Boutique manufacturer Paul Trombetta came to the effects business via a pretty traditional path. His pedals, though, are anything but typical. At 16, he started wiring his own guitars and rehousing effects. By 2003, he was modifying Electro-Harmonix Big Muffs and Pro Co Rats for friends, and in 2005 birthed Paul Trombetta Design to market pedal creations of his own.
Trombetta says his primary design motivation is to provide cutting-edge tones in pedals that are also capable of generating more recognizable and universally useful sounds. His Mini-Bone, for example, offers fat, dynamic Fuzz Face-style drive, yet also yields trumpet and trombone sounds, low octaves, and can harmonize a fifth down. All Trombetta’s pedals are true bypass, handwired, point-to-point, with carefully selected and matched components. And as many as half the pedals he sells are ordered with custom paint or engraving. They’re real works of art, from both an aesthetic and musical perspective. So it’s little surprise that Trombetta’s work drew the attention of experimental guitarist and soundtrack composer David Torn—or that he and Trombetta would conspire on a pedal to suit Torn’s needs. The result is the Tornita!
Torn and Paid
Torn and Trombetta’s relationship dates to 2009 when Torn (David Bowie, k.d. lang, John Legend, Tori Amos, Bill Bruford, Mick Karn, David Sylvian, Meshell Ndegeocello, Don Cherry) ordered a Mini-Bone from Trombetta. Pleased with his purchase, Torn had Trombetta send him one of the now-discontinued Donita pedals—a six-knob, highgain distortion that could produce self-oscillating feedback. Discussions ensued between Torn and Trombetta concerning modifications to the Donita design—things like latching and momentary feedback buttons, and foot adjustable feedback pitch control. The inclusion of these options and the layout of the resulting stompbox created something that was as much an instrument as a guitar pedal.
Though Trombetta produces over 200 pedals a year, the appearance of our test Tornita! retains a DIY aesthetic: The word “in”—like all the pedal’s details—is handcarved into the brushed metal casing to indicate the whereabouts of the input, a circle with a line across it (presumably representing negative tip) marks the adapter input, and the big Blend knob looks like it was pulled off a piece of gear from the ’50s.
The controls include Volume and Bias, as well as the oversized and unlabeled Blend knob. The Bias control creates cool bitreduction effects and affects the way the feedback reacts to both your playing and the fuzz sustain. There is a 3-way, mini-toggle Presence switch on the back, which has a very subtle mid-boost effect. A mini-toggle Feedback phase switch offers Up and Down modes. Up emphasizes the upper frequencies in feedback mode, while down favors—you guessed it—the lower ones. Either mode has the potential to unleash auto arpeggiating patterns, low octaves, and droning. The Momentary feedback footswitch enables you to engage the feedback effect for as long as you hold it down. The Latch mode holds and sustains feedback so you can use your foot to adjust the Blend knob for pitch changes and other surprises. The Tornita! operates on a 9V battery and standard 9V adapter.
Chaos Theory
I tested the Tornita! with a Fernandes Stratstyle and a Fender Stratocaster run through an Egnater Rebel 30 and an Orange Tiny Terror. I also recorded some samples by running the Tornita! directly into Ableton Live using Live’s Amp and Speaker plug ins to warm up the recorded tone.
With the Bias all the way up, the straight fuzz sound of the Tornita! was fat, warm, and reed-like, with plenty of sustain. Backing off the Volume thinned and cleaned up the sound significantly, creating a sharp cutting tone that sliced through a mix.
Turning the Bias down transports you to more experimental realms. A slight nudge counterclockwise added a cool crackle to the fuzz and shortened the sustain considerably. Turning it almost totally down transformed my guitar’s tone into an electronic blip.
Moving beyond the straight fuzz setting, I entered a world of character-rich tones that are definitely designed with the more adventurous guitarist in mind. Stepping on either the Latch or Momentary Feedback switches gave me pitch shifts, random arpeggios, and synth-style oscillator sweeps that I could control—and I use the term loosely—with my pickup selector switch, guitar volume and tone knobs, and/or the pedal’s Blend control. As I began to change the relationship between the knobs and switches, the tones started mutating thick and fast, and I found dozens of really musical, if unorthodox sounds.
The one hitch may be in trying to recreate them. Getting the same tone twice isn’t always just a question of recalling the position of each knob and switch. And what felt like the same notes or licks on the guitar would often yield different effects each time—even with identical settings— as the Tornita! picked up nuances in attack and intensity.
It didn’t take long to embrace the chaos, and I had hours of fun exploring the different squeals and squawks emanating from my axe. I found that with the guitar volume full up it was possible to play lines over the feedback, and that reducing the Bias brought out more arpeggios.
The Tornita! is a blast for creating unusual-sounding passages for recording projects. And editing some parts yielded inspirations for whole songs. For live applications, it’s worth taking the time to learn which settings yield predictable, repeatable results (changing the position of the 5-way on the Strat, with the guitar volume all the way up, was one of my favorites), but a big part of the fun of the Tornita! is the surprise factor for both you and your audience—if you’re willing to take a few chances.
The Verdict
Tornita! is not for everyone. If your music is more experimental in nature, this pedal is a must-have, but if you just want the straight fuzz sound, you might opt for Trombetta’s Fudge fuzz or any number of more traditional fuzzes instead. Should you want to combine the far-out with the traditional, Trombetta’s FeederBoneMachine offers a version of Tornita! combined with a Mini- Bone in one pedal.
The effects world is rife with distortion and fuzz pedals, making it hard to come up with something new. Paul Trombetta has not only come up with fresh noises, he manages to make them sound great. The Tornita! pushes the envelope of what a distortion/fuzz can do and fuzz freaks and outer-limits players alike should rejoice.
Buy if...
you want thick, musical fuzz and want to create strange effects with guitar knobs or pickup switches.
Skip if...
you just want fuzz.
Rating...
Street $229 - Paul Trombetta Design - paultrombetta.com |
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The 2018 CCL Deco Custom, in all its Pelham blue glory.
Anyway, we became friends and I started working on him pretty early—my 40th birthday was approaching, and that meant it was time for us to start designing his first solidbody build. If you stopped on this page, it’s because the photo of the finished product caught your eye. Beautiful, right? The 2018 CCL Deco Custom: Never shall there be another.
Old National Glenwood guitars were my design inspiration, but I wanted a slim waist like a PRS and the like. We used a solid block of korina to start, routed like MacGyver to get the knobs and switches where I wanted them. Dale builds all his own lathes and machines (usually out of lumber, y’all), as the task requires. This beast took some creativity—it’s tight wiring under that custom-steel pickguard. Many were the preliminary sketches. Four coats of Pelham blue, 11 coats of nitro. Honduran mahogany neck, Madagascar ebony fretboard with Dale’s signature not-quite-Super-400 inlays. He designed the logo; I just said, “Make it art deco.”
We sourced all the bits and bobs from StewMac and Allparts and Reverb and the like, mostly to get that chrome look I so adore. Graph Tech Ratio tuners, Duesenberg Radiator trem (had to order that one from Germany), TonePros TP6R-C roller bridge. The pickups were a genius suggestion from the builder, Guitarfetish plug ’n’ play 1/8" solderless swappable, which means I have about 10 pickups in the case to choose from: rockabilly to metal. And both slots are tapped, with the tone knobs serving as single- to double-coil switches. I put the selector on the lower horn to accommodate my tendency to accidentally flip the thing on Les Pauls—definite lifesaver.
Reader and guitar enthusiast, Cody Lindsey.
Dale offered to chamber this monster, but I said what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. It weighs in at 11 pounds, if it’s an ounce. We carved the neck to match a ’60s SG, so it’s like the mini bat you get at the ballpark on little kids’ day. Easy peasy. 1 11/16" nut, 25" scale, jumbo frets, just 2 1/8" at the 12th fret.
Delivery in its lovely, hygrometer-equipped Cedar Creek case actually happened a month or two shy of my 41st, but hey, you can’t rush these things. We ended up with a studio Swiss Army knife; it does a bit of everything and does it effortlessly. A looker, too. Dale didn’t spend his career doing this kind of thing—he was in IT or some such—and I imagine he’s winding this “hobby” of his down these days, enjoying retirement with a bottle of Killian’s and a lawn chair at Duluth Blues Fest. But this guitar will live on as a marker of his skill and otherworldly patience. It sits at the head of the class in my practice room, welcoming any visitors and bringing a smile to my face every day. And Dale, my friend, I’ll be 50 before you know it....
Cody requested that Dale design an art deco logo for the guitar’s headstock.