Pigtronix OFO Disnortion

EASE OF USE: Herein lies a story. Not easy to use at all, but this difficulty to tune it in is the key to its glory. I purchased this unit for a steal on E-bay, $70.00 shipped, because the Seller thought it was broken and only the overdrive worked. In fact it all works fine, you just have to work with it to set it up. It is very important to work through the introduction in the manual, in order to see how each effect works. The Overdrive and Fuzz are in parallel and interact, so it may not be immediately apparent what each effect is doing. And the Octave is almost like amp feedback and has to be tuned in right to kick in. So if you just plug it in, turn everything on and crank it up with a humbucker guitar and powerful pickups, you might not get anything out of the Octave and may think it is not working. For example, the octave is most distinct with neck pickups from the 9th fret and above. BUT. If you work with it and set it up right, one effect at a time, and then combine and further tweak it.. AWESOME. Once it is set up, pretty easy to use.

Excellent, unique sounds. This is an authentic analog unit that is almost an instrument in itself that has to be tuned in and played. This unit has a lot of character and you can get some unusual and distinct tones. The overdrive and fuzz are very fat and smooth and have tons of gain. Very tube sounding for a solid state unit. Not a sparkly treble boost sound, more of a thick powerful saturated sound. Where this unit really shines is the octave section. The octave can be combined with the OD or Fuzz or both. I like to set it for one flavor with the OD and another with the Fuzz. When you do this it creates a unique powerful tone that has feedback dynamics and a big sound. I use it with a Chicken Salad and with the octave the frequenices sometimes cancel out entirely like a zero through flange. I am giving a 9 instead of 10 because my mainstay for OD and Distortion are Tube Screamers and they are much smoother. This is a pretty beastly unit, so I use it less. Really cool though.

Seems very reliable. BUT: I opened up the unit and I was surprised: The main board is mounted rock solid, but there is a second board for switching between the three effects that is floating above the main board, and that is secured by double stick tape to the bottom plate. Because the second board is floating and secured only by double stick tape, it is wrapped in electrical tape for insulation. Aso, there are some wire splices wrapped in electrical tape. Also the IC chips are all sanded a bit on the top, as if to hide what they are, but you can still tell. Electrical tape breaks down over time, they really should be using heat shrink. I am going to go in and use heat shrink to replace the electrical tape. For the floating board I will look for a large plastic sleeve or heat shrink if they make it that big. I believe these are made in China.

I hear it is good.

I think it is really good, very versatile, and unique. The design is great, the way the effects work together. I really like it for a different tone that no one else has. It is pretty expensive, but for the price I got it for, what a deal! I bought it thinking it was broken and I was going to use the parts and enclosures to house a different effect. But since it works, I am keeping it!

This is an update of the previous review below of the Pigtronix OFO Disnortion, which I have since sold.

After using this unit on just one gig, I realized it was not for me, primarily because it's almost impossible to get it to work at a lower volume. Sorry, but I cannot play at "10" on my gigs, and I don't use a Marshall stack. It seems that for the OFO to work properly, you have to play very loud. It's almost like a noise gate, in that the unit doesn't function unless you're really cranked. Even then, I couldn't get sounds that I thought were usable. The distortion channel on my Hot Rod Deluxe sounded better. My cheap-o Danelectro Daddy-O sounded better. Also, I mentioned in the earlier review that the Octava function was hokey. That's not the word; the right word is "terrible." A sonic joke.

See earlier review. The first one I had was a total dog that didn't work properly from the gitgo.

They were very helpful when I had problems with the first one, but it doesn't matter, because in the end, the product was wrong for me. They did send me a new one, to their credit.

I've been playing long enough to realize I cannot recommend this pedal to anyone except those who play at maximum volume, and if you work the clubs, that's not possible. I play at a comfortably loud volume at all times and crank it up high for certain songs, but the Disnortion just didn't cut it for me at all. I have since bought a Cats-Eye Mutha Fuzz that out-performs the Disnortion in every way. It's like night and day to be honest. My advice is to look at all the options if you want a distortion pedal.

There's a story behind the purchase of this pedal. See Overall Rating below. As far as ease of use, the manual provided explains every thing in detail. No problem. I believe there have been upgrades to this pedal since it was introduced a couple of years ago.
Others have explained the way this unit works...so I won't.

I use Les Paul Juniors, a Tele, a Gretsch Anniversary, and various other guitars, as well as a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp. As far as sound quality, I have only used the OFO at home so far. It gets its first gig tomorrow night, but I feel the sounds are generally good, and I am pleased. The fuzz does what it's supposed to do and sounds generally like a sixties fuzzbox, and the overdrive does a nice job as well, although I'm keeping my Danelectro Daddy-o on my board, and may add a Hip Kitty Cream Distortion. The one part of the OFO I don't much like is the Octava feature. Up to this point, I haven't gotten a satisfactory sound I like combining it with the fuzz and/or distortion. The Octava sounds hokey to me, and using it alone is not an option. The sound clips on the Pigtronix website using a combo of the Octava and fuzz sound much better than what I am getting at home. Maybe it just doesn't work well with a P-90 equipped guitar. I should try it with my Tele. One of the things I do like a lot about the OFO is that it is touch sensitive. The harder you dig in, the more you get out of it and vice versa. That's a nice feature. I can tell I am going to have to work with it on a gig to get the best out of it, but that's true for any stompbox, I believe.

I hope I can rely on this one. So far, so good. See below.

David Koltai of Pigtronix is very helpful and cooperative. See below.

I play hard-edged sixties rock and blues mostly. I have been playing over thirty years. Would I replace it? The jury is still out on that one. I have to see how it does on gigs.

So, here's the story you've been waiting for: I bought my first OFO from someone on Ebay who is an authorized Pigtronix dealer. He used it briefly himself and put it away for probably two years or more, then sold it to me. When I got it, the overdrive channel worked only intermittently. I demanded a refund from the seller, who initially refused and finally agreed. Meanwhile, I called David from Pigtronix, who advised me to return it to him for repair. He promptly returned it to me supposedly fixed. It wasn't. This time, the whole pedal worked only when it wanted to, and when it did work, not too well. Unacceptable, of course. It was obvious I had gotten a lemon. Hey, sh** happens, right? I demanded a new unit and David obliged without argument. I appreciate that kind of customer service and dedication to my satisfaction. My sincerest thanks, David.

All in all, I do think the OFO is a good value for the money, and I think I will be very happy with it once I become more familiar with it's range of sounds.

The Disnortion is a fuzz/overdrive/octaver pedal. Each has a switch to engage it and a knob or two to adjust effect level, drive or tone. How hard is that? The most challenging thing is setting levels so if you engage two of the effects (or all three) at one time you're not increasing the overall volume too much. That's what may take a little time in setting things up. Otherwise it's a breeze. Tha manual (as with all the the Pigtronix manuals) is full of good and useful info.

I really like the overall tones and versatility I can get with the Disnortion. I play Takamine acoustic-electrics into the Disnortion into Pigtronix Envelope Phaser into Pigtronix Echolution Phi into Fishman Loudbox amps and I can achieve a huge array of tones from subtle to over the top. I also have the Damage Control Liquid Blues pedal and even though it has tubes, I like the Disnortion more. The fuzz is incredible! I especially prefer the Full Range, FAT and Smooth settings. For me they are the most useful and are really creamy and thick. The overdrive is an awesome overdrive. It can growl with the best of 'em but I usually use it with only a bit of gain and let it boost my clean sound for leads or added to the fuzz to push it a little furthur. The octave is an added treat that I use only sparingly, but it is good.

This remains to be seen as the first pedal had a switch problem (it wouldn't engage the effect on the overdrive) but David replaced it with another and that one works just fine. Pigtronix seems to have well built gear.

Top notch! David answers his phone and talks to you. If you leave a message he'll get back to you. If you have a problem he'll take care of it. That's customer service.

I play everything from the Dead to Pink Floyd to folkadelic jam-style improvisations to John Prine to Peter Rowan to Bob Dylan to The Beatles to REM to the Shins and the Disnortion is incredibly useful. I can turn in on if I want dirt and fuzz. I can adjust gain and levels to suit me needs. And I can turn it off if I want. It's MY CHOICE yee-har! I also have Damage Control pedals (Liquid Blues, Glass Nexus, and Timeline) and some Boss pedals (I used to have 15 on my pedal board at one time) and have used Line 6, MXR, Electro-Harmonix (great effects, crappy reliabilty; I hope the new XO line and Nano line have fixed that) as well as Lexicon and tc electronic rack gear. The Pigtronix stuff is up there with the best of them in tone and versatility. The fact that the Disnortion is three effects in one pedal is way cool.

I've gotten a lot of great advice by reading reviews here. So in my attempt to give back, I've written my own first in-depth review of a pedal I've found and really like. The review is for the Pigtronix OFO (Overdrive, Fuzz, Octava) pedal. The review is a bit long to post here so I'll just add a direct link to it: http://www.mcallister-productions.com/pigtronix.pdf

I hope this is helpful to some of you and if anyone else is using any pigtronix products please let me know what you think as I am probably going to purchase the delay pedal next.

Anyway- ~sHiNe oN~

P.S. I have no ties to this or any other music company and only play what I like and review what I want.

Dead easy to operate. Changing sounds on the fly is a breeze. Controls are not touchy, have a nice smooth range to them, easy to get back to any previous tone you wish to recall. If the Fuzz gain could be made as smooth, granular and responsive as the OD gain it would be perfection.

Manual is brief and contains only straight-forward must know info about the product and its operation.

Brand-new, completely stock unit, David Koltai said it can be modded to have the Octava level control active in the combinations. After working with it a number of hours now, I'm not sure it matters, but then I'm not really an Octavia aficionado and it was not a factor in my decision to purchase.

Vintage BF Deluxe, 59 Bassman RI, Beck Strat with Gold Lace Sensors, Canare' and George L's cable. The basis of my sound is vintage Fender clean tone, pedals to add colors, mainly subtle variations in tone, notwithstanding my fondness for a germanium fuzz-face clone and the Ram's Head Muff clone I use sparingly. I don't shred, and tend to prefer 'real' tube amp sounds.

Immediately found my own familiar tones on Fuzz and OD while working with this unit alone and apart from my pedalboard. Overdrive is awesome, exactly what I was looking for. Reviews of it were the initial reason for considering this purchase and I was not disappointed. Fuzz is also quite good, not as big and heavy as other things we commonly refer to as FUZZ, more along the lines of a reputably modded DS-1 that can also get a little crazier and has more voices. Doesn't really do a good crunch on the fuzz side, but the OD side does and the combinations of both absolutely kill. At first blush I felt there were 3 too many fuzz shapes, Full Range, FAT, and Scoop are what I gravitated to and will get the most use out of. After spending some time with it I can readily see the usefulness of the treble and smooth shapes for working combinations with the Fuzz and OD. The Bass shape is for bass guitar.

Later when integrated with other pedals I found that while the other pedals I had dialed in sounded quite good on their own, in direct A/B comparison the OFO was a touch clearer, letting the guitar speak through it, otherwise specific tones matched up fairly well.

I'm now using it with more subtle gain settings than many purchasers of it will. Hearing the clarity of my basic guitar tone thrills and inspires me to use this tastefully to flavor the input stage of my tube amps. All the same it sounds darned good at high gain settings.

This device will not replace big, heavy, bassy fuzz tones such as a vintage muff or germanium fuzz, but it is more than capable of filling in all the gaps between there and clean boost, honestly!

The Octava was not something that held much interest for me initially, but is surprisingly good, it probably does not hurt that my technique is clean and I do tend to mute everything I'm not playing, but this thing sounds just fab on major chords and power chords all over the neck, along with leads in the upper registers as one would expect. It's interesting and effective to punch it in for a power chord and then back it out.

It remains to be seen as it has not seen months of use and abuse yet.

Box is solid, switches, jacks, and controls feel solid and work correctly, no rattles, nothing loose inside or out. Nice design and layout, btw. Like the size.

First one showed up non-working, DOA, which I chalk up to quality control/testing issues at the factory in China. Shiat happens on an assembly line. David and his partners are pro's and will strive for success. The sonic quality of these units leaves me confident that whatever hole in process allowed this to happen will be filled.

On a related note, I had 2 small, really quite trivial issues with an EP-1 I bought previously and subsequently had modded. The quality of that superb analog unit, along with the praise for the OFO OD channel and David's willingness to answer my questions and guarantee my happiness with the OFO made my decision easy.

Don't see any reason real or imagined why I should not depend on it now that I have a perfectly working one. For me stuff either works and the world just keeps turning or it's broken in the initial burn-in period. Once I have something that works (excepting tubes) it just continues to work as long as I treat it right.

Dude answers his own email and answers questions in a timely manner, better than many other guys who run small businesses that are similar.

No push-back when I contacted him with issues, unlike dealing with other guys. Of course, I *do* do my part to outline what I did to arrive at my own conclusions and not waste his time either.

I worked for most of my adult life in major studios and my answer to artists questions was always 'absolutely' (within reason), so I appreciate when I contact someone with a need or idea to make something work better "for my purposes" and his response is always: yeah, I think I know exactly what you're looking for and then delivers it in spades.

I wouldn't hesitate to market this based upon the clarity and subtlety the OFO is capable of even though many guitarists will pick it up for big grind, high gain work.

The OFO will not replace the tones I get with a good rams head muff clone, or the crunch of the fuzz-boxx clone (which is a one-trick pony).
Nor will it replace a good fuzz face clone (germanium or silicon). It will however, fill in many if not all the gaps ranging from those tones all the way down to clean in a very convincing, non-pedal sounding way.

The Disnortion comes with a skinny manual and it fully covers the essential functions of the pedal. Step on the octava, step on the fuzz, and hit the strings; sound pretty good.

It's quality. It's very quiet. I use it as a DI frontend for my DAW and plugin it into my amp. In both situations the distortion created with the octava and fuzz are not left wanting.

Seems very well built, but only time will tell.

I've dealt with Dave Koltai through email numerous times. He always responds promptly and is helpful.

The Disnotion inspires me to play music. I would buy it again if something happened to it.

as easy to operate as plugging in and turning dials. The manual is written by somone who uses it, for somone who has not, and covers evrything in a funny/ interesting manner.

The distortion effect is very responcive from subtile to over the top, and with 6 types of fuzz settings you can dial in anything you need to fit the aplication. octave effects still cut through. while no true bypass is availiable. i find the coloring added to my amp (tech21 212 by n.y.c.sansamp)is not discernable. and responds well dynamicaly weather being used with my les paul, strat, or ibanez. the perfect tone is the un-attainable holy grail, so through no fault of pigtronix is my rating not a 10.

ive only had the pedal for 2 months, but hav e never experianced anything besides normal operating.

I have had minimal contact with the company, but im inquiory was responded to imediately They seem to be very proud of their product, and stand behind it.

coming from the digital world of one pedal does a little of everything, and none of it very well. I was a little weary of making a purchace of a product i could not play befor. Thanks to a product review in guitar world, and a very helpful website at pigtronix i was able to download sound clips. This pedal Dysnortion O.F.O, is everything it claims to be. No lie! One look at the quality and care that goes into the packageing of this product alone says all it needs to about the gear itself. Simply the Best distortion/fuzz/octave pedals all rolled into one easy to use compact unit.. Yes, it is all that!

Wasn't too sure how to answer this one numerically - here's why:

The sheer range of options on this box can be a bit intimidating at first (especially since each effect can be used on its own, or alongside of the others), but once you've spent some time with your rig and figured out how to dial in the right tones for yourself the pedal becomes a great asset. Both the Fuzz and the Overdrive can be set for a clean boost individually, which means that you can have a totally clean signal, a boosted signal, and a crunchy distorted signal without so much as a flick of any knob on any of your equipment. Sure, you could do this with multiple pedals and a daisy chain, but why do that when you could have just one?

With a Strat through a 1972 Twin Reverb -

The OD: This is a great OD - from a nice clean boost (which can really make a good tube amp sing) to a snarling drive and everything in between. Never muddy, always gritty - there's a lot of muscle in this OD.

The Fuzz: As a single channel, it's the highlight of the pedal. The six fuzz shapes all live up to their names. From a creamy mid-boost sustain, to a droning, feedback laced bass rumble - don't waste your money on a Big Muff or something just because it's kind of famous; the OFO Fuzz is just out of control. AND, try picking one of the treble or mid shapes and then kick in the overdrive - the OD fattens the whole thing up and all of sudden you're dealing with a real beast!

The Octava: The weakest effect on its own, but when matched with the Fuzz or the OD it becomes insanely cool. Layers of harmonic resonance heaped on to your original sound - does crazy things to chords and intervals, and can really kick a solo into high gear.

NOTE: In order to get the best performance out of this pedal, your guitar must be turned all the way up! Even with the amp turned down to bedroom levels, the OFO will rock your socks off, but the guitar volume should be all the way up!

No problems yet.

Haven't had to do any tech/repair stuff with them, but I did contact them with some general comments and I received a personal response within the hour! They seem like guys who really care about their product, and about your experience with it. I have no doubt that any problems would be taken care of efficiently and properly.

I was shopping around for an OD/distortion/fuzz box for quite a while before settling on this one. What really sold me was the quality of the individual effects, and the fact that they're designed to sound great in combination with one another. I mean, I could have purchased three separate pedals, spent a lot more money, and had a lot more wires and things in front of me onstage, but why bother when you can have it all in one box, right there in front of you? I've only begun to tap into the possibilites of this little box, but I can tell that it's extremely versatile and has something to offer for many different musical styles. Personally, I play mostly indie-rock/drone stuff, and this pedal really delivers the goods - clean boost, gritty drive, miles of bass, and awesome feedback when I need it. I would definitely get another one if it were stolen - in fact, I'm probably going to snag the Pigtronix echo/delay pedal as soon as it comes out, because, if this pedal is any indication, this company is serious about making quality pedals.

With three effects in one pedal, you can easily become intimidated by all of the OFO's offerings. Nevertheless, the manual is masterfully written and has an array of tone tips, so it is very easy to start finding cool sounds right away.

My setup is in this order:
1. A Heritage 535 or a Godin LGX-SA
2. Vox Wah
3. A volume/boost pedal (custom made by Dave Koltai)
4. TS9 Tubescreamer
5. Pigtronix OFO Disnortion
6. Pigronix EP-1
7. Keeley-modified Ibanez AD-9 analogue delay
8. A bastardized Fender Deville with 4 10? speakers

This is an all in one distortion pedal and you can dial in tones that emulate all of the greats: BB King, SRV, Allman Brothers, old school Clapton, Trey Anastasio, John Scofield, Pete Townshend, Zack Wylde, Scott Ian? the list goes on. I cannot pretend to play like ANY of these cats, but I can definitely get their sounds with this single distortion unit.


The octavia feature is more than just an added bonus. I bought the unit for just the overdrive and fuzz, but find myself stomping on the octaver just as much.

The most amazing thing is how little noise this guy makes. You can find some great feedback on some of the settings, but it is controllable.

Built like a mack truck. No problems so far and I gig without a backup all the time.

In this field, these guys are the best in the biz. Their contact info on the web goes directly to THEM, not some machine, and they respond directly to any emails. You can even tell from the manual that they really care about the product and your experience with it.

I have been playing for 18 years and have owned dozens of distortion pedals before. This one is by far the best. The quality, versatility, and usability all outdo anything else I have ever encountered.

I play blues, jazz, bluegrass, rock, alternative, and funk and I find myself using the OFO appropriate for all of these genres.

It's easy to use; 3 sets of controls and a footswitch for each.

Strictly disappointing in evey way...
The Ocavia is a waste of time and does nothing of use that I can tell.
The Fuzz has several selector settings, none of which sounds like a real fuzztone.
The Overdrive is decent to fatten up the sound. That's all.

A Route66 (new model) for cheap on eBay is a more usable pedal for overdrive and it's not that great (compression is nice,though).

The Pigtronix does nothing but disappoint me. There should be something impressive or cool in it and I don't hear either.

Looks well built; no problem there.

can't say

Sound is all that really counts and this delivers nothing of much use. It's overpriced and not in a league with the Fulltone pedals.
A disappointment that is going on eBay if I cannot return it for refund.

amazing, amazing distortion pedal....
i got the pleasure to get this pedal before it comes out and am really impressed.
I've been using 4 distortion pedals on stage for the longest time, (big muff, rat, sansamp, and a zvex) and this pedal pretty much eliminates all of that.
very easy to use... has three different pedal switches, fuzz, overdrive, and octava.
one at a time or all three... the sound is huge... and i really like the tonal possibilities with thei pedal.

great, great tone for days.
you can switch from just fuzz, with 6 different tonal switches from high pass to low pass and everything in between,.... than click on the overdrive to kick in the balls.... than click in the octava for even more balls... great for metal.
kick ass

very reliable
very well made
comes with a great padded box

David at pigtronix is great,
he'll fix anything.. and if he's free, he's down to mod things...
haven't had to get it repaired, and don't think i'll have to

i play in a band called Dub Trio... it ranges from dub/reggae to punk/rock, and metal,
and this pedal does it all.
rocks through and through..

All in all its a very easy pedal to use. There are a few quirks to some of the shape modes for the Fuzz section that you just kind of have to memorize but all of them sound good so it doesn't matter really. Pretty much anything you turn on will be a perfectly usable sound, but because of the sheer amounts of tonal flexability you do have to do a lot of knob twiddling before you get the "one" you are looking for...but the sound is definetly in there.

The manuals are excellent and personally written and offer tips and suggestions the way you would pass on a good sound to a friend.

I am using this pedal with:

1998 US Fender Strat or 1981 Gibson ES-335
Tube screamer
Digitech Whammy
Handbuilt Tonebender Clone (built by Dave Koltai)
Fulldrive Fulltone 2
Line 6 DL 4
Pigtronix EP-1
T.C. Electronix G-Major
Dr. Z Maz 38 or Polytone Mini-Brute II

Even with the other pedals, the pedal is extremely quiet. Like i said before, all the sounds are pretty usable in live situations. Usually i use this through a tube amp like the Dr. Z, but i frequently use it thought my polytone and it really "tubes-up" a solid state amp better than any other kind of overdrive i know of.

There are definetly a lot of great sounds in this box. For the most part i just use the overdrive portion just warm up a solid state amp or just give my notes a little bit more girth. The thing that REALLY stands out about this pedal is the dynamic fluctuation and dynamic sensitivity of the overdrive section. If you play lightly its extremely clean and even but if you really dig it it can pick up a LOT of dirt even if its just on the overdrive section. I use the Fuzz a considerable amount too. Since it can work indepentant of the Overdrive and in parallel (and thus not clouded) by other channel. it works well mixed in subtley mixed in with the overdrive to make a good full high gain oveerdrive. Mixing in more of the gain or level of the fuzz will reveal a very powerful grinding kind of tone that is great for big rock riffs.

The Fuzz is set up with a Shape knob that gives you 6 different settings of filters. They are: bass, mid-scoop, treble, smooth, F.A.T, and Full Range. Experimenting with the each one presents many options for different genres. Although you can get a vintage fuzz tone out of it (usually using the treble filter shape) but it is definetly a much more modern sounding pedal overall. Even with the Octavia, which is in many ways a "throwback" kind of effect, it has a decidedly modern sound, especially when playing consonant intervals like major 3rds, perfect 4ths and 5ths and octaves. Playing dissonant intervals like a trione cause sounds very close to that of a ring modulator. Using the Octavia side in solo is also an interesting sound, which when used on bass can curiously give the effect of a biting moog sound (think Headhunters). Additionally there is a clean out which can be used as a sidechain out for the EP-1 Envelope Phaser (as it's intented) or to a tuner etc.

I have never had it fail on me in any way, nor has any of the other pigronix stuff for that matter.

I have and would take it alone without a backup.

The customer support is extremely detailed from finding a good sound to performing modfications and repairs if need be.

I havent had any problems with it at all.

I play all kinds of music, from shoegazer riff rock to bebop. For the most part i play a kind of jazzy improvisational rock music.

I have been playing guitar for about 11 years.

If it were stolen i would definetly get another

I love the fact that it can really act as a convincing tube emulator which can really get the same kind of response from dynamic performance and i love the sheer pallete of tonal options it allows me to have on the fly. There isn't much about it i dont like, except that just becouse of the gain it allows, you can let yourself get a lot louder than any other distortion pedal ive seen so you just have to be careful. Then again, if your goal is to get really loud then you can definetly use this pedal to achieve that. In all honesty it sounds great even at low volumes though.

I wish it had some kind of expression pedal options

It definetly helps me make music, especially in the studio.

Plug in and start having fun; but for maximum effectiveness, you'll need to dial in the proper settings for your guitar and playing style.

Absolutely awesome. Dial in a Nuclear distortion sound that'll curl the hair on a dead, bald man when you hit the strings and will be as silent as a grave when you mute them. Perfect for staccato rhythm tracks. Now you can easily record the crunchiest guitar without having to mute or gate the track because your pedal is adding noise when you're not playing. Also has a very nice, pop rock style, Jason Falkner Fuzz setting. My favorite setting though might be plugging in the Ibanez Jazz guitar and adding just a touch of authentic distortion and fuzz when I really dig into the strings. With a lighter touch the tone remains perfectly smooth and bell-like, so depending on how hard I hit the strings, I get everything in-between. Much more responsive than any other pedal I've played.

Since the pedal is brand new I haven't had a chance to drop kick it across the stage, but it sure looks to be built like a tank with standard, heavy duty switches, rugged knobs, and a heavy, metal enclosure.

A small, friendly company that personally answers their email. I begged to get one of the first ones after hearing it at NAMM earlier this year, and David at Pigtronix made it happen.

Take a little time to check out this pedal at your local store. There's something here for everyone from metal crunch, pop fuzz, and authentic blues/ jazz fuzz. Since I dabble in all of these styles, this pedal really replaces quite a few wants from my list. I've spent a fair bit of money on boutique pedals over the last two years, but this really holds its own in terms of sound and even has a few sounds that would be difficult to achieve with any other device.