Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
Red Witch unveils timeless 5 unit floral Apothecary Series Compact Pedals - an Analog Chorus, Phaser, Modulated Delay, Drive and Fuzz
I’ve featured Ben Fulton’s Red Witch brand a fair few times on this site - while I was never a fan of his limited edition art deco artwork mid-size units with the 4 control knobs across the top edge - I’ve always considered that format somewhat unergonomic and impractical. While his brand new Apothecary Series is a very different story - and entirely up my street as such. The only criticism I can offer there is that some would have preferred top-mounted jacks here. But that’s never a deal-breaker for me.
In fact I love near enough everything about this new series - including those really cool anodised aluminium knobs - which oddly look both modern and vintage at the same time.
Each of those 5 pedals has mostly 6 controls - 4 fully variable knobs, and 2 x 2- and 3-way toggle-switches. And each one delivers something extra and beyond the norm. Many of these have multiple voicings and playback modes.
The 5 original Apothecary launch candidates are :
- Plurious 2048 Stage Analog BBD Chorus / Vibrato
- Invidium Phaser
- Cynosium Modulated Analog-Voiced Delay
- Epiphanous Overdrive
- Euphorium Fuzz
All of these are worthy candidates for me - and they’re universally priced @ $249, and available from the Red Witch Webstore, as well as from Sweetwater!
I’ve still to decide in which order to tackle these, I typically go for gain pedals first though.
Before all that happens - we really need these to be stocked in the UK and Europe!
Further details on each follow below - while there’s only a single demo overview thus far - as immediately below :
Overview / Demos
Plurious 2048 Stage Analog BBD Chorus / Vibrato
Controls - Voice (Delay Time / Character), Mode : Chorus / Vibe, Depth, Veloce (Speed), ERA : 1970's CE-1 / Modern-Crisp, Blend (Mix).
A beautifully textured analog BBD chorus - with plenty of character and versatility across vintage and modern modes. Much evolved beyond the typical 2-knob choruses that are in current circulation.
Invidium Phaser
Controls - Veloce (Speed), Mode : Phase 1 / Phase 2 / TremoPhase, Cosmos (Shimmery > Throbby), Regen, ∞ On = Expanded Regen, Blend (Mix).
It doesn't state the number of Stages for Phase 1 and 2 Modes, while this pedal quite uniquely - has a TremoPhase mode onboard too. The second switch also allows to you expand and intensify the degree of Rgeneration.
Cynosium Modulated Analog-Voiced Delay
Controls - Delay (Time : 2000+ms), Time (Range) : Short Delay / Long Delay, Regen, Depth, Wow & Flutter (Voicing) : Echoplex / Copi-cat, Blend (Mix).
These analog-voiced delays - often deploy a PT2399 chip - while that's not specified here. You have Short and Long Time Ranges and dual voicings - Echoplex and Copi-cat. I would of course prefer stereo spatial effects - while this is a highly competent mono unit as is!
Epiphanous Overdrive
Controls - Drive, Gain : Single Drive / Dual Series Drive, Volume, Bite (High End), EQ : Heaven Preset / Engage Bit & Body, Body (Low End).
A richly textured full-range overdrive - whose ballpark and adjacent categories are not specified. It adds a second Gain stage in series for an alternative, more intense / higher-gain voicing. Also has unique 'Heaven' Preset onboard - or you can manually set the Bite (High-End Frequencies), and Body (Low-End Frequencies) yourself.
Euphorium Fuzz
Controls - Fuzz (Gain), Voice : Single / Dual Series Bliss Fuzz, Grain, Tone, Volume.
Ben Fulton has a way with Classic Fuzz Face circuits, so presumably another smart take on that 2-transistor circuit type. Similar to the overdrive it has a second voicing option - where you load on another gain stage in series - for a more intense fuzz. The fuzz has just the one toggle-switch - where the other 5 candidates in the range have 2!
