Fuzz Faces have only two knobs, volume and fuzz, the silicon StarCrash has three: volume, bias, and low-cut. Catalinbread’s website explains: “We got rid of that goofy fuzz knob. We know that 95 percent of all players run it dimed, and the remaining 5 percent use their guitar’s volume knob to rein it in.”
I suspect there are plenty of players who, like me, do adjust the fuzz control on their pedals, but the most important thing is that the core fuzz sound here is excellent—bristly and snarling, with a far girthier tone than my reissue Fuzz Face. It’s also, with the bias and low-cut controls, far more flexible. The low-cut control allows you to range from a traditional, comparatively thinner Fuzz Face sound (past noon and further) to the StarCrash’s authentic, beefier voice (noon and lower). Essentially, it cuts bass frequencies from 40 Hz to 500 Hz, resulting in an aural menu that runs from lush and lowdown to buzzy and slicing. And the bias control is a direct route to the spitty, fragmented, so-called Velcro-sound that’s become a staple of the stoner-rock/Jack White school of tone. The company calls this dial a “dying battery simulator,” and it starves the second transistor to achieve that effect.
Sweet Song of the Tribbles
Playing with the StarCrash is a lot of fun. I ran it through a pair of Carr amps in stereo, adding some delay and reverb to mood, and used a variety of single-coil- and humbucker-outfitted guitars. While both pickup types interacted well with the pedal, the humbuckers were most pleasing to my ears with the bias cranked to about 2 o’clock or higher, since the ’buckers higher output allowed me to let notes sustain longer before sputtering out. Keeping the low-cut filter at 9 o’clock or lower also helped sustain and depth in the Velcro-fuzz zone, while letting more of the instruments’ natural voices come through, of course.
With the low-cut filter turned up full and the bias at 10 o’clock, I got the StarCrash to be the perfect doppelganger of my Hendrix reissue Fuzz Face. But that’s such a small part of the pedal’s overall tone profile. It was more fun to roll off just a bit of bass and set the bias knob to about 2 or 3 o’clock. Around these settings, the sound is huge and grinding, and yet barre chords hold their character while playing rhythm, and single-note runs, especially on the low strings, are a filthy delight, with just the right schmear of buttery sustain plus a hint of decay lurking behind every note. It’s such a ripe tone—the sonic equivalent of a delicious, stinky cheese—that I could hang with it all day.
Regarding Catalinbread’s claims about the volume control? Yes, it gets very loud without losing the essence of the notes or chords you’re playing, or the character of the fuzz, which is a distinct advantage when you’re in a band and need to stand out. And it’s a tad louder than my Fuzz Face but doesn’t really bark up to the level of most Tone Bender or Buzzaround clones I’ve heard. In my experience, these germanium-chipped critters of similar vintage can practically slam you through the wall when their volume levels are cranked.
The Verdict
Catalinbread’s StarCrash—with its sturdy enclosure, smooth on/off switch and easy-to-manipulate dials—can compete with any Fuzz Face variant in both price and performance, scoring high points on the latter count. The bias and low-cut dials provide access to a wider-than-usual variety of fuzz tones, and are especially delightful for long, playful solos dappled with gristle, flutter, and sustain. Kudos to Catalinbread for making this pedal not just a reflection of the past, but an improvement on it.
Catalinbread Starcrash 70 Fuzz Pedal - Starcrash 70 Collection
The release of a newRed Panda pedal is something to be celebrated. Each of the company’s devices lets us crack into our signal chains and tweak its inner properties in unique, forward-thinking ways, encouraging us to be daring, create something new, and think about sound differently. In essence, they take us to the sonic frontier, where the most intrepid among us seek thrills.
Last January, I got my first glimpse of the Radius at NAMM and knew that Red Panda mastermind Curt Malouin had, once again, concocted something fresh. The pedal offers ring modulation and frequency shifting with pitch tracking and an LFO, and I heard classic ring-mod tones as the jumping off point for oodles of bold sounds generated by envelope and waveform-controlled modulation and interaction. I had to get my hands on one.
Enjoy the Process
I’ve heard some musicians talk about how the functionality of Red Panda’s pedals are deep to a point that they can be hard to follow. If that’s the case, it’s by design, simply because each Red Panda device opens access to an untrodden path. As such, it can feel heady to get into the details of the Radius, which blends between ring modulation and frequency shifting, offering control of the balance and shift ratios of the upper and lower sidebands to create effects including phasing, tremolo, and far less-natural sounds.
As complex as that all might seem, Red Panda’s pedals always make it easy to strip the controls down to their most essential form. The firmest ground for a guitarist to stand with the Radius is a simple ring-mod sound. To get that, I selected the ring mod function, turned off the modulation section by zeroing the rate and amount knobs, kept the shift switch off and the range switch on its lowest setting. With the mix at noon and the frequency knob cranked, I found my sound.
From there, by lowering the frequency range, the Radius will yield percussive tremolo tones, and the track knob helped me dial that in before opening up a host of phaser sounds below noon. By going the other direction and kicking the rate switch into its higher setting, a world of ring-mod tweaking opens up. There are some uniquely warped effects in these higher settings that include dial-up modem sounds and lo-fi dial tones. Exploring the ring mod/frequency shift knob widens the possibilities further to high-pitched, filtered white noise and glitchy digital artifacts at its extremes.
There are wild, active sounds within each knob movement on the Radius, and the modulation section naturally brings those to life in more ways than a simple knob tweak ever could, delivering four LFO waveforms, a step modulator, two x-mod waveforms, and an envelope follower. It’s within these settings that I found rayguns, sirens, Shepard tones, and futuristic sounds that were even harder to describe.
It’s easy to imagine the Radius at the forefront of sonic experiments, where it would be right at home. But this pedal could easily be a studio device when applied in low doses to give a track something special that pops. The possible applications go way beyond guitars.
The Verdict
The Radius isn’t easy to plug and play, but it’s also not hard to use if you keep an open mind. That’s necessary, too: The Radius is not for guitar players who prefer to stay grounded; this pedal is for sonic-stargazers and producers.
I enjoyed pairing the Radius with various guitar instruments—12-string, baritone, bass—and it kept getting me more and more excited about sonic experimentation. That feeling is a big part of what’s special about this pedal. It’s so open-ended and controllable, continuing to reveal more of its capabilities with use. Once you feel like you’ve gotten something down, there are often more sounds to explore, whether that’s putting a new instrument or pedal next to it or exploring the Radius’ stereo, MIDI, or expression-pedal functionality. Like many great instruments, it only takes a few minutes to get started, but it could keep you exploring for years.
Red Panda Radius Ring Modulator/Frequency Shifter Pedal
