from what it is in a lot of other fuzz pedals.
The amount of low end in the circuit is
gradually built up over successive stages,
which allows it to sound fuzzy but stay tight
in the lows. It has a “fuzz-stortion” kind of
vibe to it, I think.
The Filter side is a Twin-T style filter
adapted to give a classic fixed wah effect
but with a more consistent, useable range,
and it’s also tuned to work well with the fuzz
in the Double Feature as well as separate
fuzz pedals. I really dig the fixed wah type
sound. It is quite addictive once you start
playing with it!
TR: Let’s talk Electrochop. Most tremolo
circuits are aimed at aping vintage ampstyle throb, but you went for the synthstab-styling of the Vox Repeat Percussion.
What did you do to take this circuit into
the 21st Century?
CL: I first become aware of the Vox circuit
when a friend asked me to build him a
version of the Repeat Percussion. He was a
fan of the band Spaceman 3 who was a big
user of the Repeat Percussion. I thought it
was an interesting sounding circuit but there
were a few shortcomings that needed to be
addressed so I stripped it down and started
again. Basically, I took the LFO, the part
that gives the original Repeat Percussion its
classic choppy waveform and designed a
totally new tremolo around it. I gave the
circuit a higher input impedance and lower
output impedance so that it works well with
other pedals before and after it. Then I
added a Volume and Depth control, which
the original didn’t have, as well as a Rate
toggle switch to increase the speed range.
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BUILDER PROFILE //
Now it goes from insanely slow to hyper
fast. I love the Electrochop paired with a
fuzz pedal as it produces a unique sounding
synth tremolo. I made a few dual custom
pedals that had a White Atom and
Electrochop in the same box. You can
get some crazy noises with that combo—
slow pulses right through to ring modstyle sounds.
TR: Your Solar Bender and Kay Fuzztone
overhaul are splendid examples of vintage
revamps done right. Being based in
London, I am sure you are not too far
away from some real vintage examples.
Do you often A-B test your pedals with
original examples?
CL: Definitely, when I can. I have two
original Kay Fuzztone pedals, which I have
reverse engineered so I am very familiar
with that circuit. The original Kay Fuzztones
are housed in oddball plastic enclosures—
not the most durable approach! Also, there
is no foot switch on them. A foot-operated
pedal with no footswitch?! Not sure what
Kay was thinking there. The Kay is a great
sounding effect though. It is octave
overtone fuzz with a foot sweepable tone
control. I love playing the Kay with some
delay as you get some really fantastic
moving textural walls of fuzz. For my
version I took the original circuit, boosted
the output volume, added a volume control,
improved the output impedance, added a
DC socket and housed it in a more solid
case. You can turn it on with your foot too!
I don’t have an original Tone Bender but I
was able to borrow one for reference when
coming up with the Solar Bender. I also have
An Interview with Christian Livingstone of Magnetic Effects and The Datsuns