Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
Fjord Fuzz ushers forth a magnificent future classic Fuzz & Vibe Workstation - courtesy of its incredibly striking and monolithic Midnattssol
I’m a little late to this one for a variety or reasons - but what matters most is that I have the full benefit of hindsight here, and can fully contextualize the nature and aspect of this beautifully elegant and striking pedal.
It’s a culmination of many years of Fjord Fuzz design evolution and delivers the full flavour of Fjord Fuzz’s iconic styling, in the most modern and streamlined all-black enclosure.
There was talk of my getting the gold enclosure edition of this pedal - but I’m glad hat Daniel sent through the shiny obsidian monolith edition - which is just perfect in its singular symmetry - and of course I love that immense central Speed knob!
I would probably have liked external access to Fuzz and Vibe Mode options / dippers - but do concede that doing that would have compromised the unique style of this pedal - it really is a rare object of beauty - both in the looks and output department.
I’ve called this a ’Workstation’ pedal - as you get 3 flavours of Fuzz, and infinite flavours of Vibe - via those internal dip switches - which are further aided by 3 internal fine-tune trim-pots.
External Controls (clockwise from top left) - Large central SPEED dial, CHORUS / VIBRATO Footswitch, vibe depth, EXPRESSION : LFO / EXTERNAL Footswitch, fuzz level, FUZZ Footswitch, fuzz gain, VIBE Footswitch, vibe level.
Internal Controls (top to bottom) - Vibe Thump Trimmer, Fuzz Mode Dippers : 1 | 2 On/Off ↑|↓ , Speed Range / Sensitivity Trimmer, Vibe Swoosh Trimmer, Vibe Mode Dippers : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 On/Off ↑|↓ .
My above visual features the key Fuzz and Vibe options, and you're of course welcome to experiment with those dippers!
For the Speed Range / Sensitivity trimmer Daniel says the following :
"You can use it to get a different range to make it go quicker at max speed but with a sharper knee between slow and fast or slower at max speed, but with much smoother transition" - so essentially varying the range and sensitivity of of the large central Speed dial.
FUZZ MODES
- ↓|↑ : Fuzz Face
- ↑|↓ : Zonk II
- ↑|↑ : Secret Combination Mode (Regulus VIII?)
My favourite here is probably the Fuzz Face as that is the thickest and the one with the most low end. The Zonk II is more cutting and focused, tighter. And the 3rd mode is a more intense Zonk rather than a more intense Fuzz Face flavour - so more cutting with extra sear and saturation. I probably use Modes 1 and 3 the most - while I do like all 3!
VIBE MODES
- ↑|↓|↑|↓|↑|↓|↑|↓ : Uni-Vibe
- ↓|↑|↓|↑|↓|↑|↓|↑ : Resly-Tone
- ↓|↓|↓|↑|↑|↑|↑|↓ : Custom Settings etc.
Here the first arrangement is classic Uni-Vibe, and then the sibling Resly-Tone effect - which I equate to those negative phase phasers - which have a slightly more 'hollow' sound - but still highly textured and nuanced - it produces quite a different flavour to the core / default Uni-Vibe voicing.
Those 8 dippers allow you to control 4 all-pass filters - where you can switch them on and off (first 4 dippers) and apply 4 different range settings via the second half of dippers! I had not quite fully progressed to that custom experimental stage. We're suffering a heat wave in the UK at the moment and I was dripping in sweat after an hour of play! I will of course return to the Midnattssol later - to see what custom settings appeal to me the most - while that's probably best left to a cooler time - as it will take quite a bit of experimentation. The 2 core Vibe Modes are easy to flip in - as one is just the inverse of the other - and the Uni-Vibe one alternates up and down - with the first dipper UP!
I deliberately made the first visual as clean and streamlined as I could to best represent that wonderful uniform aesthetic. The second visual adds the colours, and the third breaks down the internal control options.
Daniel has done a few Fuzz-Vibes along the way - and this one is his best one by far - it sounds every bit as monolithic and imposing as it looks. It's beautifully textured - and if you know how Daniel likes to play - it is perfectly honed for that style of player - who relies mostly on their guitar volume control to temper the gain output of the pedal. For which purposes I max out the Levels and Gain, only the Depth dial is not fully cranked. And then I temper my gain with the guitar volume like Daniel does.
The Midnattssol has incredible gain cleanup, poise and texture - it's the perfect pedal of its kind and a bonafide future classic - every one should have one!
Daniel's Technical Notes
Here follows a brief overview of the various challenges Daniel had to overcome for the creation / engineering of this pedal - which resulted in a fair amount of innovation and some very smart problem-solving! :
"So one of the reasons this project took such a long time is down to the OTA technology.
I initially took what is essentially the phasing section on a standard Small Stone Phaser, replaced its phase filter caps for the standard Uni-Vibe complement as well as the Resly-Tone complement, switchable by way of dip switches.
I stuck this in between the original uni-vibe preamp and mixer and thought that was all I had to do.
It worked perfectly at home for FREI, in its first version. I shipped off a few to some dealers including my Japanese dealer - who immediately noticed some weird behaviour. When hitting it with a high output humbucker, something seemed to clip and cut out.
I went back to the drawing board and couldn’t find any errors anywhere.
I started looking up materials on the Operational Transconductance amplifier.
After so much reading, even reading Ph.D's on the subject matter, I finally found a clue:
The OTAs expect a weak input signal.
I made a version with a studio grade pre-phasor and post-phasor attenuator/makeup gain system with extremely low noise floor and shipped out some more.
I overlooked a fatal flaw : this increases the noise floor of everything else, and almost nobody has as low noise of a rig as I do…
Back to the drawing board again!
It dawned on me in a dream. Small signal is not equal to low output, it’s equal to correct impedance. I tested it with a straight opamp buffer : and the issue was gone!
A new issue arises! : the buffer took away all of the sparkle and air that the Uni-Vibe is known for.
Finally I found the true solution :
I replaced the opamp buffer between the preamp and the OTAs with a Sziklai buffer, and also added one for the dry signal and another Sziklai gain stage at the output.
Sparkle restored!
All I needed to do now was to replace the 50-100 units I had shipped. I’m still working on that as the trade war has resulted in such massive shipping and manufacturing delays!"
So the core concept and overall design for this pedal came through very quickly - while solving a number of the technical issues took a longer time to master. This is in part why my own edition is late - as at the cusp of despatch - Daniel had already encountered another niggle that he needed to resolve. This way around I get the perfect full fat final version - with all the wrinkles ironed out as such - and fully battle-tested!
The challenging development cycle - which started with finding a replacement for those now banned / restricted LDR (Light Dependent Resistors) Vactrol components that every proper Uni-Vibe has made use of until the RoHS restrictions fully came into effect - this set out a very unique set of challenges. Which challenges Daniel has tackled head-on and come out with various smart inovations along the way. My good friend Thorpy also had to go through a similar exercise with the re-make of his ER-2 Uni-Vibe - while each came up with very distinct circuits- reflecting their own personalities. Necessity is ever the mother of innovation and invention - and both those talented engineers have solved the task admirably.
This is why it somewhat irks me when people quibble over the value of certain pedals - where they don't understand all the R&D, trial and error, and hundreds of man-hours that it takes to come up with some circuits!
This Midnattssol is every way a magnificent achievement - and surely the benchmark, landmark, high-watermark and poster-child for this category of effect.
The Midnattssol is $399 / €399 / £399 and is so worth it - it's as brilliant as it is unique - if you're thinking of getting one of those big box Uni-Vibes - get this one instead! - it's available widely through international dealers, and of course direct from the Fjord Fuzz Wesbtore. Go grab yours now - this is truly fun for days!
Demos
