What was initially a limited model, the Hephaestus Variable Voltage Fuzz is now a standard model in mini form!Sometimes you don’t know where a circuit will take you, such is the story with the Hephaestus. This fuzz box started life as the now legendary Jordan Bosstone, but as Zach attempted to make the pedal more useful he stumbled upon something he didn’t expect. The Bosstone circuit is a relatively simple circuit combining a NPN and PNP transistor pair to get some pretty great classic fuzz tones. However the variety of tones in the original units are fairly limited. Zach was bound and determined to find something more interesting and after poking and prodding we landed on something we think people may not expect. Enter the WARNING knob.The WARNING knob on the face of the pedal does not control volume, it doesn’t control gain, it controls voltage feeding the circuit! When maxed out the circuit sounds like the best of the classic circuit, but as you turn the knob down and adjust the overall voltage entering the circuit. Once the knob hits 1 o’clock something magical happens, a sub octave begins to be introduced! When and where it appears will be very dependent on your guitar and amp setup but it creates a sub octave synth effect that is unlike anything we’ve ever tried from a simple analog device. Further reducing the voltage or WARNING knob will cause even more octave things to happen while reducing the overall gain of the circuit. Internally there is a master volume so you can adjust the overall output of the pedal. Be warned, this circuit is loud! From us the master will be set at 50% so as to not worry friends and family around you who may bear witness to the first riffs heard from this little red fuzz box.It’s weird, wacky, but most importantly it’s incredibly fun to play. We cannot seem to stop writing riffs on these pedals as we test them and we cannot wait to see what players come up with.
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