The “Midge” is inspired by the legendary Shin-Ei FY-2 fuzz and sports a distinctive vintage voice and tonal enhancements.
The Midgeapocalypse is designed to serve up a faithful reproduction of the classic fuzz that has snarled and buzzed on recordings by The Black Keys, Radiohead, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and many more.
Features
- A VOLUME control that adds plenty of output to remedy the famously-low volume of the original
- A TEXTURE knob that brings more high-frequency harmonic content to your tone
- A BOOST control that allows you to dial in just the right amount of midrange, making the available tones more fluid, raw, and distinctive than they already are
- A SPLAT knob to control the bass content entering the effect, which can vary your sound from a single buzzing gnat to a blooming mushroom cloud of zombie midges at more extreme settings
And like all good fuzzes, the Midgeapocalypse is highly-interactive with your guitar’s volume and tone controls, extending your palette of sounds from transistor overdrive territory to raspy trumpet tones if you ever need that sort of thing.
In addition to these powerful new features, the Midgeapocalypse is built for the rigors of the road: itis housed in a rugged, powder-coated die-cast aluminum enclosure with space-saving top-mounted jacks, and is fitted with premium aluminum knobs and a soft-touch latching footswitch. The pedal is powered by a standard 9-volt external DC, and there is no battery compartment. Like all Cleveland Music Co. gear, it is built by hand in Cleveland, OH, using only the finest components from name-brand suppliers.
The Midgeapocalypse Vintage Fuzz carries an affordable street price of $149.
For more information, please visit clevelandmusicco.com.
Midgeapocalypse Vintage Fuzz Official Demo
Motherload pays homage to the classic fuzz/distortion pedals that set the benchmark of saturated guitar sound.
At the heart of this pedal, you will find two distinct all analog circuits inspired by the Holy Grail of Big Muff® and RAT® designs.
R circuit goes from a touch of overdrive all the way up to roaring distortion. The filter knob is there to ensure that you will smooth out high frequencies or cut through the mix when needed.
M side is the classic fuzz distortion beast you would expect but with great string separation and rich in harmonics for almost infinite sustain. The tone knob is the classic muff-style knob while the voice knob helps you cycle through the wide spectrum of muff design variations.
Each circuit is independent from the other with its own EQ control(s) until…you hit the LINK EQ button. This is where all the magic happens! Now all the EQ controls are active in both circuits and a whole new sonic palette is revealed.
Features:
- toggle switch to select between M or R circuit.
- DRIVE SECTION:
- gain knob controls the amount of saturation.
- volume knob controls the overall output volume.
- EQ SECTION:o filter is the EQ control - variable low pass filter - of the R circuit
- tone is the EQ control – blend between fixed lowpass and highpass filters - of the M circuit.
- voice control sweeps through the mid frequencies’ tonal variations of the different muff circuits throughout the years
- LINK EQ activates all three tone controls (filter, voice, and tone) in both fuzz distortion circuits.Top mounted jacks
- Click-less True Bypass design via high-quality relay
- Power Supply: 9V DC, center negative power supply (not included)
- Current consumption 35mA @ 9V DC
- Dark grey die-cast enclosure with holy grail image
- Made in Greece
Street price: 249 Euro
For more information, please visit crazytubecircuits.com.
The Focus Fuzz promises to deliver a range of inspiring tones, from crunchy distortion through to gnarly fuzz.
Great Eastern FX Co., creators of the Small Speaker Overdrive and Design-a-drive, have launched a third pedal. The Focus Fuzz promises to deliver a range of inspiring tones, from crunchy distortion through to gnarly fuzz. Its not-so-secret weapon is the ‘Focus’ control, said to transform the character of the fuzz from wide and wooly to biting and incisive, ensuring that this is one fuzz that won’t go missing in a band mix.
The Focus Fuzz is an original circuit design using a mixture of NOS germanium and modern silicon transistors. Due to transistor availability, it’s limited to just 250 units worldwide so demand is expected to be fierce. But it’s not just a pedal for die-hard fuzz heads. According to Great Eastern FX, the pedal was created with guitarists who traditionally struggle with fuzz in mind.
“It’s been called a fuzz pedal for people who don’t like fuzz!” says company founder David Greeves. “We prefer to think of it as a pedal for people who love fuzz but sometimes find traditional fuzz pedals hard to use.
“Sometimes the fuzz is too extreme and unforgiving and you feel like your original tone and dynamic shave been obliterated. Sometimes just getting the controls on the pedal and amp set to get a good sound is a challenge. And often, a fuzz tone that sounds great on its own will disappear when the rest of the band comes in.
“We wanted to create a pedal that would give fuzz-like sustain, aggression, and rich overtones, but deliver all the other things we want as well. The Focus Fuzz loves both clean and dirty amps with single coils or humbuckers, there are tons of levels on tap and it doesn't mind where you put it in the signal chain. Best of all, there’s a genuine range of tones to explore, not just one setting that sounds good!”
With controls for Focus, Fuzz, and Level, the Focus Fuzz keeps things simple. However, this conceals some clever design touches. The ‘Fuzz’ knob, for example, adjusts gain and bias voltage simultaneously. At lower gain settings, it’s biased like a conventional overdrive or distortion pedal. Turn the gain up and the bias drops down, delivering the kind of asymmetrical, square-wave clipping associated with vintage fuzz.
“As with all our pedals, it’s about being able to plug in, quickly find a sound that inspires you, and then just get on with expressing yourself,” David adds. “If we can get a circuit to the point where every time we fire it up, it puts a massive grin on our faces, then we know it's ready!”
The Focus Fuzz is available now, while stocks last, direct from Great Eastern FX Co. and from dealers worldwide. It’s priced at £249/$285/€299.
For more information, please visit greateasternfx.com.