aNewDomain — Marc Alfs made Skreddy Pedals famous for providing clones of classic Tone Bender fuzz pedals. But it’s hard to come by all of the parts necessary to build one, especially when you’re talking about the Mullard transistors that they contained. Because of this reality, most Skreddy Pedals have been of the refined kind of effects pedal that usually gets built in today’s world.
But now, Alfs has gone in a new direction with the building of his modernized, negative-ground guitar fuzz pedal, the Kusanagi.
It’s complicated, but let it suffice to say that in the electronics world of today that has evolved into being, nearly all circuits have a negative voltage ground. As a result, outfitting an effects pedal to have negative-ground power just makes it that much easier to safely configure into your entire effects array.
Get your ears dirty below. Find more details below the fold.
Video: Skreddy Pedals Kusanagi Fuzz quick clip
Kusanagi Fuzz Pedal
The Kusanagi fuzz pedal may be modern, but it has the looks, the feel and the sound of a powerful, bad-ass mid-1960s germanium fuzz box. Indeed, the Kusanagi is housed in a Hammond 1590BB stomp box with an awesome-looking gold powdercoat finish and attractive silkscreen graphics. The guts of the Kusanagi include high-voltage axial capacitors, big half-Watt carbon comp resistors and three germanium transistors (metal-can AC127 models).
Alfs is a huge Led Zeppelin fan, and the Kusanagi is designed to sound like what he calls Jimmy Page’s “sustaining, synthy, frizzy” fuzz tones that he coaxed from his amps on the first two Led Zeppelin albums (think songs like “How Many More Times” and “The Lemon Song”). Alfs has also made sure that the pedal gives you the fuzz sound you want whether you’re using single-coil or humbucker pickups (or both together). Your single-coils won’t make your sound too thin, while your humbuckers won’t make it sound as if your amp is stuffed with cotton balls.
The Kusanagi’s gate control is one of its best features. It’s designed to let you choose any subtle setting, from the classic, blitzed-out sounding gated fuzz (no hum when you don’t play) to an always-on fuzz that gets cleaner the greater the guitar volume. The sustain is always there no matter what.
All of the jacks on the pedal are top mounted. Top mounted jacks allow for more tightly-packed pedal boards and help avoid confusing, tangled configurations of wires and cables.
And, like all truly great guitar pedals, the Kusanagi fuzz pedal features true bypass switching. You shouldn’t be burdened with unwanted sounds while performing.
If you love that low-down, dirty fuzz sound of a Page, a David Gilmour, a Cream-era Clapton or Smashing Pumpkins, you may want to give the Kusanagi a serious try. According to Skreddy Pedals, the Kusanagi’s introductory SRP is $249 USD.
For aNewDomain, I’m Brant David.
Body image: Pedals by germanium via Flickr
Featured image: Screenshot courtesy of Skreddy Pedals
