NPD: Frederic Effects Super Unpleasant Companion

[solfege]

So I might have picked this up while I was over in London and though I'm too jet-lagged to put it through its paces tonight, I did at the shop and it's really impressively tasty -- 2 Shin-Ei clone fuzz circuits. Further reports when jet lag recedes a bit.

[MechaBulletBill]

I had one of these. It kicks bums up and down. Great fuzz.

[solfege]

Welp. Either my power supply setup is way worse than I thought it was, or than it behaves with literally any other piece of equipment I own (including a couple of other fuzz / OD pedals), or the one I got has a bad ground somewhere.

Got an email in to Tim at Frederic and we'll see where we go. The demo at the shop was amazing, so very much hoping this gets sorted.

[solfege]

Aaaand, my power supply situation is way worse than I thought.

Great freaking pedal. My goodness.

[solfege]

I had one of these. It kicks bums up and down. Great fuzz.

It really is.

[Mike S]

I absolutely love mine. It got even better when I opened it up and turned up the octaves with the trim pot. Lucky you, you got one of the white ones.

[solfege]

I absolutely love mine. It got even better when I opened it up and turned up the octaves with the trim pot. Lucky you, you got one of the white ones.

I finally brought my power setup into the 21st century and a) Sweet Jesus that's better all around, and b) this pedal is absolutely nuts. Three quite different texture / timbre sets, all nasty, but still musical. Walking right up about as close as you can get to that bleeding edge between nasty and unmusical.

The white is cool. I guess Tim dropped off a bunch at Regent about a week before I went to London with the idea of stopping by there and picking something, probably one of those, up. Serendipity.

[Mike S]

I absolutely love mine. It got even better when I opened it up and turned up the octaves with the trim pot. Lucky you, you got one of the white ones.

I finally brought my power setup into the 21st century and a) Sweet Jesus that's better all around, and b) this pedal is absolutely nuts. Three quite different texture / timbre sets, all nasty, but still musical. Walking right up about as close as you can get to that bleeding edge between nasty and unmusical.

The white is cool. I guess Tim dropped off a bunch at Regent about a week before I went to London with the idea of stopping by there and picking something, probably one of those, up. Serendipity.

If you ever want to do some severe damage to the continental shelf, stack it with an EHX Double Muff and add a big box PolyChorus. I personally prefer Earasers for hearing protection, but haven't found a solution for keeping my crown and fillings in with this setup.

[Jaguar018]

I love mine. Great pedal.

[solfege]

I absolutely love mine. It got even better when I opened it up and turned up the octaves with the trim pot. Lucky you, you got one of the white ones.

I finally brought my power setup into the 21st century and a) Sweet Jesus that's better all around, and b) this pedal is absolutely nuts. Three quite different texture / timbre sets, all nasty, but still musical. Walking right up about as close as you can get to that bleeding edge between nasty and unmusical.

The white is cool. I guess Tim dropped off a bunch at Regent about a week before I went to London with the idea of stopping by there and picking something, probably one of those, up. Serendipity.

If you ever want to do some severe damage to the continental shelf, stack it with an EHX Double Muff and add a big box PolyChorus. I personally prefer Earasers for hearing protection, but haven't found a solution for keeping my crown and fillings in with this setup.

Good Lord. That explains a few recent earthquakes.

I'm finding it does magical things with a bit of amp overdrive and a couple of my more, um, exotic delays.

Also, interestingly, my Jag likes the Companion side, while my Jazzmaster likes the Superfuzz.

[Mike S]

My favorite setups:
Squier Classic Vibe Jazzmaster->Companion Fuzz: Electric Funeral
Eastwood Hi-Flyer->Super Fuzz->Boss DM-2W: Pre-1989 Nirvana
Fender Kurt Cobain Signature Jaguar->Super Fuzz->MXR Phase 100: Stooges
Fender Kurt Cobain Signature Mustang->EHX Double Muff->Super Fuzz->EHX Wiggler on Hamm->Boss DM-2W: Dead Kennedys
Fender Kurt Cobain Signature Mustang->Super Fuzz->EHX Big Box Polychorus->EHX Small Clone->EHX Wiggler on Acey: Post-1990 Nirvana
Squier Standard Stratocaster->Companion Fuzz: Flipper
Fender Kurt Cobain Signature Jaguar->Companion Fuzz->MXR Sub Machine->EHX Big Box Polychorus: Helter Skelter & Revolution.

[CorporateDisguise]

The companion and superefuzz circuits are two of my alltime favorite fuzzes. Everything seems to teeter right on the edge of chaos when your playing them. It's pretty exhilarating. One of my favorite ways to use them is to turn the fuzz knob almost all the way down, and either run it into another fuzz, or slam it hard with another drive or boost pedal. I find that can give you a more stable octave sound. Alhough, I also love to run it with the gain cranked. Easily one of the best fuzz units ever built.

[solfege]

I absolutely love mine. It got even better when I opened it up and turned up the octaves with the trim pot. Lucky you, you got one of the white ones.

Talk to me about this trim pot? I see, like, zero documentation about it anywhere.

[Mike S]

If you open up the pedal, you'll see a trim pot on the Super Fuzz circuit. That controls the octave level. I think it may have been on some of the orange and blue original Super Fuzz pedals too. You can see it in the picture from the website.