Tone Report Weekly Issue 157 | Page 66

SKREDDY PEDALS ROVER FUZZ REVIEW BY ERIC TISCHLER STREET PRICE $149.00 I love the sound of a Tone Bender MKII. How I get that sound is immaterial, so I was thrilled to learn that Marc “Skreddy” Ahlfs released a silicon take on this classic germanium fuzz—Rover—as part of his new Precision Series. Thanks to some deceptively versatile controls, Rover nails quintessentially MKII tones with virtually anything you throw at it. In addition to the classic Level (output) and Attack (amount of fuzz), Skreddy’s added a “Wool” control that controls the low-end content going into the fuzz. The latter control sounds pretty conventional—if atypical in 66 GEAR REVIEW // a fuzz—but, in practice, it’s hugely useful: In addition to functioning as a tone control, it induces a range of clipping characteristics that help Rover cover a lot of ground. Following Skreddy’s advice, I initially set the Fuzz and Wool controls at 3 o’clock and was rewarded with the thick, violin-like sustain and clipped attack that characterize a MKII. The fuzz was perfectly compressed; the attack unmistakably MKII-like in its angry bite and, despite the meaty distortion, Rover was totally responsive to my vibrato. Some MKII fans may miss the chaos factor Skreddy Pedals Rover Fuzz of a more traditional design, which can result in a fuzz that’s deeper but more amorphous and a touch response that requires a little more . . . intuition. I suspect, however, that most users will be thrilled to have the tones they heard on countless records perfectly dialed in, and Rover delivers those tones in spades. Even the vintage connoisseurs should be impressed by how well this little pedal captures the sound of the classic fuzz it’s modeled after. The satisfyingly thick fuzz and idiosyncratic clipping, the way-more-than-vintage output, the surprisingly small footprint, the daisy-