If any of you fine people are also on I Love Fuzz, this is a cross-post, so hopefully you already know the details. But this is about a pedal that's definitely suited to us low-enders, so I thought it warranted posting here as well.
Last week, I got wind that McSpunkle (from Ilovefuzz.com, and I think TB as well) was working on a secret project with lots of knobs and switches. I sent him a PM with something creative & witty in the subject line like "I KAN HAZ, PLEEZE? DROOOOOOL..." And then on Friday, it arrived on my doorstep! To test, of course, not to keep. Dr. McSpunkle still wants to tweak his little creation, but I have to say that for a prototype, it's pretty damn bitchin'.
Apparently, this thing started life as Spunkies' take on a Big Muff, only narsty & glitchy. Then he added a sorta-clean blend (which kicks ass on its own - it certainly adds some heft to the cleans), diode switches, a phase-canceling octave section in the middle, a gate control, and a tone control that can go flat or scoopedy. When I saw it in person, I went:
However, for an unlabeled pedal with five knobs and four toggles, it's very user friendly. Definitely a pedal that screams for bass (what with the cleanish blend and all), but I think it could work on guitar - given the way the clean blend fattens up the tone, it seems like doomy stoner stuff would be a gimme. But with the oscillations & fizzy octave possibilities & gate, just about any fuzz-friendly genre could make use of this thing! Hell, the ability to dial in woolly muffy tones with a gate makes this ideal even for regular ol' rock & roll. And the clean blend on it's own has some serious boosting power - anyone wanting to drive their tube amp hard would do well with this sucker. So clearly, there's a little something for everyone. Everyone who loves fuzz, that is.
But how does it sound? Well, funny you should ask! I spent a little time recording with it, and have a clip right here for ya! I hope you don't mind the same riff being played over and over, since that's what I do here (at least until I start gaffing it up towards the end). This was recorded with my Fender Jazz, going bass > Gnomeratron FTF > Line 6 Bass Pod > M-audio Fast Track Pro > Garageband. The settings breakdown goes like this:
0:00 - clean
0:11 - blend only
0:25 - blend + knob 1
0:40 - blend + knob 2
0:55 - blend + knob 2 & 3
1:13 - blend + all knobs
1:34 - blend, all knobs, toggle 1
1:52 - blend, all knobs, toggle 2
2:14 - blend, all knobs, toggle 3
2:36 - blend, all knobs, toggle 4
2:53 - blend, all knobs, toggles 1 + 3
3:17 - blend, all knobs, toggles 2 + 4
3:36 - blend, all knobs, all togges
4:00 - blend, all on, less gate
4:17 - blend, all knobs, toggle 3, less gate
4:40 - blend, knobs 1-3, toggle 3, gated muffy
4:57 - no blend, all toggles, all knobs, gated
5:21 - no blend, all on, more fizz, less gate
5:43 - blend, all on, more fizz, less gate, general wankery
It should be noted that I could have gone on for much, much longer - the knobs and toggles are all very interactive, and there are many, many more tones to be had here. I did not keep track of exact knob settings since this thing is going to be tweaked a little more before its official release (mostly the toggles will be tweaked, but still... also, I am lazy).
The clip I recorded is a little hugetastic, so I've uploaded it to Soundcloud - to hear it, go to
http://soundcloud.com/thewyrrejimes/gnometastic
