Super Beatle Fuzz & FX Pedal
NEW - The new Super Beatle Pedal is built by a small boutique effects pedal builder in England. It is based on the preamp and effects that where found in the original 60’s Vox Super Beatle amps. Imagine plugging your guitar into a pedal that makes it sound like it's going through a Vox Super Beatle amp, with the Mid Range Boost, Fuzz and Repeater. That's what you get with this pedal. These same effects where also used in the UK made Vox Phantom Special Guitar used by Ian Curtis of Joy Division, and in some of the Vox JMI British built amps. In 1967 JMI were planning to release their own Vox outboard version called the 'Effects Unit’, but only a hand full were ever built.
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The pedal is designed with a true bypass switch. When turned on you can used the pedal as a preamp and boost using the Volume, Treble and Bass controls. Once activating the Bypass switch you can then add any combination of the three other switches Fuzz, Repeat and or MRB. Each switch has a colored LED light similar to the lights that came on the foot switch for the original Thomas Organ Vox Super Beatle control pedal for the amp.
The Fuzz is voiced just like the Fuzz on the original Vox Super Beatle using the same circuit. The original Fuzz on the Vox Super Beatle amp was preset and did not have controls to change the sound of the Fuzz. The Super Beatle Pedal allows you to vary the amount of Fuzz, with the Fuzz control knob, as well as further controls by varying the Treble and Bass knobs so you can dial in the iconic Fuzz sound heard on The Rolling Stones’ ‘Satisfaction’ or Paul McCartney’s Fuzz bass on ‘Think For Yourself’.
The MRB has three notches like the original Vox Super Beatle amp. Derived as a rotary version of the MRB switch (for "mid range boost") that legendary JMI engineer Dick Denney had developed for Vox's British transistorized amps, it was something much different than a traditional tone knob—simultaneously emphasizing different notches within the guitar's midrange frequency bands through a simple EQ filter, rather than just cutting high frequencies. This same MRB effect circuit was also used on the Vox JMI amps that the Beatles used in the studio and the can be heard on the Beatles song “Birthday”.
The original 60’s Vox Super Beatle amps also had an effect called "Repeat Percussion." Repeat Percussion was a variation of tremolo. Tremolo pulses the volume of the signal at varying rates of speed. Repeat Percussion takes tremolo to the extreme by turning the signal completely on and off at varying rates of speed, making a "chattering" type of sound. This effect was used on the vocals at the end of "Crimson and Clover" by Tommy James and the Shondells and used extensively by The Electric Prunes on their hit single “I Had Too Much To Dream” to name a few.
The Super Beatle Pedal is very limited, each one hand built buy the builder in England using the highest quality components. It works with a 9-volt battery or standard 9-volt 500 MA center negative power supply. This pedal sounds and even looks AMAZING!!