New Pedal Day: Dirge Electronics Double Karaoke Party

Double Karaoke Party on the left, 555 oscillator with light sensor on the right

DIRGE!

While I want to reserve the Review tag for production pedals, I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the amazing custom job Dirge Electronics built me. This huge box, as big as two Boss pedals side by side, is a beautiful monster. Skullservant decorated it with his usual flair and it looks like a high school notebook rendition of a black light poster. I feel metal just looking at it. There are 4 big bright LEDs, 4 knobs, and 3 footswitches, thus making it the most complicated overdrive I’ve ever used. The control scheme is quite useful, once you get used to it, though. Each Karaoke Party has its own on/off footswitch and LED, but the pedal is in bypass unless the master on/off is on, which has two indicator lights. So, if you want one half or both, you turn them on and use the master switch to turn the pedal on or off. I found that it really cut down on the double pedal tapdancing that leads me to prefer individual pedals over doubles. The top two knobs control the volume and gain for the left side and the bottom row controls the right. As with all Devi Ever circuits, the two knobs are very interactive and there are tons of sounds to be found by manipulating the knobs together.

What the Double Karaoke Party sounds like is, well, loudness. It is one of the loudest goddamn pedals I’ve ever used. With the volume set very low, it is still very, very loud if you engage both sides. Skullservant described it as sounding similar to a Sunn amp breaking up and I have a hard time arguing otherwise. With one side engaged, it is a boost with just a hint of breakup. With both sides engaged, it has a brief, but powerful, decay. It reminded my most of a speaker on the verge of tearing. Alone, it easily creates the clanging of Swervedriver’s “Duel” and it knocked the BD-2 and LMB-1 off my board.

I recorded some samples. The first part is just the DKP with both sides engaged. Then I ran through the other pedals I had on my board at the time: Bukowski FY-2, Boss HF-2, EQD Rainbow Machine, EA Parallel Universe, and an MXR Analog Chorus. I don’t think that is the order, though. Dirge Electronics sells all sorts of awesome stuff through their website. Buy some.

REVIEW: Bukowski Pedals FY-2 Clone

“Some people never go crazy, What truly horrible lives they must live.”

-Charles Bukowski

Fuzz is the effect I find to be the most personal. Maybe it is because fuzz pedals are so varied in texture and intensity. Maybe it is because fuzz, especially great or terrible fuzz can seriously impact the way you play your instrument. Maybe it is because terrible and great fuzz is so subjective. I think a large part of the reason fuzz is so intensely personal is because most people have 2-3 60’s songs they associate with fuzz and who knows how they made those sounds originally. I mean, ‘Spirit in the Sky’ is virtually impossible to emulate with a stompbox.

Whatever the reason is, fuzz elicits a strong emotional response. There are plenty of guitarists who can live without it entirely and others who spend thousands searching for that magical ‘(I Can’t Get Me No) Satisfaction’ thing they have in their heads. My collection has stretched to a dozen or so and I still have fuzz pedals I salivate over. While, theoretically, the ‘Marshall Stack in a Box’ wars may end some day, there is no possibility of a perfect fuzz. The quest will never end.

When I started playing guitar back in 1997, fuzz was out of fashion as an effect. The Christmas 1996 Musician’s Friend catalog had a very limited selection. I remember the DOD 60’s Flashback Fuzz, the ubiquitous Fuzz Face reissue of questionable authenticity, and the exotic Expandora. Big Muffs were green and made in Russia. Boss made one, either the FZ-2 or FZ-3. There was the seductively named Voodoo Labs SuperFuzz and that was about it. Hell, Devi Ever makes more fuzzes than that with the word ‘Soda’ in the name. I came of age in the distortion era but the Russian Big Muff was my first pedal and I’ve obsessed over fuzz ever since.

All of which leads to the Bukowski FY-2 clone. As a frequenter of the wonderful I Love Fuzz forums, Officer Bukowski’s name popped up enough to be familiar. He was selling a one off fuzz, I was buying a fuzz. In the mail a few days later came this aqua box and a handwritten set of instructions. I mentioned my adoration of the Jesus and Mary Chain fuzz tone, which comes from an actual Shin-ei FY-2 fuzz, and Travis was kind enough to provide a setting in the vein of JAMC. I plugged it in, turned the side-mounted knobs, and stepped on it. Everything else is a blur.

The roots of the Bukowski version of the FY-2 are the same as the stock 60’s model, but he fixed two niggling issues: low volume and filtered output. Volume was solved by adding a Super Hard On circuit to boost the fuck out of the output. The original circuit has filters after the clipping section that filter the output and scoop the mids. Bukowski added a bypass pot that mixes between the original filtering and pure output. The results are electrifying. The morning after I used it the first time, I sent him a message comparing it to the sort of experience serpent handling Pentecostals experience in West Virginia. I felt like a divine or damned spirit was flowing through my body as I thrashed my Reverend Slingshot Jr. This is not a fuzz pedal to be used for lackadaisical Prince covers. This is fuzz to chop down mountains.

This particular pedal has a slightly unusual layout. The input and output jacks are perpendicular. The three control knobs are on one of the long sides. The footswitch is dead center. Oh, and it has the most goddamn intensely bright LED in the history of the world. The first time I stepped on it, the green light shone to the center of my being and changed me. I’m not sure if I played guitar or had a seizure. Maybe both. The paint is impeccable and beautiful. I love textured paint and the aqua color suits it well. It evokes vintage fuzz pedals without being pastiche.

With the ‘JAMC settings’ Travis provided me, I was instantly transported to ‘Just Like Honey’ as soon as I added the ghostly spring reverb from my Epiphone EA-22RVT. Chords clang, bassy and heavy. Single notes howl with a jagged voice, a sound that is almost vicious. There’s no mercy to be had from this iteration of the FY-2. Increasing the volume pushes it into that My Bloody Valentine territory of distortion so intense that it transcends musicality. With another pedal pushing it, the Bukowski FY-2 gets huge in way few fuzzes can without getting muddy. Pushed by my custom LPB-1, it gets a razor sharpness to the highs. With a Shoe Pedals Kung Fuzz, to be reviewed later, in front of it, the FY-2 summons up a mushroom cloud of fuzz. A turn of the Volume knob pushes my 12″ speaker into crazed vibration. After 12 o’clock, it is thunderous.

A ring modulator in front of it, I used a Ring Thing, elicits that ‘Paranoid’ alienness I crave. It overwhelmed the chorus and Rainbow Machine I put after it, but neither effect is noted for being fuzz friendly. In concert with the EA Parallel Universe, it gets slashed speaker nasty, with a bit of post-attack sag. With the Fuzzhugger AB-Synth, a cascade of gain follows, metallic and bordering on feedback.

The FY-2 has become my favorite fuzz over the course of the last week. It is exactly what I want a vintage style fuzz to be: distinct, loud, and dynamic. While the layout of my FY-2 makes it a bit difficult to fit on my pedal board, it is worth the effort. I cannot imagine playing shoegaze without it, now. When the next iteration of the Bukowski FY-2 is available, I will take it for a test drive. Until then, you can check out his wares in the Shark Tank.

The Collection, As It Stands.

This is my pedal collection. Several of them are actually Reed’s. There are pedals on the bench being fixed and other pedals in the mail, because of course there are. My pedal collection isn’t a stable thing so much as a constant flowing ocean of noise.

Losing My Breath

 

I’ve never been a singer or a songwriter. I can’t imagine my fat fingers and limited attention span ever allowing for anything near virtuosity at my beloved guitar. What I can do, however, is make an unholy racket. I can exorcise the ghosts in my heart. I can use the lightning bolts my TV Yellow Reverend shoots out of its headstock to slay the demons. Fuzz and anger and a Sunn amplifier can set the energy free and let it out into the world.

 

This isn’t so much a song as a primal scream. I wanted to show what it is I do, where I’m coming from. This is what my first night with the Sunn Sonic 1 head that I had long dreamed of sounded like. This is joy meeting noise. This is me.

Jargon

One reason this blog even exists is because I have come to hate the jargon of guitar gear sites and forums. Words like ‘transparent’ and ‘crunch’ and ‘organic’ get thrown around without having any sort of concrete meaning. I’ve read whole reviews so jargon laden that they could be describing any number of pedals without really saying anything about the pedal in question. 

I promise not to use the words ‘crunch’ or ‘transparent’ without clearly expressing how they apply in each circumstance. I will not use ‘organic’ at all unless someone is making pedals without chemical pesticides or fertilizers. That is my promise to you. What Clouds Do will be as jargon-free as possible and when jargon is used it will be spelled out. I will not use jargon or technical terms as empty buzzwords.

By the same token, I am very particular about using proper terminology. Nothing builds frustration for me quite like misappropriation of technical terms. A fuzz is a particular thing, as is a bit crusher or a vibrato. I endeavor to be as correct as I can be as often as I can. If I am wrong, I will make corrections.

  I will not refer to tone unless that is the specific name of a pedal or a knob. I do not subscribe to the cult of tone. There is not tone, only an infinite of sounds.

Disclosure is an important thing to me. I try to always err on the side of disclosure when it comes to potential bias. Unfortunately, this can come across as name dropping or starfucking. The pedal business is a small, intimate affair. You will find that the simple process of shopping for a boutique fuzz will bring you in contact with the people who created them. I will always disclose what contact I have had with the manufacturers in question, even if it makes me sound like a name dropping douche.

Reed Miller of Bent Soundlabs is a close personal friend. Hell, I came up with the Bent part of the name. I have designed labels, named pedals, and shilled hard for Bent Soundlabs. I will never review a pedal Reed has built because of this relationship. I will write editorials about them, but I will always be clear about the relationship.

Sean Wright of Lollygagger FX is also a friend. I like Sean quite a bit and we have similar taste in music and pedals. I’m still going to review his stuff, but with a disclaimer. The Cherry Box is too cool not to share with the world.

Beyond that, I have had the great pleasure of talking to Joe Vella of Electro-Faustus, Tom Dalton of Fuzzhugger, and I have a serious crush on Devi Ever. I might be in love with Laura Bennett and her awesome painted enclosures.

I have had great experiences with Wilson Effects, DMB Pedals, and Earthquaker Effects. There are countless more companies making awesome stuff. My favorite fuzz of the moment was made by IdiotBox Effects.

If the time ever comes for me to review something from a company I’m not positive about, like JHS or Danelectro, I will both disclose my feelings and try my best to set them aside.

I think that is all I need to say on the matter. Questions, comments, or concerns below.

Purpose

I’ve fancied pedals longer than I’ve fancied guitars. My introduction to the world of Guitar was an issue of Guitar World from shortly after the death of Kurt Cobain. Yes, that was like 20 years ago. The cover story was about the now legendary Unplugged in New York taping and all of the backstage drama. I remember there was a roundup of Telecaster clones, of which a yellow Peavey caught my eye. Most of all, I remember learning about pedals. Prior to this, I had not idea why sometimes guitars were swooshy or fizzy or had echoes. It was like witchcraft.

 

Three years later, I owned a secondhand Squier Bullet Stratocaster, black, and a 15W Fender amp. My first pedal purchase was a Russian Bubble Font Big Muff my friend Nick had purchased with the intent of sounding more like the Smashing Pumpkins. 16 years later and I still own that Big Muff. 16 years later and Nick is purchasing a clone of that Russian Big Muff from the pedal company I named, a pedal I call the Pussy Riot. 16 years later and I still think about guitar pedals every day.

 

This blog exists for the singular purpose of giving me a place to gather my guitar pedal related thoughts. That means reviews of stuff I’ve ended up with, rants about the state of pedal manufacturers, and maybe even interviews with pedal makers, if I can pry them away from their irons. 

 

What clouds do is what I do. They float on by.