Need a new Stompbox? Find your next effect in this month's Gear Finds!
TriceraChorus
Maestro Original Collection
Electro-Harmonix Intelligent Harmony Machine
MESA/Boogie Drive Pedals
Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork+ Polyphonic Pitch Shifter
Pedal Pad CUSTOM PEDALBOARDS : BUILT TO ORDER!!
Electro-Harmonix Nano Big Muff Pi Fuzz
Valeton GP-200
Electro-Harmonix Ravish Sitar Emulator
VOX Valvenergy Pedals: Mystic Edge
Iconic amp sounds for your pedalboard. The Valvenergy series valve distortion pedals offer the warmth and harmonics of amp distortion in a compact pedal format. The all-analog signal path and Nutube allow for genuine overdrive and distortion tones with the feel of a real tube amp, while internally boosted voltage gives greater headroom and dynamics. Three output modes allow you to use this as a standard pedal, a line-level preamp, and a direct amp-sim using the built-in analog cabinet simulator.
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Acorn Amplifiers F#%k Face Fuzz
The F#%k Face is a triple gain stage fuzz with thick and meaty sustain that sounds huge in front of a slightly cranked tube amp. Baseball card collectors from the late 80’s will immediately recognize the infamous ‘error card’ graphics of the same name. The circuit is based on the legendary Fuzz with a different Face, but with an additional silicon transistor gain stage and voiced to retain more useable and dynamic fuzz tones all along the sweep of the two controls. In the front of your pedal chain, the F#%k Face will add dynamic interactivity to the volume controls on your guitar which enable a sweep from slight grit to full ripping-velcro breakup.
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Blackstar Amplification Dept. 10 Pedals
Brought to you by Blackstar’s R&D division responsible for blue-sky innovation and design, Dept. 10 are the most advanced valve pedals in the world. Meticulously designed and engineered by a team of musicians for musicians. At the heart of each Dept. 10 pedal is an ECC83 triode valve, running at more than 200V internally like a valve amp, which allows them to deliver organic tone, dynamics and break up. Dual Drive and Dual Distortion include Cab Rig, our next-generation DSP speaker simulator that reproduces the sound and feel of a mic’d up guitar cab in incredible detail. Deep-dive using our free software and capture the incredible tones via low latency USB, XLR D.I. out or headphones. Choose from Boost, Dual Drive or Dual Distortion to help you craft your perfect tone.
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Nobels ODR-mini
The ODR-mini delivers creamy, natural overdrive – Everything from pushed clean amp tones to gain filled stacks! It has the same tones as its legendary brother – the ODR-1. You‘ll love the warm mid-gain tones for rock and blues, and the screaming hard rock sounds from the ODR-1 Mini. Plus the mini features true-bypass switching, the SPECTRUM pot with mid-click, fluorescent pointers on the “GitD“ – knobs (Glow-in-the-Dark). Guaranteed to be a BIG part of your sound while a small part of your pedal board.
Effect-Type: Overdrive
Analog
Mono/Stereo: Mono In, Mono Out
Control: Drive, Tone, Level
Bypass Modus: True Bypass
9-18 Volt, center negative
Consumption 25 mA
Dimensions (WxLxH / mm): 42 x 93 x 50
Weight: 175 gr
Country of origin: China
Solid metal housing
Low current consumption
Requires stabilized power supply 9-18 Volt DC, with min 100 mA, 2.1 mm plug, center negative, (not included)
Hear Audio
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Darkglass Electronics Alpha Omega Photon
Versatility, empowerment, limitless options, and ever-demanding tools at the disposal of every musician and composer are today on demand. A call for inventive devices continues to make musicians more inspired, clever and connected. The Alpha·Omega Photon combines Darkglass' signature Alpha·Omega parallel distortion with the versatile format of the Aggressively Distorting Advanced Machine. In addition to powerful distortion and studio-quality compression, the Alpha·Omega Photon is capable as an audio interface via USB-C or an amp replacement using cab sim IRs and XLR DI output.
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George L's Effects Cable Kits
Enhance the tone and clarity of your pedalboard with award winning sound.
The George L’s effects kit.
The kit comes with 10’ of cable, 10 right angle plugs and 10 stress relief jackets.
Available in black, vintage red and purple.
As easy as 1, 2, 3 no soldering!
Cut, poke and screw your way to 47 years of sound excellence.
SurfyBear Metal Reverb Unit
The Holy Grail of guitar reverb effects, the Fender®-style spring reverb, has been finally revisited with modern features!
Try it and discover why most surf guitarists and the truly reverb addicted are turning to SurfyBear.
★ exclusive SurfyPan type-4 spring reverb pan by Accutronics® and Surfy Industries
★ aluminium body with removable feet on the bottom side for better positioning on pedalboards
★ clean boost to adjust the volume when the effect is on
★ innovative dual-LED on/off button
★ true bypass functionality to keep your signal intact when the effect is off
★ external footswitch possibility though the dedicated 1/4" jack (footswitch not included)
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The silver stomp is a four-stage transistor fuzz featuring a series of selectable diode clipping options.
Detected by its strong magnetic field emanatingfrom the lunar crater Tycho, the TMA-1 was found buried 15 meters beneath thesurface of the moon. The moment 9 volts of direct current hit the TMA-1, a powerfulsignal burst across the universe, searching for other devices of its kind. This is howthe new fuzz pedal from Acorn Amplifiers came to be.
The TMA-1 fuzz is a four stagetransistor fuzz featuring a series of selectable diode clipping options. Germanium,silicon, and bypass clipping diodes are switchable in two separate stages of the fuzzcircuit, allowing for a vast array of shapable fuzz tones. A giant glass lens indicatorglows red on the face of the pedal to remind humans of the impending singularitythat threatens to doom mankind, and also to let you know when the fuzz is engaged.
Features include:
- Toggle switches to select between different clipping options in two separate gain stages
- Enormous glass lens LED indicator
- Powered by standard 9VDC pedal power
- True bypass
- Hand built and hand wired from start to finish by obsessive compulsive perfectionists in Atlanta, GA
- Assembled entirely with high-quality, audio grade components and rugged latching foot switches and metal Switchcraft jacks
Demos in the Dark // Acorn Amplifiers TMA-1 // Fuzz Pedal Demo
The TMA-1 is sold for $199.00 and is available now at AcornAmps.com and select dealers.
If filthy fuzz is your game, this cheeky stomp may well be your future Hall of Famer.
Cool variety of extreme/deviant fuzz tones. Nice dynamic capability at low gain settings. Fair price.
High gain settings can sacrifice articulation and introduce susceptibility to radio-frequency interference.
$139
Acorn Amplifiers F#%k Face
acornamps.com
What's with the cheeky name and graphics on Acorn Amplifiers' F#%k Face? Long story short: In 1989, the Fleer baseball-card company "accidentally" printed a short-lived card featuring Bill Ripken (Hall of Famer Cal Jr.'s less-known brother), hoisting a bat with "Fuck Face" scrawled on its butt. Besides being funny, the tie-in is that F#%k Face is inspired by the famous round 2-knob fuzz favored by Hendrix, Gilmour, and Eric Johnson—only it ups its progenitor's gain ante with three stages of filth courtesy of three 2N3904 silicon transistors.
I tested F#%k Face with a Stratocaster equipped with Fender Custom Shop '69 pickups, a Gibson '57 Classic-loaded Les Paul, a Tele with Curtis Novak single-coils, and an Eastwood Sidejack Baritone with Novak JM-WR pickups. Amps included a 1976 Fender Vibrolux Reverb, a KT66-driven Sound City SC30, a 6973-driven Goodsell Valpreaux 30, and a Fender Rumble 200.
Often Fat, Always Nasty
Cutting to the question undoubtedly at the fore of your own face, yes, F#%k Face is nasty. In many respects it reminds me of the vintage-Mosrite-inspired Jordan Fuzztite—a silicon-transistor unit with a switchable high-gain mode that's been my go-to fuzz for years. Both units furnish buzzy, Velcro-y tones that are categorically not for the faint of heart. Put another way: If you're looking for sweetly singing Jimi leads, F#%k Face will do exactly as its name says.
Despite its lack of an EQ control, F#%k Face's tone profile shifts a bit, depending (primarily) on where its level knob is set. Unity gain tends to be anywhere from 10 o'clock to noon, and from there to about 2 o'clock, tones are more mid-dominant, while past 2 it becomes increasingly corpulent and low-mid heavy. In general, lower fuzz-knob settings are thin and spitty (I like the wasp-in-a-tin-can metaphor), while increasing gain past noon simultaneously smooths out the sound, focuses frequencies in the low and low-mid range, and introduces huge, frothing, effortlessly infinite steroidal cello sustain.
If you're looking for sweetly singing Jimi leads, F#%k Face will do exactly as its name says.
At higher gain settings, there were many times when F#%k Face's riotous rotundity felt a little too indistinct and same-y in any pickup position other than the bridge. This might lead one to surmise F#%k Face is for doomy folks. And at extreme settings, many will certainly miss the cushy attack dynamics you typically get from neck or middle pickups. But there's enough interactivity between the pedal's controls, and a decent enough ability to clean things up with guitar-volume tweaks, that you can still get some in-between flavors. A silver lining to this apparent "limitation" is that F#%k Face sounds very consistent from guitar to guitar, regardless of pickup type.
The Verdict
If you're a fuzz deviant like I am, F#%k Face offers a lot to be intrigued by—especially in a stomp category where staid often seems to be the MO. My main wish while playing F#%k Face was that tone shifts were either a little more perceptible or more responsive to volume-knob tweaks at high gain settings. I loved that F#%k Face could make a Les Paul sound like an overloaded arcing Jacob's ladder. But sometimes the gain was so thick it was difficult to predict, rhythmically, how riffs or leads would come out the other end. (Granted, some might view that as a plus.) Interestingly, one of my favorite settings was fuzz at minimum and level at 3 or 4 o'clock, which—with my Tele volume down a tad and my Sound City SC30 dialed to a Vox-y recipe—yielded a responsive, bristlingly dynamic, and hyper-charged Kinks vibe.