Artists of all kinds have found Philadelphia a famously supportive and enthusiastic creative environment, with audiences hungry for the weirdest and wildest. Guitar pedal makers are no exception, and the Philadelphia area is home to one of the hottest burgeoning pedal-building communities. This weekend, the Philly Pedal Party, hosted at rock club Johnny Brenda’s, brought out a crew of pedal-makers showing off everything from the fiercest fuzzes to the deepest reaches of knob-twirling modulation.
Organizer Bram Johnson, a recent transplant who moved to town about a year ago after living in London and New York City, says Philly has “such a vibrant music scene. There’s so many cool builders and so much happening.” While bigger guitar shows come through the area and bring people from much farther and and wider, Johnson was inspired to curate a show that just focused on pedal builders from the region.
Fuzzrocious Delivers Fun at Your Feet
Fuzzrocious’ Ryan Ratajski displayed some of his latest work.
Fuzzrocious’ colorful tone manglers have been a long-time standby in the Philly pedal scene. Owner Ryan Ratajski had some of their latest works on hand in the form of a line of re-designed pedals in smaller enclosures with an innovative elevated third footswitch. Located at the top of the pedal and positioned high enough to avoid accidental knob clicks or twists, it’s a control for various options, depending on the effect.
All hail the Cat King!
In the case of their new Cat King, the momentary switch activates a feedback control, providing a gateway to interactive noise generation that you probably won’t want to stop messing with. For this line, priced at just $180, Ratajski promises, “I’m gonna try and put as many cool things in a small box and not charge you more for it.”
Feature-ful Fuzz
The DTF, Smalls, and Awkward Mustache, from Voltic.
Voltic Electronic Devices’ dynamic, feature-ful fuzzes are becoming standbys on local pedalboards. Their flagship is the DTF (dual-transistor fuzz) that owner and fuzz-master John-Anthony DeMaio explains is like a Harmonic Percolator going into a MOSFET boost. Anyone stopping by the Voltic table got a taste of their recent Smalls Fuzz—inspired by the Sam Ash Fuzz and the Analog Man Astrotone—and a coming-soon smaller version of the 3-knob, 2-switch Awkward Mustache op-amp fuzz. “I try to do a one-off for every show,” says DeMaio, and he delivered with a Ram’s Head build (with hip bowling bowl knobs) that was up for grabs.
Weird and Wobbly from Woolly
Woolly had the latest from his Champion Leccy line on diplay.
Champion Leccy owner Woolly has created a world of lo-fi weirding modules that are full of surprises. The Skitzy borrows elements from his chorus/tape-delay combo platter the Woozy and fits it into a dual reverb, dosing one side with pitch and warble controls, the other with tremolo and phase-cancelation tremolo, and a host of other options. On his vibrant, colorful board, he also offered a sneak peek at his not-yet-released Kilter, an effects-loop modulator that promises a world of oddball options.
One for Steve Albini
Vaderin’s fuzz-friendly board delivers some familiar imagery on various flavors of grit, from the Big Muff-inspired Super Ram—which includes a useful gate control—to their Steve Albini-inspired Harmonic Percolator offering, covered in X’s.
Bonus Guitar!
This Sturner Hazzard has an ash body with a maple neck and fretboard.
Sure, it was a pedal show, but local builder James Sturner lives in the neighborhood, so he had some of his angular Sturner Guitars on hand. Here’s his Hazzard, loaded with Guitar Fetish pickups and a preamp
