Hailing from the land of ice and snow, aka Rochester, New York, guitarist Sean McVay, bassist Dan Reynolds, and drummer Scott Donaldson dropped their mammoth-sounding debut, Orion, in 2016. The opening title track best exudes King Buffalo’s MO: darker Pink Floyd “Echoes” vibes with the eventual punishment of tectonic-shifting power of fellow power trio Sleep. KB may never go full doom, often subbing in hazier psychedelic strokes for monotonous monotone riffs, but they can still rumble with heaviest bands. “Goliath Pt. 1” and “Goliath Pt. 2” strongly showcase their Jekyll-and-Hyde stoner-rock tendencies that teeter between Floyd’s Live at Pompei and Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality.
With leftover Orion material, the band released an EP Repeater in early 2018. The 3-song collection would be a perfect soundtrack to a time-lapsed, mountain-climbing video. The expansive 13-minute opener starts calmly like any ascent, but as it continues, things begin to speed up, intensify, grow darker, before a crescendoing crash of celebration on the successful summit.
Later in 2018, the trio released their sophomore album, Longing to be the Mountain. The pace on LTBTM is much like the smooth cadence and perpetual hypnotic groove of hip-hop star NAS—it’s deliberate, powerful, and always bobbing forward. Space is much more prevalent than on Orion. Bookend bloomers “Morning Song” and “Eye of the Storm” exude the group’s blossoming confidence (and patience) providing air for suspense, tension, and timely, forceful apexes. With the added breathing room, the explosive parts build and powerfully bust through like a blues-tinged, psychedelic, kraut-rock-powered tsunami best felt in the doubled solos of “Quickening” and the thunder-cracking climax of the title track. (Full disclosure: I picked Longing to be the Mountain as one of my favorite albums of 2018. And time has only further solidified this vote.)
Before their headlining show at Nashville’s High Watt, guitarist/singer Sean McVay and his bass counterpart Dan Reynolds explain and demo how a couple of cheap, afterthought instruments paired with scaled-down boards create breakneck dynamics from Ms. Priss to monstrous.
D'Addario ProWinder:https://www.daddario.com/ProWinderRR
Strapped with a single guitar on this run, King Buffalo’s lone axeman Sean McVay hits the stage with this gold-sparkle Hagstrom D2F that’s been given a complete overhaul. It has new tuning machines, pots, knobs, and a set of Seymour Duncan SH-1 Vintage Blues 59 humbuckers. It gets strung up with a D’Addario NYXL Light Top/Heavy Bottom (.010–.052) set.
Sean McVay’s longtime partner in crime is this 1973 Fender Twin Reverb that required some TLC. For a wider-spectrum sound (plus the ability to mic two different speakers and have it panned hard left/right), he took out the stock 12" speakers and put in an Eminence Texas Heat and a Warehouse Guitar Speakers British Invasion ET65.
Admitting that on previous tours he had a pedal problem stretching over two boards, Sean McVay has downsized this manageable setup. He has a Vox V847 Wah, Moog EP-3 Expression Pedal, Build Your Own Clone E.S.V. Fuzz Silicon (BC109 chip transistors), Lightning Boy Audio Soul Drive, Analog Man Buffer, Whirlwind “Orange Box” Phaser, Strymon TimeLine, and TC Electronic Hall of Fame. A TC Electronic PolyTune keeps his Hagstrom in check.
Like his 6-string bandmate, bassist Dan Reynolds travels with one, budget-friendly instrument, but his is the way it left the factory. His lone road dog is a 2003 Sterling by Music Man StingRay Ray34. It gets DR Strings PB-45 Pure Blues .045–.105.
Originally an all-tube Ampeg dude, Dan Reynolds’ back enjoys the slight-but-mighty Bergantino Forté that shockingly puts out 800 watts.
Here is Dan Reynolds reduced pedal playground that only has the essentials, starting with the always-on Lightning Boy Audio NuVision that “makes up for the flat, digital-ness of the Forté.” The rest of his colors include Way Huge Electronics Green Rhino, smallsound/bigsound Team Awesome Fuzz Machine, TC Electronic Helix (unplugged), MXR Phase 90, and a Dunlop MC404 CAE Wah. A TC Electronic PolyTune 2 Mini keeps all four strings in the sweet spot.
Module Behavior
The boost modules—straightforward clones of familiar circuits—sound and behave as expected. Some simpler modules, like the LPB-1, include the complete circuitry of the original pedals. Others, like the Klon and Screamer clones, use only the drive section, minus buffers and tone controls. (Which is fine. Crown Jewel’s tone controls are superior.)
Ratings
Pros:
Countless great overdrive tones. Ultra-flexible tone controls. Customizable configuration. Excellent build quality. DIY kit options. Great prices.
Cons:
None.
Tones:
Ease of Use:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$219 ($483 as reviewed with all 11 preassembled boost modules)
BYOC Crown Jewel
buildyourownclone.com
The 11 BYOC boost modules are, in alphabetical order:
• 18V JFET (similar to the Keeley Katana)
• Electra (a single-transistor circuit used in many boutique distortion pedals)
• Fuzz (a silicon-transistor Fuzz Face clone)
• Hard Clipper (the drive section of a Klon Centaur)
• LPB (Electro-Harmonix’s LPB-1 booster)
• Mimosa (a Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer compressor clone)
• MOSFET (similar to ZVEX Super Hard On)
• Octave Up (a Dan Armstrong Green Ringer clone)
• Soft Clipper (a Tube Screamer-style drive section)
• Treble Booster (a Rangemaster clone)
• 27V (a high-output clean boost)
I compiled recordings of all 11 modules, heard first alone, and then in tandem with the drive section. I used the same drive settings for all combined examples: knobs at noon, silicon clipping diodes, standard 9V operation, and boost module before drive. (Yes, you can toggle the signal path from booster/drive to drive/booster.) Using a ReAmp, I fed the same performance through each of the boosters.
My constant drive setting may not be optimal for every booster, so bear in mind that you always have vast tone-shaping options on the drive side. However, the only control for the booster modules is a volume knob, though some of the boards include trimpots for fine-tuning their response.
The Verdict
Despite heading a company with the word “clone” in its name, designer Keith Vonderhulls has a long history of innovative circuit design. His kits often expand on the originals, incorporating popular mods and cool new twists. Crown Jewel feels like the culmination of all that study and experimentation.
Whether you plan to install your favorite booster and never reopen the enclosure or leave the back panel off and swap booster boards between studio takes, you’re guaranteed a large collection of cool and usable sounds. The preassembled pedal is solidly made. But players contemplating the DIY path won’t find a better gateway drug than these module kits. Crown Jewel is an ambitious and imaginative product that performs perfectly. It wins our Premier Gear award in a walk.
Build it Up
While our Scrambled Octave came assembled, the pedal is sold as a kit (save for a few select dealers). That doesn’t mean it’s built with lesser components, however—it’s built around NOS transistors including BC169B and 2N5306 specimens that were the basis of the original Scrambler circuit.Like any BYOC unit, the Scrambled Octave will look as bare-bones or ornate as you make it. In the case of our test unit, BYOC dressed up the Scrambler in highly functional dress—the two knobs marked Blend in Texture in shop-scrawled Sharpie ink. The Blend control mixes clean and effected signals, just as the name suggests. The Texture knob enables you to dial in the amount of octave-up signal.
Split Personality
In the years since the Ampeg Scrambler, pedal builders have found all kinds of ways to smooth out the rough edges that are inherent to most octave fuzz pedals. The BYOC Scrambled Octave has absolutely nothing to do with any of those improvements, and that is the source of its charm and the root of its abundant, if quirky, personality.It inhabits a section of sonic territory that’s a bit narrow, but quite unlike anything else. With a Stratocaster at one end of the chain and a Fender Twin Reverb on the other and the Blend and Texture up halfway, the Scrambled Octave has a honky, hollowed-out character, that’s more than just scooped midrange. Instead, the pedal gives the illusion of the clean signal, a quacky-fuzzed signal, and the octave signing in a unison that’s more like three parallel lines of different color than a true blend. At aggressive settings for the Blend and Texture knob that characteristic makes the pedal a great vehicle for singing Hendrixian bends and tight, succinct I-V power chords, but with an almost a high-baritone, horn-like quality.
The Scrambled Octave also sounds great down below the fifth fret—a region of the fretboard that finds a lot of octave pedals turning fractured or muddy. It’s a sweet feeling to play a solo in E, move between open strings and the twelfth fret and hear the octave ring without sputtering. The pedal is definitely not a sustain king by itself, though putting it out in front of a fatter Big Muff –style fuzz can give you a more sustained tone that still sings with the Scrambled Octave’s parallel voices.
The Verdict
If you’ve grown accustomed to the sounds of fine-tuned, balanced, and even-spectrum contemporary fuzzes and distortions, the Scrambled Octave could be a source of puzzlement. It doesn’t have what you’d call refinement, but can sing with a sort of haggard and roughneck beauty in a way that grabs a listener by the collar and commands attention in a thick, power trio or heavy rock band context.It’s not a super-versatile fuzz—even though the blend knob can dial up interesting mixes of clean and effected signal. The pedal really works best with the Texture knob wide open, but that setting also seems to open up the use of the effect along the length of the whole neck—a distinction few all-analog octave and octave fuzz pedals can claim. But at about 70 bucks and an afternoon that you’ll devote soldering the Scrambled Octave together (sounds pretty fun to me if you have the time) this BYOC represents a real steal for such a distinctive addition to your fuzz vocabulary.
Buy if...
tricky-to-tame, but highly distinctive analog octave anarchy is an appealing sonic prospect.
Skip if...
predictable, smooth, and blended octave sounds are at the fore of your tone agenda.
Rating...
Street $70 - Build Your Own Clone - buildyourownclone.com |