Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
Unobtanium Pedal Rarities that continue to evade me!
So these 14 are some of the pedals that continue to evade capture for me. Most of these are discontinued and were only made in very limited numbers. Some of these are small batch productions - like the GNI Octa Fuzz and Iron Ether FrantaBit. And some are also impossible to get outside their country of manufacture. Some of these I’ve been chasing for nearly a decade so far.
Many of you will be familiar with my quest for the Blakemore Effects Deus Ex Machina OpAmp Muff - where I tracked down the builder and author of that circuit - Blake Hickey. He initially offered to make one more just for me - as he had shuttered that brand back in 2018 or so - but supposedly hat some parts remaining at a storage facility. While latterly he evidently got cold feet about the whole thing - and after that one favourable exchange - I heard no more from him - despite repeated attempts across several platforms - and even chasing him down to his new job and accompanying email. All that effort came to naught in the end - with a very uncomfortable silence now existing between us!
I’ve had 2 opportunities to buy a Deus Ex Machina to date - the first one was in poor condition and way over-priced for that. The second one I missed by a whisker - as someone else evidently managed to hit the checkout a fraction quicker than me. Which often seems to happen.
A lot of these I have never encountered available in the wild - often I read the script that said one was sold a few days or weeks ago. I rue the day that Reverb.com discontinued its real-time wishlist alerts - that kind of made it a level playing field - while nowadays said notices almost always arrive way too late in the process!
I’ve done two similar articles on this subject previously - ’The Vagaries of Whimsical Waiting Lists and Small Batch Production Pedals’, and ’Discontinued Rarities Targets - 12 that mostly Got Away!’
This article also borrows from two at least two further historic features - ’Preferred Prior Edition Effects Pedals’ and ’An A-Z of less well known Japanese Boutique Pedal Brands’ Pictures from all of those features appear here below! :
For the first one from 2018 I featured :
- Abracadabra Audio / Chase Bliss Ayahuasca Tremo-Fuzz
- Analog.Man King of Tone
- Custom Tones Ethos TWE-1 Trainwreck Express
- Hudson Electronics Dual Footswitch Broadcast
- Iron Ether FrantaBit Bitcrusher
- Montreal Assembly Count to Five Granular Delay
- Paul Trombetta Bone Machine GTx Hybrid Fuzz
- Toneczar Vault High Gain Fuzz
- True North Tweed Drive
The Tweed Drive was a lot harder to get in those earlier days - while now it even has a UK distributor in the guise of Joe's Pedals. I managed to pick up almost all of those 9 targets - all bar the FrantaBit - which is included in this new selection!
For my 2022 article I featured the following pedals - the majority of which I'm still striving to acquire! :
- Anasounds Extended Savage Klone
- Animal Factory Animal 1 Chemical Burn Octave Fuzz
- Boss OD-1 OverDrive original RC3403D 14-Pin-Chip edition
- Buffalo FX Supa Driver
- Dirty Visions FX Compact Muff Factory
- Dwarfcraft Devices Limited Edition Dark Arts Necromancer Fuzz
- Magnetic Effects Double Feature Fuzz + Fixed Wah V1.2 Compact Edition
- MI Audio Tube Zone Overdrive Full Shiny Chrome V4 Edition
- Goosoniqueworx / GworX Kult High Gain Distortion
- Spaceman Effects Rumblefuzz
- SSD Devices Atom Smasher Glitch Delay
- ThroBak Overdrive Boost V1 Vertical Edition
And here follow the Visuals from the other feeder features :
Four pedals were featured in the 'Preferred Prior Edition' article, the top 2 I already had at the time of publication - while I'm still chasing the lower two ones - the original editions of the Magnetic Effects Double Feature, and ThroBak Overdrive Boost.
From the original Rarities list of 12 I was able to capture - the Chemical Burn Fuzz (Super Fuzz, the Kult High Gain Distortion, and the Rumblefuzz - actually for the last mentioned there was a new updated reissue from Spaceman - which fully scratched that itch. I'm still waiting for the Supa Driver PastFX Compact Edition - so the large original is no longer of interest for me. And my Pettyjohn ODI and Drunk Beaver Khelnytskyi OD totally managed to scratch my itch for the original 14-leg Boss OD-1. Those evolved editions delivery a far more versatile pedal than the original! So 8 of those cary over to the new list.
From the Japanese A-Z article - the highest priority acquisition remains the Weed Ugeee High Gain Distortion - which is the one of those that has been the hardest to come by - besides the Free Fall Diver ones - where the CSF Upper Octave Fuzz also features in that post!
Those 4 above acquisition targets posts all then led to the featured list of 14 which comprises this article. You should be able to threat the connecting parts from the first pass to the last. There are several more targets I could identify - but you will soon loose focus if you spread yourself too thin - so I will rather those 14 and whittle the list down substantially - until I'm in place to configure another targets list.
For now - these remain the most important targets for me! :
- Anasounds Extended Savage Klone [France] - €229 when new
- Blakemore Effects Deus Ex Machina OpAmp Muff [USA] - $149 when new
- Dirty Visions FX Compact Muff Factory [USA] - c$249 when new
- Dwarfcraft Devices Limited Edition Dark Arts Necromancer Fuzz [USA] - $179 when new
- Free Fall Diver CSF Upper Octave Fuzz [Japan] - c$180 when new
- Free Fall Diver Twelve Multi Distortion. (Rat) [Japan] - c$180 when new
- GNI Octa Fuzz [Brazil] - c$179
- Iron Ether FrantaBit Bitcrusher [USA] - $305
- Magnetic Effects Double Feature Fuzz + Fixed Wah V1.2 Compact Edition [UK] - £125
- MI Audio Tube Zone Overdrive Full Shiny Chrome V4 Edition [Australia] $199 when new
- SSD Devices Atom Smasher Glitch Delay [UK] - £180 when new ($239)
- ThroBak Overdrive Boost V1 Vertical Edition [USA] - $185 when new
- VFE Fuzz Duo [USA] - $199 when new
- Weed Ugeee High Gain Distortion [Japan] - c$200 when new
As I mentioned - most of these are now discontinued and earlier variant models - while a couple - the GNI and Iron Ether are small batch productions - with none seemingly in circulation at this particular time. The only one that was available - was the Free Fall Diver Twelve Multi Distortion - 3 different ones at £218, £219, and £240 on Ebay ($290-$320) - and I of course went for the lowest cost one - where I will report back on that when it lands!
Here follow the further details on the individual pedals, alongside appropriate demo videos :
Anasounds Extended Savage Klone [France] - €229 when new
Controls - Out, Clipping : Si / Ge, Tone, Gain, Voicing : Vintage > Modern.
A very rare extended range special edition version of the Anasounds Savage - with added controls. My itch has slightly been scratched by the Sandman Dual Drive - which essentially includes the Extended Savage on one of its channels. I still quite want the stand-alone edition - if it ever crops up for sale. I've never seen any of these available - and wasn't aware of the limited release when it happened! Since I have the Sadman - this one is
Blakemore Effects Deus Ex Machina OpAmp Muff [USA] - $149 when new
Controls - Volume, Tone, Gain, Clean Blend, Mid Boost (Pre-Gain).
Most know about this quest of mine - which despite a mammoth effort has not lucked out yet. I had 2 opportunities to buy one of these - the first one was in a sorry state and way overpriced for its condition - while for the second - perfect target - I was just a fraction late on the checkout - and someone alas beat me to it. That unlucky event happened around a year ago, and I've not seen any since. As mentioned - I contacted Blake Hickey - who was initially keen to make one more for me - but then seemingly changed his mind - and won't answer any of my emails. So the only route that remains for me - is to pick up one second hand - as long as any of those who have one are willing to part with theirs for semi-reasonable money. Some of the scalpers out there are just insane in their pecuniary expectations!
Dirty Visions FX Compact Muff Factory [USA] - c$249 when new
Controls - Stage 1 Clip : Si / 0 / Ge, Mids : Flat, Scooped, Boosted, Stage 2 Clip : Si / 0 / LED, Volume, Tone, Fuzz, EQ Voicing : Ram / Triangle, Fuzz Intensity / Saturation, Low End : Boost / Cut
A very under-the-radar brand which I'm not even sure is still active. Not many of these Muff Factories seem to have been made - and I've never seen one available in the wild. I tried to petition the builder to make some more - but he wasn't interested - not in the slightest! I've always thought that an extended range Muff Factory of this type was a great idea - versus something like the JHS Muffuletta - which only has the one tone control.
Dwarfcraft Devices Limited Edition Dark Arts Necromancer Fuzz [USA] - $179 when new
Controls - Volume, Bias, Gain, Mids : Boosted / Scooped, Treble, Mids, Bass, EQ On / Off Footswitch, Bypass / Engage Footswitch.
A cool combination of Dwarfcraft Siver Rose (Super Fuzz) and Eau Claire Thunder (Unique Muff take), This one is a super rare limited edition - which I've not seen cropping up anywhere - the standard Necromancer appears every now and again, but never the Dark Arts edition - will be quite the achievement if I ever manage to land one of these!
Free Fall Diver CSF Upper Octave Fzz [Japan] - c$180 when new
Controls - Volume, Octave, Drive, Scoop, Tone.
My gateway into Free Fall Diver was of course the immense sounding Mini Enclosure Huge Muff - I love that one so much that I'm determined to pick up the whole of this small but perfecty formed range. This was my second Free Fall Diver target, where my second Free Fall ended up as the bellow Twelve Multi Distoriton (Rat) which was available to me - where this one currently isn't. I have had a couple of opportunities to grab one of those - but alas had other higher priorities at the time and therefore missed out. I've not seen any of these for a while now. And there is a 4th Free Fall Diver pedal I have my eye on too - the ReLK - which is presumable a cool take on the Elk Muff - that one sounds superb too. And there's yet another - the Green Moff - which I'm still considering. I think there's only around half a dozen pedals in the Free Fall Diver Range - and the long-term goal is to try to pick them all up - one at a time. I'd loved to be able to snag a CSF Upper Octave Fuzz - which I feel is Super Fuzz adjacent - while I would be equally happy to pick up the ReLK Muff. All the Free Fall Divers I've encountered to date sound immense!
Free Fall Diver Twelve Multi Distortion (Rat) [Japan] - c$180 when new
Controls - Clip 1 : Symmetrical Silicon (Normal Rat) / Asymmetrical Silicon / LED (Turbo Rat), Clip 2 : Distortion / Booster - No Clipping / Overdrive, Filter, Low Cut, Volume, Distortion.
Yes you guessed it - a very granular Rat with 2 different clipping switches - which set the style and level of distortion. You also get the additional Low Cut control - so yet another cool take on the Rat Distortion. You know that I collect extended range Rats - and this was a shoe-in for that capsule collection!
GNI Octa Fuzz [Brazil] - c$179
Controls - Fuzz, Tone, Level.
This Andy Timmons favourites Octave Fuzz has weirdly proved to be more elusive than you would think. These are still made in small batches in Brazil - they're bagged NGI in Brazil, and GNI in the USA and the rest of the world. There was a time when these were in some sort of distribution into the US market - I don't think Ive ever seen one of these in Europe. And currently there don't seem to be any about on any of the obvious retail sites - not coming up on Google either, and the Brazilian website no longer seems to be loading up on the browser - it just kind of stalls out. I got partway through the Andy Timmons selected pedals - but still have this one and the Black Country Customs Spiral Array Chorus to land. I've made concerted efforts several times to secure a GNI Octave Fuzz - but have yet to be lucky with that endeavour!
Iron Ether FrantaBit Bitcrusher [USA] - $305
Controls - Mode : Degrade / Obliterate, Samples (Sample Rate), Mix (Clean > Wet), Bits (24 bits > 1 bit, Mode : S (Samples) / B (Bits) + (Samples + Bits) / M (Mix), Volume, Expression Limiter.
This one is still in production as part of a small batch manufacturing process. One of the best sounding bitcrushers out there - highly rated by one of my favourite bass players - one Janek Gwizdala. Those releases have yet to sync with my priority acquisitions list - while I'm on the waitlist now - so hopefully this will happen sooner than later. I still aim to get the latest edition of the Red Panda Bitmap 2 Bitcrusher at some stage. While as since this FrantaBit is tricker to get hold of - I'm prioritising that first!
Magnetic Effects Double Feature Fuzz + Fixed Wah V1.2 Compact Edition [UK] - £125
Controls - Volume, Speed, Fuzz, Presence Switch.
This is a pedal that's taken from my 'Preferred Prior Edition Effects Pedals' article - where this and the original ThroBak Overdrive Boost (as below) were on that target list. I prefer the more compact vertical nature of both those original devices - the latter latter V2 Double Feature was in a larger 1590BB enclosure - with one fewer option control, and the current Overdrive Boost is in that slightly annoying horizontal Zvex style orientation - where I much prefer my pedals in the standard vertical compact orientation - as for both original pedals in question. The Double Effect is a smart Fuzz with Fixed Wah circuit - which sounds glorious! I've had a few overpriced varieties of these come up - and while I was considering my options both of them sold. Pricing was probably a little higher than I wanted to spend - while he who hesitates is lost - as the saying goes. These haven't cropped for a while - I think the last one that popped up happened in Denmark! Or some other part of Scandinavia!
MI Audio Tube Zone Overdrive Full Shiny Chrome V4 Edition [Australia] $199 when new
Controls - Bright, Mid, Character (HP Filter), Volume, Tone (seesaw EQ), Drive, Internal Presence Trim-pot.
There are several versions of this cool Tube style Overdrive - where my preferred one is the one with the full size shiny chrome knobs - to match the chrome enclosure. I think there's around 3 variants of this pedal - where the one that crops up the most is the one with the black mini knobs - which I don't like anywhere near as much - I definitely want the version pictured in the above visual. A few of those have come up for sale - but I had different priorities at the time - and there's been nothing particularly recent. Whenever I do these articles I'm actively seeking those pedals - and it's amazing how many times I come up empty-handed. These are obviously either super rare, super well-loved, or a combination of both - as very few come up for sale - from any of these 14 - bar of course the Free Fall Diver Twelve Multi Distortion on this occasion!
SSD Devices Atom Smasher Glitch Delay [UK] - £180 when new ($239)
Controls - Var 1, Var 2, Var 3, Covered Secret Nothing Switch, Mix, CTRL 8 Mode Rotary : Stutter / Glitch / Reverse Ramp Delay / Dual Pitch Delay / Pitch Shift / Glitch Reverb / Pitch Shift Reverb / Reverse Reverb, Var 1 Spike Footswitch, Engage / Bypass Footswitch.
An intriguing but long since defunct Manchester-based builder - who was responsible for two really interesting and pioneering pedals - the EVA Glitchy Fuzz, and Atom Smasher Glitch Delay - both ahead of the curve for granular and glitchy effects. I have owned the EVA Fuzz for a long time now - but have never managed to get my hands on an Atom Smasher Glitch Delay - that one still evades me now. I'm not sure I've seen any of those listed for sale over the period I've been chasing. I of course missed the release when it was first issues - as SSD Devices just wasn't a brand I was aware of then!
ThroBak Overdrive Boost V1 Vertical Edition [USA] - $185 when new
Controls - Pre-Gain Switch : On / Off, Gain, Bass, Treble, Master Volume (on left side), Germanium Transistor + Diode Pair Switch (on right side).
The second one from the 'Preferred Prior Edition Effects Pedals' article - where I much preferred the original vertical compact eversion - versus the current Zvex style horizontal layout one. The new one has a second footswitch for one of the binary options - while the original has the much more pedalboard-friendly format and footprint. I've had a couple of opportunities to pick one of these up - but the timing wasn't right. I always say pedal acquisitions are a mix of exposure, opportunity, timing and finances - as to how likely they are to happen at any time. Priorities are constantly being juggled - and are typically driven by those feature articles and serving the GPX Blog. So much of what I do in in service of the blog - to keep making things interesting!
VFE Fuzz Duo [USA] - $199 when new
Controls - Fuzz, Filter, Bias, Transistor 1 : Germanium / Silicon, Level, Transistor 2 : Germanium / Silicon..
A really cool hybrid / Dual Germanium/Silicon fuzz which remains the most elusive VFE for me. I've been chasing this one since the start of 2018 - and not come across one in the wild yet. I obviously staged the VFE Coctail Octave Fuzz recently - as a sort consolation prize! The hunt goes on though!
Weed Ugeee High Gain Distortion [Japan] - c$200 when new
Controls - Level, Mid Boost : On/Off, Gain, Treble, Middle, Bass.
A super rare Japanese blistering high gain distortion - heavy and punchy at the same time. I really love the sound of this one. Had one very pricey opportynity to snag one of these - while I dithered a little as high prices often cause me to do - where someone else took the gamble ahead of me. It's the only one I've seen come up for sale - and I've not seen any for a couple of years or so now - I probably should have grinned and beared it at the time - but I hesitated and lost out. That's happened a few times - and I still don't seem to have learned the lesson - as the next time one of those comes around - the price will almost inevitably be higher. While my Scandinavian sensibilities largely remain in place all the time - and I refuse to be ripped off and extorted - it's never going to be a case of at any price for me. It's always commensurate with Condition and inherent Value!
This time around the trawl yielded one more pedal - while often it's a zero-sum game with no gains! My priorities keep changing - and it all depends on that degree of exposure and opportunity - and of course what best serves the blog!
