Effector 13 Silicon Transistor Tri-Fuzz

It is very easy to get a good sound. But the question is, how easy is it to get a NASTY, Frying amplifier sound? How easy is it to get the modern Lo-fi sound, like the speaker is blown? Or can you get a very nasal-sounding fuzztone? OR a continually oscillating humming tone? Very easy! There's no end to the fuzztones here!

Editing patches? What patches? Manual? What manual (although directions may be found on Effector13's ultra-cool website!)? No revision number.. But, this pedal is discontinued. It is an excellent pedal, and the knobs sometimes have the opposite effect you would expect, but the surprises are worth the confusion! A Perfect 10!

I play my Les Paul in this into an Alamo 7 watt tube amp. Tone to burn! Or I may plug it into my Ampeg V4. Sonic Onslaught! The pedal spurs creativity. What would you rather have? Predictable precision, or creative madness? This company is up-and-coming, these older pedals are the next vintage values out there. Try the sound files on Effector13.com and pick out a new one. If you like lofi fuzztones of various types, this is an endlessly enjoyable pedal, and I plan on buying more of them, the Never pedal being the next one..
I have a Morley Phaser pedal that is on the way and I plan on hearing every fuzzed-out harmonic on it, with this Tri-Fuzz.

I plugged a Duracell battery into the battery plug, and plugged a 9 v universal adaptor, accidentally reversed the polarity, and the Duracel ejected its "cells" out of its back-end. The Duracell went into the trash. I couldn't figure out why the pedal wasn't fuzzing like it used to. Then when I removed the bad battery, it played like nothing happened! BULLETPROOF!

I have been on the website, and Devi Ever is on there more than some other people on the forum, always taking notes on what types of pedals real artists/musicians want, he's doing everything right, as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure he stands by all his products. THey're his babies.

I play drums, guitar, jazz, bass, rhodes piano. I like effects and how they change the sound, and how they get you thinking differently about music. This pedal assists me in this. I have been playing guitar for over 20 years. If it were lost or stolen I'd probably hunt down the culprit and have him/her torn apart by a combine or something. Or, I'd probably order a couple of new pedals in their place from Effector13.

Hello, this is ever from www.effector13.com

Also, in responce the negative review below, the electrical tape used in my effects is to cover certain parts so that they do not short. Sorry to post another "review responce", but I just had to mention it, as it really made it sound like things were only held together with tape! *eek*

Seriously, my effects are securely put together, and out of the 100's of pedals sold over the past two years, I've only had a hand full returned for repair, and that was mainly due to heavy wear and tear after months of use.

So.. um... yeah... I'm always around if anyone needs anything!

ever.

To the previous person who posted the complaint of the quality of the Tri-Fuzzm : we DO NOT ship out pedals that are of below average or used condition. As always, I want to see you people happy, and if you have a problem, please don't hesitate to email us.

Once again, sir, if you read this, feel free to email me at : effector13@hotmail.com

I look forward to trying to make your effects life a more enjoyable experience. www.effector13.com

As far as the lack-of-a-box, we are small and growing company, and have actually just recently begun to package our pedals in custom E13 boxes (just like the big boys. *smiles*), and we always include instructions with our effects, but being boxless, sometimes retailers forget to send them off.

Lastly, I'm very sad that you received a used pedal, and didn't get a chance to actually try it out. The Tri-Fuzz is a lot of fun!

Anyhow. Stay cool... ...with as much love as I can spare... -me

The pedal was shipped without instructions and it's not a very intuitive pedal.

I didn't keep it long enough to form an opinion.

The pedal did work. My complaint was overall fit and finish and quality of construction. The paint job was poorly done,with paint runs everywhere and there were two large chips (why did they even paint the thing?). One of the knobs was scuffed-up, inside the pedal, black electrical tape was used to sercure things in place.The pedal did not even come with a box, it was wrapped in bubble wrap and jammed into the shipping box. A piss poor job for such an expensive pedal.

I e-mailed musictoyz to complain and ask if they sent me a used pedal or sent me the original proto-type (the pedal really looked that bad). They responded quickly saying that all the pedals were in the same condition and that the company was run by a young guy that was pretty new to the effects business. I e-mailed effector 13 with my complaints. They denied everything. They did offer to send me a replacement knob for the knob that was scuffed.

The pedal cost $140.00. I won't buy anymore effector 13 pedals and I may not buy anything from musictoyz again. They need to re-think their product line, $140.00 for this shit is an insult to their customers.

This is just an update on the review I did eariler,
(see: danny at 06/19/2003 13:35 for original review).

I stated this pedal has lots of volume and I've been experimenting with it some with the pedal (with other pedals) and I noticed if you run this pedal before a compression pedal it will tame the volume problem and it allows you to crank the pedal up to full volume and control the overall volume through your compressor. The pedal adds more character to leads and riffs running before the compressor. Anyone that owns this pedal should try it.

I've had it now for a couple months now and no problems.

This pedal has one knob and two switches, which are all theoretically easy to understand, but all take some time to get used to....the knob acts as a "gain" knob for the circuit, but basically adjusts the bias voltage to the transistor circuits inside, which is pretty cool and not very common among effects today (or yesterday, really). The first of the two switches activates "krackle" mode, which is related to an earlier pedal made by the same guy. It activates a hig-gain circuit that has a pretty high threshold noise gate function to it. The second switch activate "treble" mode, which is similar to krackle mode only a little higher pitched but with the same noise gate thing going on (I'm referring to gating as cutting off a signal once it falls below a certain level, not filtering out noise). Although easy to understand, you need to devote some time to it in order to figure out just how it fits in with your gear - certain pickup settings and pedals work better with it than others (it's really just a matter of experimentation, but anyone who would buy this shouldn't mind that anyway).

As with every fuzz pedal the sound quality is obviously subjective, but this pedal definitely stands out. With both switches in their off positions, this pedal funcations as a full bodied albeit loud (emphasis on LOUD) fuzz. It lacks a tone control so it is less focused than a Big Muff but completely covers the audio spectrum and can be used as the "Wall of fuzz" type thing. It really stands out on the bass strings of a guitar (my favorite) and also plays nicely with my Electro Harmonix Octave Multiplexer, which leads me to believe it could efortlessly handle a real bass (by the way, krackle mode is pretty nice with the octavae pedal too!). It lacks no high-end detail at all but like most (all, really) fuzzes it can destroy many multi-note chords, but that's just a universal constant, right?....

When you turn on the krackle switch the fuzz gets choppier, there is a slight volume loss and the gate pretty much destroys the sustain (that sounds way too harsh of a description). Once you get used to possibly striking notes a little harder, the krackle mode can be really cool....it's pretty much one of those things you just have to try. For some sort of reference, the gate on the krackle (or treble part, for that matter) will cut off at least twice as fast as that on an MXR Blue Box, if not faster but the fuzz is more extreme and a little bit more useful than that of the Blue Box.

Activating the Treble switch is fairly similar to the krackle switch except for the fuzz is a bit higher pitched, although I can't tell too drastic of a difference (there IS a difference, though....it's just that I prefer bassier stuff so this doesn't really pique my interest all that much). It is a nice option and if you pair it well with another pedal you can get a great cheap radio type sound from it, which is always very cool even when it's not useful.

While it may work out well for some, I find it useless to turn the treble and krackle switches on at the same time....but then again I've only had the thing for a week so I could be wrong (and very well might be).

This pedal can get LOUD....that's part of the reason i've modified mine with a master volume control - my current living situation demands it. As I've said before - don't buy this pedal if you're not into experimentation. If you like playing with pedals, this is one of the best I've ever used as far as versatility and unpredictability go. It interfaces differently with everything I've used it with so far and that has only been two or three things....

On another note, I've already modified mine (along with a master volume control) to self-oscillate - it's more responsive than the infamous ZVex Fuzz Factory with my way of creating oscillation. I have a fuzz factory and i really like it, but this has way more low end response than a ff could dream of having, has a cooler oscillating sound, and you could buy two of these before you had enough for a single fuzz factory - do you need any more reasons? Of course a ff is a bit easier to instantly use, but it's less versatile than the tri-fuzz.

I'd depend on it....I wouldn't gig with it unless I definitely knew how to use it, but once I get completely comfortable I'm sure it will NEVER leave my collection.

Email Tim and he'll get back to you soon....I've never had any problems but he'd probably help with anything.

here's the current url (current = july 2, 2003): http://www.mercurysfortune.com/effector13/

Overall, I'd say this is a terrible pedal for someone who expects a typical three knob fuzz but an amazingly fun pedal for someone who likes playing with pedals and making music that most of the population won't appreciate (and definitely won't like!). The price tag may be a little high for broke-ass college students (like me), but it is worth it and it keeps a really good independent guy in business for a little while longer. If you're into experimenting, GO FOR IT! I did and found a really cool pedal (also, I did get #3 out of the first production run, which is undeniably cool....even though I did mod it and drill a couple holes in the case which kinda fucked up the really cool label). A lot of it comes down to the idea that "good" and "bad" are completely relative to the situation and this pedal is really good for some stuff and not for others....most of the fun is figuring that out!

It has 1 knob (volume / power) and 2 two-way switches (SQUARE = Krackle / No Krackle-Boost ... CIRCLE = Treble / Normal.

Pretty interesting design and it took me a few minutes on how to work it, but after that it's not too hard.

Does come with some basic instructions explaining the switches, etc.

I used a Fender American Telecaster through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp.
I never use a standard pedal setup so I won't go through my whole pedal collection, but the pedals I did use with this pedal were a
Marshall Bluesbreaker II and a Danelectro French Toast (octave distortion ... think cheap "octavia").

The pedal is not noisy (on it's own), it has true bypass so there is no problem there as far as your original tone.

One thing is for sure if you use this pedal on it's own (and having both switches to the right) this thing is LOUD ... talk about a volume boost. With the switches to the right it is a good full body fuzz tone.

Now if you move the bottom switch to the left (and keep the top switch to the right) you will get a trebley fuzz, play past the 12th fret and it does have a little different sound. Also changes sounds on how you pick your notes on the guitar (very touch sensitive).

If you move the top switch to the left and the bottom switch to the right, you lose some volume here and the sounds become more spastic (also depends on where you move the knob and how you pick your notes), the notes almost spit out at different volumes and tones at the same time ... sounds close to having someone turn your amp signal
off and on and playing with your volume at different times (pretty odd sound).

If you flip both switches to the left more volume drops and it makes the amp sound like playing through a tiny transitor radio (this was the only tone I didn't care for too much, others might like it ... but it's cool to have the sound just in case you ever do want it).

Now after all of that I plugged the 2 pedals mentioned above behind the Tri-Fuzz and the sounds changed once again ... take your main pedal and set the tone / volume, then switch the Tri-Fuzz on (with any switch combo) and the pedals take on a sound all their own. My favorite combo (so far) is using the Dano French Toast (with the
octave switch on) and using the Tri-Fuzz (with the top switch to the right and the bottom switch can be anywhere ... it sounds cool
either way).

When running the Tri-Fuzz's knob on full with another distortion/fuzz pedal the guitar will do instant feedback on command (it worked with both pedals, The Marshall and Dano).

I'm planning on trying it out with other pedals later this week (I just got it today).

It looks built well, and has a very professional layout and graphics.

The pedal uses a small amount of power so you shouldn't have to change the battery very much (which is very cool in my book).

Tim was really nice in his emails and always answered emails fast.

The website is cool as well with info on the pedals plus sound clips.

I play all sorts of styles (Gospel, blues, classic rock, country, etc.) and own lots of gear (20+ pedals, 10+ guitars, 5+ amps, etc.) and have been playing the guitar for over 10 years.

One thing I have to do is brag a little, since I did end up with pedal #1 (of 10, for the first run), which is pretty cool.

Overall it's a very cool pedal with lots of character and works well with other pedals (at least I know other distortion / fuzz .. I will check it out with other types of pedals later).

By now, I'm sure you've seen my other posts about E13 pedals. If you are wondering who I am... I am the lucky (and sometime unfortunate) bastard who gets to test out Tim's crazy inventions.

Anyhow... Couldn't be easier to use. One knob that kind of acts like a fuzz/volume knob. I heard it actually controls the flow of energy from the battery to the circuit, effectively giving you a dieing battery sound as you turn it down!

It's got the one knob, two flip switches, and a foot-switch. Pretty easy... but Mr. Anonymous (marco... *smiles*) has a good point that if the boost flip switch was a foot switch it would be a lot cooler... maybe Tim will do that. *wink* *nudge* Tim!!

Like as said before. This is basically a Krackle Fuzz with a boost (wich when turned off is still more powerful than the Krackle Fuzz). I'll just run through the variety of sounds this little pedal can do. With the boost and fuzz/volume up, it's a super splattery, sagging sustain kind of fuzz that really acts differently on the low pre-12th fret notes... compared to the high strings and post-12th frets where with the right guitar you actually get a hint of upper-octave fuzz going on.

With the Boost function off, it's all Krackle. Kind of like a gate on the fuzz... you play a note and it sounds very synthy, then sort of sputters out... Very cool.

The treble/octave switch is bascially the same as turning off the boost but tends to highlight those post 12th fret octave sounds.

Like the Krackel Fuzz, this pedal is INCREDIBLE to use as an effector of other distortions... run any overdrive, distortion, or boost in front of it and be prepared for MAD sounding fuzz...

I love it... But be warned... this is over-the-top fuzz... not for those looking for clean sounding Big muff tones...

Now that Tim's not using crappy radio shack parts, I would DEFINATELY trust these not to break. Solid metal. Thick and good. Very pro quality.

Tim's a cool guy, and I hear from other people that he's fair and goes out of his way to help people out. I wouldn't know, because i don't have to pay to play his stuff!!! :' )

Overall. It's a crazy, unique, hand built fuzz worth the money. Let's all prey together that Tim can make a few changes for us demanding players and toss another footswitch in there!!!

I have to give this pedal an 8 only because it is a pain to use the switches that change the modes since they aren't stop switches. Only 1 stomp switch for on/off, but its TRUE BYPASS! No tone suckage at all.

I have a Effector 13 Krackle fuzz...which is essentially a tri-fuzz but with less options. Anyways, the tri-fuzz picks up where the other left off. It has a BOOST SWITCH!!!!! This means you don't have to have another pedal to boost it to cut through like the krackle fuzz. Now, on to the sound. It is increadable. Like the Krackle fuzz it is extreme and unorthadox. So for the faint of heart STAY AWAY! You can get some cool, thick, almost industrial fuzz with this baby. Trent Reznor, be scared!

This thing is built like a tank. I would give it a 10 if it was in a hamond-type enclosure.

This is why Mr. Tim of effector 13 keeps getting my business. He is the easiest man to work with. Good product, great service, cool fuzz!

These pedals are genious! They really add that unorthadox sound to my growing army of pedals. The great thing about this company is that they aren't making a bunch of fuzz face clones. Instead they are creating a wonderful new breed of pedals