ludwik_jahn's Country Pedalboard

Fantome FX is a company that builds drive and fuzz pedals known for their great-looking designs, their choice of components (NOS transistors from Eastern Europe or Russia), and their gritty, very aggressive tones. This pedal couldn’t be simpler: it’s a boost/drive built around a single hard-clipping transistor. It has one volume knob and a “roar” switch that either rolls off some highs or leaves the signal wide open. The pedal sounds best with the roar engaged and the volume around noon. For a fatter, more compressed sound, set the volume to about 2 o’clock. So basically, you get two perfectly usable tones, either of which you could easily leave on all the time. As the owner of an EarthQuaker Special Cranker, I was looking for something in the same spirit but dirtier and more distinctive. That’s exactly what this delivers, and it’s become my main overdrive. The only downside is the lack of EQ control—but honestly, why complicate things? I plug it in, it sounds great, it cuts through the mix, it gets the job done. What more do you need?

It’s essentially a Silicon-based overdrive/fuzz with the addition of a bias control. The range goes from gritty, raunchy overdrive to full-on fuzz, and the bias knob lets you dial in sputtery textures or even tones reminiscent of old-school video game sounds. I tend to use it in a fairly classic way: drive around 2 o’clock, bias at about 1 o’clock, and level adjusted to match my clean tone. It pairs beautifully with a Tube Screamer but also holds its own when used solo. With this setup, I can cover everything from vintage-style pop-rock (think early The Who or The Kinks) to raw garage tones. It’s very responsive to guitar volume adjustments, offering great dynamics, and honestly, there isn’t a bad sound to be found in it - something I can’t say for many fuzz pedals. Definitely recommended.

Sometimes you pay the big bucks for a pedal because it has tons of features, and sometimes because it has one sound that is unmistakably its own. The Boss VB-2 definitely falls into the second category. Along with the CE-2, it’s the reason Boss owned the '80s. A lot of sounds you would identify as "chorus" are actually coming from this thing—think Prince, Cocteau Twins, etc. It basically does two things: a "rotary" effect, which is perfect for modern jazz, or a "warped vinyl" sound. I prefer the second use, which I achieve by keeping the depth and rate quite low and the rise time in the middle. The effect is even more pronounced in "Custom" mode, which I also like very much. No wonder it was so sought after. Thank you, Boss, for reissuing it!

The Way Huge Aqua Puss has a good reputation and for good reasons. It's a short analog delay, perfect for slapback, doubling, faux-spring reverb, etc. It does not do much else but it's very good, even excellent at what it does. Here's my advice for using it, though. While the delay time can be used all the way, going from extremely short to fairly short delays, the other two knobs need to be taken with caution, especially "blend". While at 0, you just get your dry signal, it become REALLY audible very quickly. For me, between 9 and 10, you get everything you need. More than that is for washed out delays and is probably useful if your tastes are somewhere between Dick Dale and, say, OhSees or Ty Segall. But for just a reasonable amount of delay volume, that does not mess with your sound, 9-10 is the max. In fact it can be even set at 8.30 and be fairly audible, albeit subtle. Same with the "feedback" knob because you have to keep in mind it's a very short delay (300 ms) max, so even at minimum, you're going to get a very audible first repeat and they multiply very quicly. As a result, that's the sort of pedal I love at 45 but had I bought it 15 or 20 years ago, I would have found it useless and would probably have sold it. It's useless for Shoegaze stuff or David Gilmour-kind of trippy stuff. It's perfect for a slight boost, doubling and all sort of slap backs.

At first, you may think "who would want to buy a one-knob reverb in which almost everything is set for you so that you can only control the dry/wet blend?" and also "who would want to use that ridiculous flerb setting?". Answer to question 2 is "no one" and answer to question 1 is "well, pretty much everyone" because it's on all of your favorite artists' pedalboard. And for good reasons. "Spring" and "hall" are so perfect that you put the blend in between 10 and 1 o'clock depending on your taste and then prettty much forget about it. There are better and more complicated reverbs out there but none that are as simple and dependable as this one.

It's the perfect mini-board. You can fit 5 or 6 pedals there. There's everything you need to make it work. I like the ability to extend the feet of the board, as to place a power supply down there, something which you can't do with similar Pedaltrain boards that are more expensive. I know it does not work for everybody but it definitely works for me: clean, practical, professional ... and cheap!