Review: smallsound/bigsound Year4545

The smallsound/bigsound Year4545 is a crazy fuzz sent through a pair of oscillators that absolutely destroy your tone in the most beautiful ways. It produce all sorts of noisy fuzz generating different octaves, hisses squeals and insane amounts of noise (the good kind), perfect for the experimentalist in all of us. Keep reading to hear more about this eye-opening fuzz/noisemaker.

EffectsWire is Back!

Hey everyone,

I just want to apologize for my sudden stop in posting. School and a new job got pretty hectic and I had to put this blog on hold for a bit but now I'm off school and work for a month which leaves me plenty of time to write some more reviews and hopefully do an interview or two.

I just want to personally thank everyone who reads this blog for your support and I hope you'll enjoy some new content in the coming days.


Mike Fetting

Review: McSpunckle Effects Gnomeratron VTF Fuzz and And Aardvarks Booster/Overdrive

The Gnomeratron is a fuzz tweakers dream and the And Aardvarks is the perfect companion for it. There's a knob or switch for just about any parameter you'd like to tweak on a fuzz and you can dial in some crazy sounds. The And Aardvarks is a boost/overdrive that perfectly compliments the Gnome and sounds amazing as just a standalone overdrive. The VTF and AA are guitar and bass friendly due to the Gnome's (somewhat) clean blend and the versatile tone stack on both of them. Read on to find how crazy versatile (and just crazy in general) this fuzz and overdrive are.

So what's been going on with EffectsWire?

Hey I know things seem to look a little weird on the site and I'm not too happy about it either. A lot of my Picasa pictures have been deleted and it seems there's no way to get them back sadly. So that's whats up with all the missing pictures, hopefully the reviews and clips are still helpful!

I haven't been posting much either, lately I've been getting settled into school, doing schoolwork and I recently got a new job which makes me even more busy. I also must say I've been a tiny bit lazy as well and I promise that will all change in October, I've got plenty of cool stuff coming up!

Again, sorry about the missing pictures and the lack of posting, I want to thank each and every one of you for reading my blog and I hope you'll continue to do so!

Mike

Review: smallsound/bigsound Team Awesome! Fuzzmachine

The smallsound/bigsound Team Awesome! Fuzzmachine is a versatile germanium fuzz that works equally well on bass as it does for guitar thanks to it's clean blend and heaps of low end. Read on to find out more about this absolute monster of a fuzz pedal.

Review: Make Sounds Loudly Blood Fuzz

The MSL Blood Fuzz is a very intriguing fuzz pedal. With the ability to switch between a combination of two individual sets of diodes, players can experiment to find tons of different fuzz tones in one box. Combine that with a built-in feedback loop and you have a very entertaining fuzz pedal to experiment with.

Review: Full Custom Music Barnacle Fuzz

The Barnacle Fuzz is an original design fuzz pedal from Full Custom Music. It's a very well rounded fuzz taking influence from a few famous fuzz designs. Keep reading to find out more about this awesome new fuzz box and the tone and simplicity it can bring to your pedal collection.

Review: smallsound/bigsound Sparkle Motion

The Sparkle Motion is a Dallas Rangemaster clone at heart (complete with a germanium transistor for that extra mojo), but just by looking at it you've probably already realized that the Sparkle Motion is more than a simple treble booster. It offers much more control than your standard Rangemaster clone. Keep reading to find out all the incredible things this boost can do for your tone.

Review: Death by Audio Fuzz War

The Fuzz War is a monster of fuzz producing tons of gain for a great scooped metal tone. It simply has a volume and tone knob with an internal trimpot for controlling the gain/amount of fuzz. Read on to find out more about this aggressive fuzz box.

Review: Frequency Central Atomic Clock Delay

Most of you have probably already read my interview with Rick, the life force of Frequency Central. If you haven't I suggest you do either before or after reading this, you can find it here. Rick built me a delay pedal that is his own original design and man is this thing impressive. Read on to find out about it's unique features and the wealth of sounds this device can bring you.

Review: Make Sounds Loudly Blue Whale Fuzz

The Blue Whale Fuzz is a gated fuzz with plenty of gain on tap for many over the top fuzz tones. Keep on reading to find out more about this crazy fuzz.

Interview with Mark from Black Arts Toneworks

I'm sure most of you have heard of Black Arts Toneworks due to the massively successful Pharaoh fuzz and the newly released LSTR. Read on to find out how all of this got started and get to know Mark, the man behind wall of fuzz.

Review: Mountainking Electronics Megalith

The Megalith is a destructive beast of a fuzz. It turns your guitar's sound into a hulking behemoth bent on destruction. It provides tons of saturated gain with the boost circuit as well as tons of low end and plenty of tone shaping capabilities. Read on to find out more about this crushing high gain fuzz.

Review: Ox Fuzz Dark

The Ox Fuzz Dark is a modified Fuzz Face based fuzz with tons of low end. It simply has a knob for fuzz and for volume. For being such a simple fuzz, this thing is pretty flexible. Jump on past the break to read more about it's sounds and hear it for yourself!

Basic Audio Fuzz Demos

Really great demo by Taylor Barefoot of a range of Basic Audio fuzz boxes. As usual the video, sound and playing are all high quality, watch the video if you're curious about Basic Audio or just love fuzz!

Guest Review: Devi Ever Soda Meiser (By Kevin Ian)

Hello Kind Readers!

The pedal I wish to talk to you about is the Devi Ever Soda Meiser. I traded some pedals and acquired the DIY kit through mail. Todd of Grumpy Toad FX was kind enough to build it for me.

Devi's single pedals are interesting creatures. They have a volume knob (plenty of volume on tap) and an intensity/texture knob. You will find that you get a variety of sounds from simply turning the intensity knob. Lets examine the sounds you can get from the pedal:

Review: Make Sounds Loudly Whale's Revenge

The Make Sounds Loudly Whales Revenge is a simple fuzz/overdrive unit with rhythm and lead channels to switch between crunchy overdrive to a more saturated overdrive fuzz combination. Those of you out there looking for a unit to handle both fuzz, overdrive and the sweet combination of the two should read on.

Review: Make Sounds Loudly Dirty Boost

This will be my first in a series of Make Sounds Loudly reviews. Make Sounds Loudly is run by Mark Leahey and I believe will become a popular choice for fuzz lovers in the near future. I'm going to first review the MSL Dirty Boost, great for adding some hair to your clean or overdriven tone as well as providing an awesome boost to fuzz and distortion pedals.

Taylor Barefoot Demos Diamond Pedals and The Secret Seasons Snowdrift Fuzz

Thought I'd share some really high quality Taylor Barefoot demos of various Diamond pedals and the Secret Season Snow Drift. I love how he shows them off by themselves as well as in a song context, check them out!

More Mobile Friendly Version of EW

I made the blog more mobile browser friendly for you smartphone users out there. Looks great on my Droid, let me know if there are any problems or if you just prefer having the full site on your phone's browser. Stay posted for a Make Sounds Loudly Dirty Boost review tonight!

New Noisemaker Effects Fuzz- Out Now!

The Square Wave Fuzz is great for those fat, synthy fuzz tones. Matt did a demo of the Square Wave as well, check it out!

An Interview with Rick Holt- The Force Behind Frequency Central

Rick is the sole driving force of Frequency Central, he makes plenty of mind blowing custom pedals as well as sub-mini and 12ax7/au7 tube amps (like the one above). I reached out to Rick for an interview to tell us more about his unique creations and maybe provide some guidance to all you budding DIY folks out there. Read on for more information on Frequency Central!

Review: Black Arts Toneworks Pharaoh Fuzz

I'm sure by now you've heard of the fuzz that has taken the guitar world by storm: the Pharaoh. Let's see if this pedal lives up to the crazy hype it's received the past couple months.

Review: Catalinbread Manx Loaghtan Fuzz

The Manx Loaghtan is Catalinbread's latest entry into the world of fuzz. It has a very muff-like character and has tons of flexibility with a Baxandall tone stack. Let's see how this fuzz stacks up to the competition.

Dr. Scientist Interview

I figured those more interested in Dr. Scientist after my review of the Frazz Dazzler might want to get to know the duo (yes it's all done by two people) behind all of these great effects pedals. I present to you, an interview with Mr. and Mrs. Scientist: Ryan and Tanya!

Review: Dr. Scientist Frazz Dazzler

Sorry for the long delay everyone, I finally have a new review for you all: The Dr. Scientist Frazz Dazzler. I have no pictures of the exact unit as it is a demo unit, not a production unit. Instead I'll be showing off all the cool finishes Ryan has done for the production models!

The Frazz Dazzler is a high gain fuzz with a few unique features and a very unique and aggressive tone. Not to mention it has soft touch switching, which is so much better than your standard 3PDT true bypass footswitch if you ask me. Read on to hear more about Dr. Scientist's fuzz creation.

It's been a while folks...

Sorry for the lack of content in recent weeks, final projects and tests have been kicking my ass. Enough with the excuses though, I have some great stuff coming up this summer. I can promise you I will be busy interviewing and reviewing my ass off!

Guest Review: Effector 13 Test Pattern (By Robert Furtkamp)

This is an initial observation and review of a Devi Ever "Test Pattern" fuzz pedal. Basic features are simple: a volume control, an Intensity Knob (which goes from oscilation/feedback at the lowest level and goes to really hard gating and odd at the far end), and a gate on/off switch. Turning the gate on and off opens up the pedal's sound but at the expense of the trademark pseudo-tremolo.

Guest Contribution: Kevin Ian of The Common Men and His Rig

Hello!

Kevin Ian. Vocalist/Guitarist of The Common Men. Post-Punk with shades of Shoegaze, Alternative, Pop, and Post-Rock. Now with the formalities aside, allow me to take you on a guided tour of my rig. As I break down elements of my sound, I will try to give as best I can the background stories surrounding certain pedals.

I am currently going through another reconfiguration of my board. I tend to be fickle in certain areas of my sound, but I can break everything down into dirt and delay. As my rig expands, I may find more of a use for filters and modulation in my actual guitar rig, but space issues keeps me focused for now.

My sound is broken into two distinct rigs: Guitar and Texture. The picture included is the most recent picture I have of my rig. The guitar rig is on the right, and the texture rig is on the left.

Kevin's guitar and texture rigs

Review: Catalinbread Montavillian Echo

The past week or so I have been playing around with this unique little echo pedal. It provides some unique delay tones, runs on 9 and 18 volts and self-oscillates creating some crazy noise, read on to find out more about this delay from Catalinbread.

Builder Interview: Brian of smallsound/bigsound

Smallsound/bigsound has been making waves in the effects community with it's interesting lineup of fuzz, overdrive and just plain undefinable effects. I got a chance to ask Brian a few questions about his business, his inspirations and what the future holds.

Bass Demo Added to Internet Review!

I gave Kbithecrowing from the Shoegazers and ILoveFuzz forums my Internet to try it out on bass and he recorded a cool clip showing off the various tones it gets on bass. Video after the break and also the Internet review page is updated if you haven't checked it out yet.

Need a Clean Boost, EQ, Overdrive and Distortion in One Tiny Box?

Well look no further than the upcoming Dr. Scientist Elements distortion!

An unfinished Elements

A Double New Pedal Day Means Even More Reviews Soon!

More pedals for Mike?!

Updated with clips!

ISP Technologies Decimator Review

The Decimator's name is really quite fitting, it truly does Decimate all unwanted noise from your rig. Whether it's a noisy pedal, a buzzing amp or some poorly shielded pickups, that noise is gone.

The Future of Effects?

Sure many people out there are into digital modelers that contain a myriad of effects and tones and they work great for a lot of applications. I however, tend to favor this new innovative product produced by Effector 13: The Console Project.

Review: Dwarfcraft Devices Internet Overdrive

Ah I've already had a few questions on the Internet so I figured this one would be the best one to review! The  Internet is a growling overdrive that has wonderful, gritty low gain tones and gets all warm and fuzzy when the gains cranked up! For a more in-depth review read on past the break, sound-clips included!

The new Leviathan Fuzz from Wampler Pedals is now going on Sale

Check out the link! They are $20 off for the next couple days, priced at $179 before going up to $199.

It looks pretty nice in my opinion, love the font they decided to use for the Leviathan name.
Video after the break.

The Noise Invasion Begins...

The Invaders Arrive!

My Noise Invaders came today! Just a quick hands-on preview for you after the break!

Let's mix it up a little bit... Synth effect demos anyone?

I know the posts on this site have all mainly been about guitar effects, thankfully Nikita of Fear Konstruktor volunteered to show off how some of his effects affect his synth tones. Video demos of the popular Black Arts Toneworks Pharaoh and Frantone Glacier on synth after the break!

Reviews Delayed :(

Due to me forgetting my Shure Sm57 at home again, Reviews might not be posted this week since I'm not posting any of them until they are completely finished.

Alas, next week they will start appearing, complete with gut-shots (no close ups to prevent circuit thievery) and sound-clips!

For now enjoy the interviews! There's more on the way!

The Man Behind Noisemaker Effects

Today we have an interview with Matt of Noisemaker Effects! He builds a wide range of affordable fuzz, overdrive and boost pedals and even has plans for a new mini-amp! Read on past the break to hear more about the man behind Noisemaker and... rainbow defecating unicorns?? 

An Interview With McSpunckle

In the first of many interviews to be posted on this site I would like to introduce McSpunckle, creator of pedals such as the Gnomeratron (a crazy versatile and tweakable fuzz) and the And Aardvarks! (an awesome boost/overdrive for guitar or bass). He's a very funny person so I recommend that you read on past the break to get to know the creator behind these awesome FX boxes and how they came to be.

McSpunckle's gnome soldering stand

Guest author Mudfuzz presents: Keeping the Chaos Under Control....

Keeping the chaos under control....

Knobs are funny things sometimes, where they are set is really important and they can be bumped out of position so easily. Sometimes you don't want them to move... Sometimes you need to keep track of multiple settings. So here are some things you can do to keep the chaos in check.

Reviews Fast Approaching!

This Monday I will begin a series of reviews for some assorted effects I hold dear to my heart. I decided to give everyone a run-down so they know what to expect.

All contributions ARE Welcome!

My goal for this blog is to have as many contributions from the community as possible so I invite any musicians or pedal builders that have any guides, short essays, reviews, etc. to send it to me in an email.

If you are doing a review, please write about the sounds the effect produces, the knob functions, build quality and anything else you feel is necessary. No need to give the effect a number rating, sound is very subjective. Include sound clips or a video if possible, if not, don't worry about it.

Also include in the email your preferred name to be posted as the author and any bands or businesses you have that you might want to promote!

email me at: Michael.t.fetting@gmail.com!

Thanks for your support! 

Effects, Music, Haters, and You

In my time on various musician and guitar gear forums I've come across people who say something along the lines of this:

Don't hide behind distortion or various effects, the best players are those who plug their straight into an amp and play.

While many guitarists can do that and sound quite good, how boring would it be if everyone plugged their guitar straight into their Twin Reverb? I feel effects pedals are an essential part of many guitarists sounds and that's perfectly okay!

Effects pedals can bring an even bigger impact to pivotal moments of songs or even entire albums. Hell, they even can define the sound of a genre like spring reverb for surf-rock. In a lot of music I listen to I find the same exact sounds recurring over and over again and the album feels drawn out and far from dynamic. I think musicians, especially in those in various metal bands should experiment more with effects to accentuate certain moments in their songs or just make their guitar sound like some other instrument completely. Guitar pedals can bring life to your sound and even compel you to play in styles you would never have imagined.

So to all you guitarists, bassists and any other musicians, if you don't already, experiment liberally with all kinds of effects! It's entertaining and inspiring, it could even lead to a new genre of music, you never know. So let all the haters play blues licks through their Fenders all day (no offense meant if you do), use all the effects you want and create music you love. Don't let anyone tell you the 'right' way to play guitar, you're unique way is the best way.

Pedal Giveaway Ideas?

Alright everyone to promote this site and some community involvement, I want to give away some cool pedals once this blog picks up steam.

So any ideas? Keep the price range reasonable, I'm partial to Dr. Scientist myself...

Make your voice heard in the comments!

Welcome to EffectsWire!

Welcome Effectswire, my aim here is to create a blog that can inform everyone about the latest and greatest in effects pedals for guitars, bass, synthesizers, etc. Readers can expect to find in-depth pedal reviews, news on the newest upcoming products and a wide-range of original material and inteviews from members of the effects pedal community (musicians, pedal builders, DIY hobbyists and many more). I hope you find this material stimulating and I hope to spark many great discussions that people can gain perspective and knowledge from. Also as the site grows, I hope to give away some cool pedals in monthly contests!