GOBLIN MAGE

Yes, I have made a handful of fuzzes at this point. But for the most part, they all include very little filtering, and only Fire features any form of tone control.

“Fuzz with filters” was the guiding principle on this one.

Something unforeseen happened.

What was supposed to just passively roll off high frequencies ended up doing something strange. At the beginning of the sweep, it rolls off some highs, but it eventually hits a point where something else happens. Something mysterious. It’s like an additional gain stage is added, another fuzzy texture added in.

Rather than try to “correct” it, I renamed the control from “treble” to “sorcery.” I know how I could “fix” it, I just prefer it as is.

I changed the bass control to do something a bit more than roll off low frequencies to make things fit thematically. The “darkness” control filters out bass frequencies, but due to where it is placed in the circuit, it impacts the amount of overall gain the pedal has.

This is because the Goblin Mage is touch sensitive. More signal going into the pedal means more gain, less means less. Filtering out bass at the beginning means less overall signal - bringing the bass back in means there is more signal and thus more gain.

It sounds like this:

GO FLY A KITE

Go Fly A Kite is a PT2399 based, analog-voiced delay. It features a send/return loop where you can insert additional effects to go onto the delay line only, as well as a toggle between long and short delays.

For the sake of getting long delays that aren’t a complete mess, a lot of high frequencies are filtered, making this an excellent effect for clean tones (or cleaning up dirty ones).

The idea for this came to me while I was chatting with Phil on the 40 Watt Podcast. Believe it or not, despite the fact the Air is kind of like this but with a fuzz pedal in the send/return loop, I had actually didn’t really know an effects loop was a thing that any delay pedals did. Phil and I were talking about that, and it occurred to me exactly how I could build one. I didn’t want it to be Air without the fuzz, and that lead me to the time toggle and other tone-shaping characteristics of the circuit. I didn’t want to hide the fact that it is a twist on Air (because I am the type of person who’s favorite x is usually the x I made), thus the color and name.

Dipping my feet into the UV-printing game (gotta give my engraving hand a rest sometimes!). The art is a digitized version of a hand-stippled drawing.

You can watch Anne Sulikowski, Pedal of the Day, and Get Offset demonstrate and review the pedal. You can also read about it on Gearphoria and Delicious Audio.

WATER

The fourth and final installment of the Elemental series has arrived.

Water brings movement to your tone - it’s a chorus and tremolo.

Chorus depth and tremolo depth each get their own controls, and the effects share a rate control (however, their rates are not the same thanks to digital magic).

Take a swim.

For the time being, please check my Instagram for clips of Water in action. More audio and videos are coming soon!

True to the concept of Water, the design behind this effect is extremely adaptable. Like all members of the Elemental series, this is not only my attempt at capturing this concept of a given element, but each were broad research projects which serve as a foundation of things to come. Water has had the most dramatic influence this way - the digital design allows Water to be the basis for a wide array of different effects.

At the time of this writing, the digital chip this circuit is built around has become hard to find, so only a handful of these pedals currently exist.

CHUM

Chum has been out for a while, but a 20-second clip on an old instagram post wasn’t cutting the mustard.

So here’s a little song I threw together to show off Chum in a mix on guitar and bass.

(It was also one of my first times recording drums)

A lot of the Chum process is actually done outdoors, so it could be a while until they are re-stocked — at the time of this writing, there are only a few available.

AIR

The third installment of the Elements series is here.

At it’s core, Air is an analog voiced delay. Despite how much I enjoy fuzz now, delay is the effect that really got me interested in playing the electric guitar. There’s just something about it.

When I started the design, I knew I wanted to base it around the PT2399 chip. BBDs are cool and everything, but they aren’t exactly easy to get, or reliable, and perhaps most importantly, I don’t really share in the nostalgia for that era or tones. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with them, I’m just saying I don’t have nostalgia for an age before I was born. That isn’t to say I’ll never touch a BBD… And while I am experimenting with the FV-1 (a digital chip), I wanted to go for a more analog sound.

I started by throwing in an input and output buffer—I mostly wanted this to make sure there wouldn’t be any volume loss. The thing is, it’s emotionally difficult not to add in a little gain, so there’s just a hint of gain at the input. Next comes the delay section and some filtering. Delay times range from about 60 milliseconds to 600 milliseconds. The amount of time is controlled by the Hourglass knob. Move the knob while playing to get a warping sound.

The repeats get dirtier the longer they are. The knob with the loopy thing controls this. At it’s lowest setting, the delayed sound will only repeat once. At it’s maximum, it will howl until the end of days.

All of this is fun and interesting enough. There’s a mix knob to control how much of the dry signal is mixed back in. But the fun hasn’t really started yet.

Hit the purple switch to begin the Storm. This engages a fuzz circuit within the delay line. This description does not give an accurate representation of it sounds, though. In fact, if you are aware of another pedal that injects fuzz into the delay line, please let me know! The idea started as a “tape age” but I found it was most fun when the tape came from between classical antiquity and the Jurassic.

Here’s what I like: beginning with all the controls (other than mix) back at zero and the Storm on, the fuzz is pretty mild. It adds a bit of warmth and saturation. But only to the delayed signal, your clean signal stays clean. Crank the mix knob almost all the way to drown out that clean tone, and with everything else at zero, and it’s a warm overdrive with the hint of the delay coming out as the harmonics bloom. Start turning up the thunder to get a little crazier. Then, start dialing repeats back in. In Storm mode, anywhere other than minimum repeats and lead to oscillation—with the fuzz, the repeats control kind of acts like a feedback looper. Let it howl. Finally, bring the delay back in for a wall of sound. Turn the repeats down and play a duet , one clear and one fuzzy and behind.

Air is weird. The Storm probably isn’t for everyone. Some way even say it’s too much fun. But for me, it’s about as fun as it gets. I used to use three pedals to get these kinds of sounds, and now I’m left wondering if I even need other pedals on my personal board. And every time I test them, I get sucked into them for like an hour or so. Beware.

Also works on bass! As bassists probably know, it’s all about that clean blend.