
Eight innovative builders share their design philosophies and describe life on the cutting edge of pedal craft.
The electric guitar is electric, obviously, and thatās what makes it special. The acoustic guitar may be natural and beautiful, but nothing compares to the crushing majesty of an amplified electricādimed, maxed, and inducing deafness.
You know that.
But bluster aside, the electric guitar is also infinitely malleable. Since the ā60s, when inexpensive effects hit the streets and made modifying your guitar signal possible, guitarists have been shaping, crafting, and modulating their tones. Those first pedals, like fuzz boxes and wahs, for example, were simple but effective tools that left guitar players pining for more. And more was to come, especially as technology improved and music went digital. But research, development, and production are expensive, so, for the most part, the big advances were made by well-funded companies and industry leaders. Like youād expect.
Until now.
Parallel with the dawn of the new century is the democratization of pedal innovation. Basement tinkerers, experimenters, sonic misfits, and the curious set up small, one-man, mom-and-pop businesses. They developed new twists on old ideas, perfected old circuits, updated outdated technology, reinvented forgotten concepts, crafted newness from nothing, and radically altered the guitar-playing landscape.
In this roundup, we profile eight stompbox scientists. Their designs are different, sometimes unusual, and redefine what guitar pedals can do. Some are boutique treasures that emphasize appearances and look more like art pieces than guitar gadgets. Others are nondescript, but hide little monsters under the hood. All will transform your tone, challenge your assumptions, and afford you the tools to make better music.
Most of our builders are based in the U.S., although we went international and spoke with builders in Finland and Canada as well. We discussed their building philosophies, standout designs, popular pedals, the challenges and benefits of running a small shop, and the artists and new music their products make possible.
Are you ready? Make sure to take notes. Videos, manuals, demos, and reviews are already online for most of the pedals discussed. You might find your missing linkāor multiple links you didnāt know you were missing.
The new Tonal Recall delay features a pair of reissued MN3005 bucket-brigade analog ICs, the same type used in
the classic Electro-Harmonix Memory Man.
Chase Bliss Audio
Based just north of Minneapolis in Anoka, Minnesota, Chase Bliss Audio is the brainchild of pedal builder Joel Korte. His pedals are notable for their kitchen-sink approachāanalog guts, digital brains, multiple knobs and toggles, and a bevy of DIP switchesāwith no parameter left untweakable. āIām really trying to exist in a space where others do not,ā Korte says. āA lot of guitar pedals want to control the user experienceāyou can only turn the knobs so far so it sounds a certain way. But mine are the exact opposite of that. I donāt want to control the user experience at all. I want to give users a canvas to do whatever they want.āKorteās first pedal was the innovative Warped Vinyl. āI had this idea to digitally create an LFO [low frequency oscillator] that provides a ton of control,ā he says. āItās called ModuShape and it lets you make any kind of shape you want. I wanted to hear that kind of LFO control applied to pitch vibrato.ā
Chase Bliss chief Joel Korte at work.
Itās a concept heās transferred to his other pedals as well. āYou can control every parameter with an expression pedal individually or simultaneously, and also ramp any parameter individually or simultaneously. Itās like you have a little robot that can turn your knobs in a rhythmic way without you having to bend over. Some of that stuff sounds really interesting and musical, and some of it sounds insane. Itās up to the users to do what they want with it.ā
Zack Warpinski sketches plans for world domination. Or perhaps a new circuit.
Korteās newest offering, Tonal Recall, is a delay based on that same analog/digital concept, and itās shaping up to be his biggest seller. āEver since I started the company,ā he says, āIād hear, āHey bro, you gotta make a delay.āā But Korte held off because the chip he wanted to useāthe MN3005 bucket-brigade delay analog IC used in the old Electro-Harmonix Memory Man and Boss DM-2āhad been discontinued. āIt was hard for me to get excited about delay, because that particular chip wasnāt around. But last year the chip was reissued, so I decided to do it.ā
Warped VinylāKorte's first pedalāuses a digital LFO to control pitch vibrato.
Korteās pedals are making the rounds, but donāt expect him to name-drop. āIād rather just not have an artist roster,ā he says. āObviously, I love it. Iām a music fan and if someone notable is using the pedals, I think thatās amazing. But at the same time, there are a lot of really talented people using our products who are undiscovered.ā
Chase Bliss be chillinā: Holly Hansen, Zack Warpinski, and Joel Korte. āIām really trying to exist in a space where others do not,ā says Korte of his sonic vision.
The companyās backstory is inspiring, too. āItās named in honor of my brother, who was killed by a drunk driver in 2007. I was going down the path of normal lifeāI was just going to exist and not do anything that was interesting for me. He was out in L.A. trying to be an actor, and his death really shook me. I realized I needed to pursue something I was passionate about. It really felt right to name the company after him and his approach to life.ā
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Hungry Robot
Mantic Conceptual
Darkglass Electronics
Fuzzrocious
3Leaf Audio
Cusack Music
Union Tube & Transistor
The Wash is aimed at guitarists who typically use multiple delays and reverbs to create lush sounds. āI often see ambient players using two delays and two reverbs at a time to create their ambient wash tone, and I wanted to have
that all in one pedal,ā says designer Eric Junge.
Hungry Robot
Hungry Robot Pedals offers deep tones with a streamlined interface. āI try to make the user experience as simple as possible,ā says owner Eric Junge. āWhen youāre onstage, you donāt want a whole bunch of presets and hidden menus. Different parameters are great for the studio, but when it comes to a live setting, you want to focus on your playing and interact with the crowd.āJungeās first pedals were overdrivesāwhich he still buildsāthough lately heās focused on ambient tones, as evidenced by his biggest seller, the Wash. āI wanted to simplify the āboard for someone who plays ambient stuff,ā he says. āI often see ambient players using two delays and two reverbs at a time to create their ambient wash tone, and I wanted to have that all in one pedal. A lot of people mistake the Wash for just a delay and reverb, which it is at its core, but what makes it unique is the way those two interact with each other. There are different types of feedback loops built into the pedal, where the reverb goes back into the delay and that will go through the reverb again and then into a different part of the delay. You canāt do that with patch cables. I also wanted a tap-tempo delay that was able to engage the super lush ambient wash tone underneath the signal.ā
Junge builds every Hungry Robot pedal in his basement.
Jungeās pedals donāt use a battery, which seems to be a trend in the industry. āIāve probably sold close to 1,000 pedals and Iāve only had two people ask about batteries,ā he says. āI think the general consensus is most people arenāt using batteries any more. A lot of my designs are very tight internallyāI couldnāt even fit a battery into a couple of them. So my take is, āAm I going to make this pedal bigger for the 0.1 percent of the public thatās going to use a battery?āā
The Starlite reverb pedal offers tap tempo and modulation.
One tight design is the HG+LG (High Gain plus Low Gain), which consists of two overdrive pedals crammed into a single enclosure. The outside controls are simple, but inside 12 DIP switches let you make subtle changes depending on your guitar and amp combination. āI saw with a lot of different guitarists that the overdrive section of their board was constantly changing,ā he says. āThey would buy a pedal, play through it for one or two days, and put it up on Reverb.com. I wanted people to be able to customize their drive by tweaking the different diodes, tone signatures, and gains. My hope is that whatever types of guitars and amps theyāre using, theyāll find a way to have everything mesh well.ā
Jungeās MO is to produce deep tones with a streamlined interface. āWhen youāre onstage, you donāt want a whole bunch of presets and hidden menus,ā he says.
Hungry Robot is a family affair and the pedals are built in-house. āItās all in my basement right now,ā Junge says. āI do all through-hole componentsāI donāt send it to a board house and have surface mount stuff slapped on there. I wire it all together. I do all the powder coating, all the drilling, all the PCB assembly, and final assembly. Even the artwork, my wife does that.ā
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Chase Bliss Audio
Mantic Conceptual
Darkglass Electronics
Fuzzrocious
3Leaf Audio
Cusack Music
Union Tube & Transistor
Manticās Caleb Henning (left) and Luis Etscheid. āJust hold still, Luis, this wonāt hurt at all.ā
Mantic Conceptual
Mantic Conceptual pedals are weird, and thatās a good thing. āI got into circuit bending, modding, building synth modules, and what-have-you,ā says Luis Etscheid, Manticās co-owner and winner of the 2012 Moog Circuit Bending Championship. āIt was a long-term organic evolution of things that brought us to a product.ā Etscheid founded the Colorado company with his business partner Caleb Henning in 2013.āLuis Etscheid, Mantic Conceptual
The duoās first pedalāand their closest to a cloneāis the Density Hulk sub-harmonizer and low-frequency booster. āItās based on the 1995 DOD Meatbox,ā Etscheid says. āThatās what we started our company on. Other than that, theyāre now all-original designs. We definitely like to put out stuff thatās unique and will lend players their own voice, and that can be pretty polarizing, I guess. People will either love it or not.ā
The Mantic Flex Pro: part fuzz, part envelope follower, part synth-glitch generator.
The Mantic Flex Pro pushes those boundaries. Part fuzz, part envelope follower, part synth-glitch generator, the Flex Pro incorporates an added mix control, filter-range selector, and variable-speed LFO for tracking modulation. āThe Flex started as an experiment,ā says Etscheid. āWe were messing around with a lot of different basic circuit principles, trying to come up with something that was reminiscent of a lot of circuit bent tones we were getting on old keyboards, but more controllable so that it could be used in a āmusicalāāquote unquoteācontext. Itās basically a variant of a phase-lock loop. We spent a lot of time on the interface. Actually, we had a 12-knob version at one point. We built a few of those as one-offs and sent them out to some of our friendsāSimon Francis, Adrian Belew, and Nick Reinhartāto get some feedback. You put so many hours into something, you have to get some outside perspective.ā
Winner of the 2012 Moog Circuit Bending Championship, Etscheid (right) has deep roots in synth modding.
Mantic Conceptual is small, and Etscheid and Henning want to keep it that way. āItās just a two-man operation out of a garage,ā Etscheid says. āItās great staying small. We donāt have to waste too much of our time with management, and we can maintain a direct line of communication with our customers and our retailers. We both really like talking to and knowing the people who buy and use our stuff. Itās been really helpful for the development process as well.ā
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Chase Bliss Audio
Hungry Robot
Darkglass Electronics
Fuzzrocious
3Leaf Audio
Cusack Music
Union Tube & Transistor
Darkglass mastermind Douglas Castro takes measurements on his first amplifier, a top-secret M900 prototype,
which hadnāt been announced as of this writing.
Darkglass Electronics
Based in Helsinki, Finland, Darkglass Electronics builds effects pedals for bass players. āOur primary goal is to tell bass players, āBe heard and be noticed,āā says Darkglass CEO and founder Doug Castro. āAll of our effects and preamplifiers are about taking the bass sound to the next level so bassists can reclaim a more predominant role in their bands.āOriginally from Chile, Castro started playing bass at 13, but opted to focus on electronics after high school. āThe first circuit I designed was the Microtubes B3K, which is now one of our best-selling products,ā he says. āOnce I designed that one, everything took off from there.ā
The B7K is a preamp, overdrive, and 4-band EQ for bassists.
Darkglassā flagship is the Microtubes B7Kāa souped-up edition of the B3K thatās available in both standard and Ultra versions. āThe B7K is a preamp, overdrive, and 4-band EQ,ā Castro says. āThe Ultra has basically the same preamps, but you control the distortion separately with a second foot switch. You also have two mid controlsālow and high midāand each mid control has a 3-way selector switch.ā
Kiriaki āKiraā Pavlidi at work. āWe could not imagine any of our products without Kiriakiās neat
assembling and soldering,ā says Castro.
Although headquartered in Finland, the company is truly international. R&D and manufacturing is done in Europe, marketing and sales are based in Chile, and artists relations is in the U.S. āWe have a 200 square-meter shop, and all the effects are built here in Finland,ā Castro says. āThe metalwork, chassis, silk screening, and laser engraving is all done here. We try to keep it local. We get the circuit boards from a few suppliers in different EU countries, but all the final assembly and testing is done here.ā
Party time in Helsinki! Although headquartered in Finland, the company has offices in Chile and the U.S.
Darkglass artists run the gamut from metal to pop, and include Alex Webster (Cannibal Corpse), Tony Levin, Billy Gould (Faith No More), Dick Lƶvgren (Meshuggah), and Amos Heller (Taylor Swift). āI believe the product you make should work for different scenarios and should adapt to many requirements. We focus on products that can be used by anyone,ā Castro says.
Enrique āQuiqueā Rangel solders a connection. All Darkglass effects are built in Finland in the companyās
200 square-meter shop.
But ultimately, itās all about the bass. āI think bass players have always had a very shy role in bands for the most partāespecially in rock and metalāand I would really like to see them take the lead a bit more.ā
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Chase Bliss Audio
Hungry Robot
Mantic Conceptual
Fuzzrocious
3Leaf Audio
Cusack Music
Union Tube & Transistor
Fuzzrocious pedals is a Ratajski family affair. Ryan handles electronics design and business, while Shannon (shown here) does the paintingāsometimes with the help of their kids.
Fuzzrocious
Ryan Ratajski and family are Fuzzrocious pedals. āEverything has grown organically for us,ā he says. āWe make sure weāre helping bands out and making things people enjoy. My wife, Shannon, does all the hand painting. I do the designing, soldering, internet, and everything else. Even the kids get to help outāpeople commission them to make their art on the pedals.āāRyan Ratajski, Fuzzrocious
Fuzzrocious pedals are customizable and some are variations on classic circuits. One example is Feed Me, an innovative take on multiple variations of the Big Muff. āThe tone stacks in those old Big Muffs are different,ā Ratajski says. āThatās why some people are like, āCivil War is the best,ā or āBlack Russian is my favorite.ā I examined the components of 12 or 13 of the most popular Big Muff versions. We put those on rotaries and added some more as well, so you can dial in all the classic tone stacks. There are over 20,000 combinations you can get tone-wise.ā
All Fuzzrocious pedals are built to order. āIf you come to Fuzzrocious,ā says Ryan, āyouāre getting something thatās made for you. It is not coming off a shelf.ā
Ratajski also enjoys collaborating. He teamed up with Electro-Faustus to create the Greyflyāa combination of his Grey Stache Fuzz with EFās Blackfly. āWe hooked up at NAMM last year,ā he says. āA mutual friend brought us together. They loved how their Blackfly sounded through our Grey Stache Fuzz, and we agreed. You can pluck the springs, scrape them, twang them. You can tap the box and yell into it. Itās a piezo mic, so you can create noise with it. When you add that fuzz, it exacerbates everything thatās going on with your sound.ā
āI examined the components of 12 or 13 of the most popular Big Muff versions,ā says Ryan of the Muff-inspired Feed Me EQ/preamp/tone-shaper. āWe put those on rotaries and added some more as well.ā
Ratajskiās most extreme pedal was the Zuul, which is currently on hiatus. āThat was an oscillator that was semi-blended with your clean signal into a drive circuit,ā he says. āIt went from super hummingbird speed to a super low click. When it went even faster it would get into crazy oscillation behind your signal and you could tune it to a pitch. Thatās something we are going to bring back in the future in a new way.ā
The Anomalies delay is based on a PT2399 chip. Each run of 25 features different artwork.
From his current line, the big seller is the Demon. āThe Queens of the Stone Age guys embraced the pedal and talked about it a lot,ā he says. āThat was the impetus to really skyrocket the sales for that pedal. Itās by far our best-selling pedal.ā
When you order a Fuzzrocious pedal, you have three options for artwork: painted by Shannon, painted by her kids, or both.
But regardless of how many they sell, all Fuzzrocious pedals are built to order. āIf you come to Fuzzrocious, youāre getting something thatās made for you. We start production when your order comes in. It is not coming off a shelf. You are getting something from soup to nuts thatās been handmade just for you.ā
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Hungry Robot
Mantic Conceptual
Darkglass Electronics
3Leaf Audio
Cusack Music
Union Tube & Transistor
āTone is totally subjective,ā says Doren, ābut my pedals definitely work best for the sounds Iām trying to get.ā
3Leaf Audio
Seattleās 3Leaf Audio crafts innovative variations on offbeat themes. āI have my own aesthetic in terms of the visual look and feel,ā says founder Spencer Doren. āI usually think I can make something that sounds betterāat least for my purposesāthan other things on the market. Tone is totally subjective, but my pedals definitely work best for the sounds Iām trying to get. It turns out these pedals resonate with other people, too.āāSpencer Doren, 3Leaf Audio
Doren is self-taught and learned his craft tweaking older pedals. āI had this old pedal, the Lovetone Meatball, that existed in the ā90s,ā he says. āI loved it because my musical heroes used it, but the pedal was really hard to use. I tried hacking it up. I tried to make it sound better, make it a little simpler, and that evolved into its own thing, which is how I got started.ā
A selection of 3Leaf pedals, which are all built in Washington State.
One of Dorenās most intriguing pedals is the Octabvre, named for bassist Tim Lefebvre. āTim is a really great bass playerāheās currently on tour with the Tedeschi Trucks bandābut Iāve known him from before that gig,ā Doren says. āIād see him play at the 55 Bar in New York with Wayne Krantz, and theyād do this experimental, weird jazz. Timās tone was based around the old Boss OC-2, which is my all-time favorite octave sound. The original idea for my octave pedal was that I wanted something that would let Tim do his thing and be able to cut the dry signal without having to bend down to turn off the dry knob. I would see him do that live.ā The pedal has a footswitch labeled āsub,ā which cuts the dry signal. āThe other idea behind the Octabvre is that one side of the tone knob is basically the Boss OC-2, and the other side is based around the Mu-Tron Octave Divider, which is my other favorite octave pedal. It combines these two tones from these two vintage effects into one unit.ā
Named for session bassist Tim Lefebvre, the Octabvre is inspired by the Boss OC-2 and Mu-Tron Octave Dividerā
Dorenās two favorite vintage octave pedals.
3Leafās most popular pedal is the Proton, which is one of two envelope filters he makes. āI get emails from people all the time asking, āWill this make me sound like Jerry Garcia?āā Doren says. āI think thatās more technique than anything else, but my pedal can certainly help.ā Bootsy Collins is also a fan of the pedal. āAt one point, Bootsy was using three of my Protons. But I donāt know what he is using at any particular time, because he goes through a bunch of gear. His original setup back in the day was three Mu-Trons chained together. He would split his signal into three parts and run each one through an envelope filter with different settings and then recombine them.ā
Designed to respond to playing dynamics, the Doom fuzz produces sounds reminiscent of vintage synths.
3Leaf Audio is a small local shop, and outsourced work is kept in Washington State. āIt makes it easier to communicate with these people when they are nearby,ā he says. āThey can ship stuff to me in a day, so it is really easy. Iāve got a shop here in Capitol Hill, where I do testing, final assembly, box everything up, and make sure it is good.ā
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Chase Bliss Audio
Hungry Robot
Mantic Conceptual
Darkglass Electronics
Fuzzrocious
Cusack Music
Union Tube & Transistor
Based in Holland, Michigan, John Cusack and his team build pedals and guitar amps under the Cusack brand
and for other brands.
Cusack Music
Solid engineering, not tinkering and experimentation, is the foundation of Michigan-based Cusack Music. āWhen I first started, I used the phrase āreality in tone,āā says Jon Cusack, the companyās founder. āAt the timeāthis was 2002āeverybody was talking about carbon film resistors and that you had to have it handwired or it wasnāt going to sound right. As an experienced engineer, I was like, ā95 percent of this is bull crap; itās all marketing.ā My philosophy is that when I design something, I design it from an engineering standpoint. āTheoretically, what kind of resistor is going to work best in this circuit? What kind of capacitor is going to work best in this circuit? How am I going to get what I want for a sound out of this?ā When Iām doing the design process, I go through the theoretical first, then I lay out a circuit board.āCusack doesnāt make clones, except for his first pedal, which was based on a Tube Screamer. āI did a clone as the very first one because I wanted to get a handle on everything else,ā he says. āWhat enclosure am I going to use? What kind of power jacks? What kind of pots? Whatās the drill pattern going to be? I was like, āThe first go around, letās worry about the mechanics of how this thing is going to be assembled.ā So I took one piece out of the equation, which was coming up with the circuit, because everything else was from the ground up. From that point on, everything else has pretty much been a from-scratch circuit.ā
The Cusack crew at work.
Some circuits venture into the absurd. āThe Tap-A-Scream was an April Foolsā joke,ā says Cusack. āSomebody on a forum somewhere said, āWhen are you going to come out with a tap overdrive?ā So I built a prototype and announced it on April Foolsā Day thinking, āOkay, this will be funny because I actually built a prototype.ā But then I had a dealer order 10 of them. People who use it get what it does and they find some pretty cool applications for it.ā
āMy philosophy is that when I design something, I design it from an engineering standpoint,ā says Cusack. āI go through the theoretical first, then I lay out a circuit board.ā
Another innovation is the Never Off Seriesāpedals without on/off switches that are designed to work with loop systems. āI work with quite a few touring guys and they are always asking for smaller and lighter,ā Cusack says. āMark Lee from Third Day said, āI need a board thatās really small, one I can fly with as carry-on, and itās got to fit on a Pedaltrain Mini.ā I thought we could start with our Pedal Board Tamer programmable pedal looper, and then take our individual pedals and put them in a tiny box without a bypass in themābecause you already have the bypass in your loop systemāand now weāve saved all that space. With the Pedal Board Tamer and Never Off pedals, he now has a complete analog pedalboard, but with the digital aspect of having presets, too.ā
One of Cusackās innovations is the Never Off Seriesātiny pedals without on/off switches that are designed to work with loop-switching systems. āYou already have the bypass in your loop system and now weāve saved all that space,ā he says.
Cusack also has an outstanding track record partnering with other manufacturers, although lately heās been pulling back. āWhat we realized is that we really love interacting with the other buildersāthey are all friends and we hang out at the showsābut it took the focus off our goal, which was the Cusack Music products. In the last three months, I had to learn to say no. Iām still helping people as I can, but I am not doing full-blown designs anymore for anybody. It had been three years since I released anything with my own name on it.ā But that said, Cusack Music has a slew of new offerings on the horizon. āWe released the Pedal Cracker a few weeks ago. It is going to be shipping in two weeks. We bought Mojo Hand FX and are planning to release new pedals under that brand. We paired up with AJ Peat Guitars and weāre releasing a whole pedal line for him. Weāre still working on multiple brands, but they are brands that either we own or that are close friends who we have tight ties with.ā
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Union Tube & Transistor
āI think of everything in the world of distortion and fuzz as being a spectrum,ā says Union Tube & Transistorās Chris Young. Photo by Mitka Alperovitz
Union Tube & Transistor
Hailing from Vancouver, BC, Union Tube & Transistor specializes in dirt. āI think of everything in the world of distortion and fuzz as being a spectrum,ā says co-owner Chris Young. āYou start off with a clean boost. From that you go to a micro amp and then to a Tube Screamer, overdrive, or a Klon or something. At the end of that spectrum is the beginning of the RAT spectrum. The end of the RAT spectrum is the beginning of the fuzz spectrum. I want to have stages, so I can go from mild amp-like characteristics into a better version of a Boss DS-1, a RAT, or a stack.āWith business partner Kirk Elliott, Young builds a line of unique and virtually indestructible boxes. āThat came out of my years of doing repairs,ā Young says. āHow can we make these as bulletproof as possible? We always color code our wires and we donāt mount switches or anything that has the possibility of breaking the circuit board onto the circuit board itself. That badge you see on the face of the pedal? The four screws that hold that badge in place secure the circuit board as well. The way our stuff is designed, you can step on the jack and break it, but youāre never going to hurt the circuit board.ā
A pair of no-knob Bumble Buzz pedalsāa collaboration with Jack Whiteāshare the bench with Swindle stomps, which occupy a sonic space between overdrive and fuzz. Photo by Mitka Alperovitz
Union Tube & Transistor is best known for their no-knob collaboration with Jack Whiteās Third Man Records. āWe sent Jack a More pedal a number of years ago,ā says Young. White used the pedal on āSixteen Saltinesā and for the vocals in āIām Shakināā on his 2012 Grammy-nominated release Blunderbuss. āMost people, when we send them stuff, we never hear anything. But Jackās people started communicating with us right away. āJack really likes this. Would you think about installing one of these in one of his guitars?āā After some discussion back and forth, Third Man Records flew Young to Nashville to discuss collaborating on a new pedal. āI brought a handful of things that we made and a handful of things that were ideas for new devices. He picked the sound of something he liked and the look of something elseāit was a no-knob unit without any controls on it; only an on/off switch.ā The result is the Bumble Buzz, an unorthodox, muscular octave fuzz that PGās Charles Saufley called āthe Howlinā Wolf of fuzzes.ā
This tidy workspace belies Youngās passion for aural dirt in its many variations. Photo by Mitka Alperovitz
Union Tube & Transistor have a few interesting ideas on the horizon, but for now their primary focus is distortion. āEverything has been gain stages and fuzzes,ā Young says. āIām not against doing other stuff, but the problem often becomes, āIf it exists already, it is hard to do the me-too thing.āā
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Cusack Music
ENGL, renowned for its high-performance amplifiers, proudly introduces the EP635 Fireball IR Pedal, a revolutionary 2-channel preamp pedal designed to deliver the legendary Fireball tone in a compact and feature-rich format.
The EP635 Fireball IR Pedal brings the raw power and precision of the ENGL Fireball amplifier into a pedalboard-friendly enclosure, offering unmatched flexibility and tonal control for guitarists of all styles. This cutting-edge pedal is equipped with advanced features, making it a must-have for players seeking high-gain perfection with modern digital convenience.
Key Features:
- Authentic Fireball Tone ā Designed after the renowned ENGL Fireball amplifier, the EP635 delivers the unmistakable high-gain aggression and clarity that ENGL fans love.
- Two Independent Channels ā Easily switch between two distinct channels, with each channelās knob settings saved independently, allowing for seamless transitions between tones.
- Built-in Midboost Function ā Enhance your tone with the integrated Midboost switch, perfect for cutting through the mix with extra punch.
- Advanced Noise Gate ā Eliminate unwanted noise and maintain articulate clarity, even with high-gain settings.
- IR (Impulse Response) Loading via USB-C ā Customize your sound with user-loadable IRs using the included software, bringing studio-quality cab simulations to your pedalboard.
- Headphone Output ā Silent practice has never been easier, with a dedicated headphone output for direct monitoring.
- Premium Build and Intuitive Controls ā Featuring a rugged chassis and responsive controls for Volume, Gain, Bass, Middle, Treble, and Presence, ensuring precise tonal shaping.
SPECS:
- Input 1/4ā (6,35mm) Jack
- Output 1/4ā (6,35mm) Jack
- Headphone Output 1/8ā(3,5mm) Jack
- 9V DC / 300mA (center negativ) / power supply, sold separately
- USB C
The Gibson EH-185, introduced in 1939, was one of the companyās first electric guitars.
Before the Les Pauls and SGs, this aluminum-reinforced instrument was one of the famous brandās first electric guitars.
Itās hard to overstate the importance of electric guitar in shaping American popular music over the last half-century. Its introduction was a revolution, changing the course of modern musical styles. Today, when we think of the guitars that started the revolution, we think of the Stratocaster and the Les Paul, guitars held against the body and fretted with the fingertips. But the real spark of this musical mutiny was the lap-steel guitar.
In the early 20th century, guitar music was moving out of the parlors of homes and into public spaces where folks could gather together and dance. Guitarists needed to project their sound far beyond where their wimpy little acoustic instruments could reach. Instrument manufacturers began experimenting with larger body sizes, metal construction, and resonators to increase volume.
Around this time, George Beauchamp began experimenting with electric guitar amplification. He settled on a design using two U-shaped magnets and a single coil of wire. Beauchamp was in business with Adolph Rickenbacker, and they decided to stick this new invention into a lap steel.
If we put on our 1930s glasses, this decision makes perfect sense. The most popular music at the time was a blend of Hawaiian and jazz styles made famous by virtuosos like Solomon āSolā HoŹ»opiŹ»i. Photos of HoŹ»opiŹ»i with a metal-body resonator aboundāone can imagine his relief at being handed an instrument that projected sound toward the audience via an amplifier, rather than back at his own head via resonator cones. Beauchamp and Rickenbacker were simply following the market.
As it turned out, the popularity of Hawaiian music gave way to swing, and electric lap steels didnāt exactly take the world by storm. But Beauchamp and Rickenbacker had proven the viability of this new technology, and other manufacturers followed suit. In 1937, Gibson created a pickup with magnets under the strings, rather than above like Beauchampās.
āWhen I plugged in the EH-185 I expected to hear something reminiscent of Charlie Christianās smooth, clean tone. But what I got was meatierācloser to what I associate with P-90s: warm and midrange-y.ā
The first page of Gibsonās āElectrical Instrumentsā section in the 1939 catalog features a glowing, full-page write-up of their top-of-the-line lap steel: the EH-185. āEverything about this new electric Hawaiian Guitar smacks of good showmanship,ā effuses the copy. āIt has smoothness, great sustaining power, and an easy flow of tone that builds up strongly and does not die out.ā
Picking up the 1940 EH-185 at Fannyās House of Music is about as close as one can get to traveling back in time to try a new one. It is just so clean, with barely any dings or even finish checking. Overall, this is a 9/10 piece, and itās a joy to behold. Speaking of picking it up, the first thing you notice when you lift the EH-185 out of the case is its weight. This is a much heavier instrument than other similar-sized lap steels, owing to a length of thick metal between the body and the fretboard. The catalog calls it āHyblum metal,ā which may be a flowery trade name for an early aluminum alloy.
This 1940 EH-185 is heavier than other lap steels in its class, thanks to a length of metal between its fretboard and body.
Photo by Madison Thorn
There are numerous other fancy appointments on the EH-185 that Gibson didnāt offer on their lesser models. Itās made of highly figured maple, with diamond-shaped decorations on the back of the body and neck. The double binding is nearly a centimeter thick and gives the instrument a luxurious, expensive look.
Behind all these high-end attributes is a great-sounding guitar, thanks to that old pickup. Itās got three blades protruding through the bobbin for the unwound strings and one longer blade for the wound strings. When I plugged in the EH-185 I expected to hear something reminiscent of Charlie Christianās smooth, clean tone. But what I got was meatierācloser to what I associate with P-90s: warm and midrange-y. It was just crying out for a little crunch and a bluesy touch. Itās kind of cool how such a pristine, high-end vintage instrument can be so well-suited for a sound thatās rough around the edges.
As far as electric guitars go, it doesnāt get much more vintage than this 1940 Gibson EH-185 Lap Steel. It reminds us of where the story of the electric guitar truly began. This EH-185 isnāt just a relicāitās a testament to when the future of music was unfolding in real time. Plug it in, and you become part of the revolution.
Sources: Smithsonian, Vintage Guitar, Mozart Project, Gibson Pre-War, WIRED, Steel Guitar Forum, Vintaxe
J Mascis is well known for his legendary feats of volume.
J Mascis is well known for his legendary feats of volume. Just check out a photo of his rig to see an intimidating wall of amps pointed directly at the Dinosaur Jr. leaderās head. And though his loudness permeates all that he does and has helped cement his reputation, thereās a lot more to his playing.
On this episode of 100 Guitarists, weāre looking at each phase of the trioās long career. How many pedals does J use to get his sound? Whatās his best documented use of a flanger? How does his version of āMaggot Brainā (recorded with bassist Mike Watt) compare to Eddie Hazelās? And were you as surprised as we were when Fender released a J Mascis signature Tele?
Editorial Director Ted Drozdowskiās current favorite noisemakers.
Premier Guitarās edit staff shares their favorite fuzz units and how and when they use them.
Premier Guitarās editors use their favorite fuzz pedals in countless ways. At any point during our waking hours, one of us could be turned on, plugged in, and fuzzed outāchasing a Sabbath riff, tracking menacing drone ambience, fire-branding a solo break with a psychedelic blast, or something else altogether more deranged. As any PGreader knows, there are nearly infinite paths to these destinations and almost as many fuzz boxes to travel with. Germanium, silicon, 2-transistor, 4-transistor, 6-transistor, octave, multimode, modern, and caveman-stupid: Almost all of these fuzz types are represented among our own faves, which are presented here as inspiration, and launch pads for your own rocket rides to the Fuzz-o-sphere.
Ted Drozdowski - Editorial Director
My favorite is my Burns Buzz, a stomp custom-made for me by Gary Kibler of Big Knob Pedals. Gary specializes in recreations of old circuits, and this Burns Buzzaround-inspired box has four germanium NOS transistors and sounds beautifully gnarly. It improves on the original, which Robert Fripp favored in early King Crimson, by adding a volume control. I went a little stir-crazy acquiring fuzzes during Covid lockdown and now have an embarrassing amount. My other current darlings are a SoloDallas Orbiter (which balances fuzz with core-signal clarity), a Joe Gore Duh (a no-nonsense, 1-knob dirt shoveler), and my Big Knob Tone Blender MkII 66, which taught me how smooth and creamy fuzz can be with carefully calibrated settings. These pedals allow me to cover all of my favorite fuzz sounds from the past 60 years. I do have one more secret weapon fuzz that only travels to the studio: an original Maestro FZ-1 that I picked up used for about $20 in the early ā90s. Itās banged up but functional, takes two 9V batteries, and is righteously juicy.
Nick Millevoi - Senior Editor
The two greatest fuzzes Iāve ever played are a Pigdog Tone Bender build and a Paul Trombetta Bone Machine. Both experiences will stick with me for decades to come. But creations by those two masters of fuzz come with a price tag high enough to keep my time with those pedals fleeting.
Instead, my favorite fuzz is an inexpensive, mass-produced pedal that hasnāt left my board since I reviewed and subsequently purchased it in 2021: the Electro-Harmonix Ripped Speaker, designed to emulate the distorted tones on ā50s and ā60s records that were created with broken or misused gear.
Retro inspiration is not all it has to offer though. The rip knob, which controls transistor bias, is the star of the show, interacting with the fuzz level to deliver everything from a smooth, mild fuzz to sputtery mayhem that can evoke a faulty channel strip or old tube combo thatās been set ablaze. I prefer to crank the rip knob and feed it to a phaser and slapback analog delay, which gives me a bit-crushed-like gnarliness. Pull back on the rip or add a boost in front of the pedal, and it has a more organic but still gated sound, which, for me, can be just the thing to set my sound apart in a more traditional setting.
For a cool $116, the Ripped Speaker, which seems to fly under most fuzz freaksā radars, might be the special something that complements the rest of your board or just a tone you turn to on occasion. Either way, itās a great deal.
Luke Ottenhof - Assistant Editor
You could give me the most powerful-sounding fuzz in the world, but if it was in a stupid-looking enclosure, I donāt know if Iād give it a second look. This is just how we operate: Vision is the sense we privilege most, even in matters of audio.
Luckily, the most seismic, monstrous fuzz Iāve ever heard also happens to come in a beautiful package. The Mile End Effects Kollaps, built by Justin Cober in Montreal, measures an elephantine 7 3/8" x 4 5/8" x 1 1/2", and its MuTron-meets-ā60s-Soviet aesthetic matches the sounds its guts produce. The Kollaps is modeled after the nasty Univox Super-Fuzz circuit, and carries a few of that pedalās hallmarks, including its use of germanium diodes and midrange boost control. Cober added a switchable Baxandall active EQ circuit, with up to 12 dB of boost and cut to both low and high frequencies. Coupled with the mid-boost toggle, this gives the Kollaps a shockingly broad range of tonality to play with.With the mids off, the Kollaps is jagged and ruthless, a deafening turbojet of upper mids and chest-vibrating lows that yanks me toward the darker, less commercially successful corners of ā90s doom and noise rock. Kicking on the EQ circuit and boosting the lows turns it titanic. With the balance (volume) and expand (gain) controls maxed, the Kollaps starts to live up to its name, crumbling into a thick, overextended chaos in a way more polite fuzz circuits rarely do.
My favorite Kollaps sounds occur when the mids are engaged, for an articulate, deeply textured fuzz sound that retains your attack. Playing with your guitarās volume knob, you can coax a range of EQ profiles and take advantage of the upper- and lower-octave content in the fuzz. With guitar volume lower, you can access some unbelievably emotive and sensitive sounds that still teeter on the edge of chaos and violence. Itās a rich, volatile circuit that gets as close as Iāve heard to a sound and physical feeling Iād call āplanet-destroying.ā
Charles Saufley - Gear Editor
My first fuzz, A Sovtek Big Muff, remains tied for first place among many favorites. The pedalās most famous virtuesācorpulence and sustaināare among the reasons I treasure it. But the way the Sovtek pairs with a Rickenbacker 330 and Fender Jaguar, which were once my two primary guitars for performance and recording, made it invaluable in various projects for a long time. Neither the Ricky nor the Jag are sustain machines, but the wailing mass of theBig Muff makes their focused voices an assetāinspiring tight, concise fuzz phrases, hooks, and riffs as well as articulate chords.
A silicon Fuzzrite clone built by good pal Jesse Trbovich (long-time member ofKurt Vileās Violators) runs second place to the Sovtek in terms of tenure, and is a very different fuzz. Itās a piercing, hyper-buzzy thing, but a perfect match for a squishy 1960s Fender Bassman head and 2x12 I adore. Perversely, I sometimes couple it with a Death By Audio Thee Ffuzz Warr Overload or Wattson FY-6 Shin-Ei Super-Fuzz clone. These tandems create chaos and chance, but sing loud and melodiously tooāat least when Iām not intentionally bathing in feedback. The Jext Telez Buzz Tone, a clone of the mid-ā60s Selmer circuit, is often my go-to now. Itās a low-gain affair compared to the other fuzzes here, and I use it in its even-lower-gain (and vintage-correct) 3-volt setting. Itās pretty noisy, but it is thick, dynamic, detailed, raunchy, and plenty trashy when the occasion demands it. Itās also a very cool overdrive when you back off the gas.Jason Shadrick - Managing Editor
I rarely need fuzz in my everyday gigs, but it's one of the most fun effects to explore when I'm noodling around. At a NAMM show a few years ago I plugged into Mythos' Argo and as soon as I hit a note my eyes lit up. The sound of the fuzz wasn't unwieldy or hard to manage. It gave me the illusion of control while the octave was the magic dust on top. I knew right then I wasn't leaving the show without one. After I spent some time with it, I became enamored by how much more the Argo can do.
It's inspired by the Prescription Electronics C.O.B. (Clean Octave Blend), so the control set is similar. The octave is always present in the signal path, but you can dial it out with the blend knob. The fuzz and volume knobs are self explanatory, but dialing the fuzz and octave knobs all the way down gives you a killer boost pedal. I find my favorite settings are at the extremes of the fuzz and blend ranges. Typically, both are either all the way up or all the way down. Another great experiment is to turn the fuzz down and then pair it with a separate drive pedal. And in octave mode, Argo is one of those pedals that inspires you to head directly for the neck pickup and stay above the 12th fret.