My Second Free Fall Diver Pedal has landed - the superb Twelve Multi Distortion extended Rat

Readers should know by now that I really like this small but perfectly formed Japanese brand. Details are scant on who exactly is involved, and there’s no website - just some tweets really - while whoever it is makes some exceptionally fine gain pedals!

You will have seen me wax lyrical about the ’Huge’ Fuzz a lot on this site - which is one of my all time favourites - in fact I so like it - that I determined I should get my hands on as many from this brand as I could. I don’t think very many were made - for instance my Twelve is serial number #004 which you can see on the above visual on the lower inside edge - I believe it was dated 2014, which matches up to the availability of Free Fall Diver pedals in general - which are in very short supply nowadays. The X / Twitter account is very quiet from 2020 onwards! So likely on hiatus or even defunct by now!

There’s a few more from this range that I would love to get my hands on - they include 4 x compact Big Muff takes - the C2W Fuzz Distortion (Civil War presumably!), Moff Fuzz Distortion (3 knobs), and B-Moff Distortion (4 knobs) (then Moffs seem to be Green Russian derived), as well as top target - ReLK Sustainer Fuzz. (based on the Japanese Elk Muff!).

My other top target is the CSF Upper Octave Fuzz (Super-Fuzz) - which I’ve come close to acquiring just once - but alas I missed out on that occasion. The CSF and ReLK are the ones I want the most of the remaining targets - but I will probably try to pickup as many from this range as I can - as and when they materialise. (which seems to be very rarely and sporadically these days!

Twelve Controls - Clip 1 : Symmetrical Silicon (Normal / Standard Rat) / Asymmetrical Silicon (Solo) / LED (Turbo), Clip 2 : Distortion / Booster = No Clipping / Overdrive, Filter (Hi-Cut), Low Cut, Volume, Distortion.

And so onto this excellent ’Twelve’ extended Rat Distortion take - where we have the 3 core variable Rat pedal controls of Volume, Filter, and Distortion - with the addition of a handy 4th Low Cut Mini-Knob.

While what makes this pedal really special is the 2 x 3-way - Clip 1 and Clip 2 toggle switches - which really take this pedal into untypical extended Rat Territory - and deliver a wide array of Overdrive, Distortion and Fuzz tones.

For the bottom Clip 2 toggle, I mostly prefer that being on the middle Booster / No-Clipping setting - whereas all the Clip 1 options sound fantastic. The Booster gives you the loudest and most open / Wiry / Bright output. Where you can temper the chosen Clip 1 option with Overdrive or Distortion settings on the lower Clip 2 toggle. Those add more compression and density (also remove some of the brightness), and for me don’t deliver quite as much joy as the central Booster option does. There is a place for all of these - and they all have a purpose.

I’m heading towards 50 Rat style pedals now - I think I’m on #44 or thereabouts with this one - and each one of those has a distinct tone and timbre and set of controls mostly. And there are some really potent more recent examples - where it’s going to take a lot to beat the Krozz Royal Breaker, and Sentimental Bob Tephra, to name just a couple - the Lichtlaem Ritual is also amazing - there really is no shortage of these - while my all-time favourite Rat style pedal isn’t a Rat at all - the Dr Scientist Frazz Dazzler!

This Free Fall Diver Twelve excels in several areas - with the top Clip 1 options consistently great - and the lower Clip 2 Booster Mode - delivering the best textures for me.

My preferred setting are Clip 1 mostly on Asymmetrical (Middle), or LED (Right) - while the standard Rat Symmetrical Clipping sounds very decent too (Left). The lower Clip 2 toggle is pretty much anchored on the Booster mode, and for the 4 variable controls - I have the Filter (High-Cut) @ 9 o’c, along with the Low-Cut also, Volume @ noon, and Distortion @ 3 o’c. Those settings deliver the perfect textures.

This is an excellent distortion pedal - which delivers a lot more than the average Rat - while there are some, as mentioned - that are even more potent than this. That takes nothing away from the Twelve - which is yet another fabulous take on this format, and well worth considering. It takes the humble Rat into all kinds of extended and adjacent territories. I bought mine on Ebay - where it cost me more than I wanted really - also considering I paid around £60 in import and customs fees - the Ebay Price Tag was around $290, which translates to around £228! So far from a budget buy - it seems every Japanese pedal I want is over $300 in total costs!

There were some other ’Twelves’ listed on Ebay at the time I bought mine - at 3 slightly different prices - while there’s no Free Fall Diver Pedal to be found anywhere as per my last search during the writing of this article - the quest goes on!