Russian Big Muff Takeover

I always wanted to be ultra cool and play the guitar, well actually that is a bit of a fib. I actually wanted to be able to carry around a guitar case and give the impression that I knew how to play it. Kudos without the  effort is ok in my reckoning.

 In my teens the girls always went for the guy on lead guitar or bass in even a school band, let alone the contemporary rock bands of the time.

The closest I got to being that cool was by hanging out with a local band and doing a bit of roadie-ing although at venues nothing grander than a function room, smoke filled and beer stained, above a pub on a main road in a city suburb. I did have the donkey jacket with tartan lining (more practical and warmer than an authentic Harrington), drainpipe trousers (not Levi Strauss or Wrangler Jeans) and my dads winkle picker shoes and so looked the part of a beatnik sort.

I have no aptitude or indeed patience to learn a musical instrument apart from a descant recorder and a trumpet/cornet and this meant that any attempt to master the guitar was doomed from the start.

I do have a great admiration for those who can play, not just chords and the usual "smoke on the water", other standard riffs or "Kumbaya and there is still nothing better than a live gig with the likes of Joe Bonamassa, Joe Satriani, Walter Trout, Michael Schenker, Matthias Jabs, Paul Stanley, and other greats of rock whom I I have been able to see over the last couple of decades.

My son is a self taught guitarist and produces some great sounds from his Ibanez electric and acoustic instruments. I cannot but marvel at his playing.

I have just be reading about a Crowd Funding initiative through the US based Kickstarter Scheme which seems to have generated considerable excitement amongst the electric guitar playing population.

It appears that the "Frantone Peachfuzz" is to come back into production. I am none the wiser but this small metal boxed effects pedal has attained legendary and cult status since its arrival in 1997.

Anyone venturing into the guitar section of a music shop or on-line catalogue will see a vast array of these bits of gear and so any wider recognition must signify something pretty special. The Peachfuzz has been voted in the top 50 fuzztones of all time which is some accolade indeed. I

It is the invention of a very interestingly eccentric lady by the name of Frances Blanche from whom Frantone is derived as the company name. She dabbled with electronics from the age of 10 and in 1995 brought out a unique internal overdrive pedal that became known as "Hep Cat". This was borne out of necessity as she could not afford the leading production fuzz pedal model, The Russian Big Muff by Electro-Harmonix (Warning; Do not search on the internet for Russian Big Muff for obvious reasons).

The company of Frantone was launched that year on the back of the well received Hep Cat and under progressive improvement and a good following amongst professional and amateur guitarists the Peachfuzz soon followed (1997). It did not generate enough for Fran  to live off and she went to work for Electro Harmonix for three years before going back full time in self employment.

What sets the Frantone products apart in the market is that they are hand made and precision engineered. The circuit boards are hand assembled, similarly the cases with their silk screen printed designs and  such quality is intended to last not just in the reliability of the electronics but under the rigours and intensive use by professional musicians.

Those who have taken to the Peachfuzz in particular have cited its "thick, rich effect that is capable of blowing your dangly bits off", which is technical enough to imply it is a nice sound. Others have mentioned a "high end sparkle" and at full on settings for the tone, volume and fuzz you can, evidently, expect great things to happen.

Fran, who has a prolific video presence,

http://www.frantone.com/designwritings/design_writings.html

on just about every subject has not sat back on the success of Peachfuzz and has brought out an extensive catalogue of effects pedals under such evocative and magical names as Cream Puff, Vibutron, Sputnik, The Sweet Germanium Transistorised Fuzztone, 2000 New York City Big Muff,Hi-Ball, Boobox, Sandwich Optical Compression, Bassweet, Acoust-a-Boost, Glacier Hyper Modulation and Thunderhead.

The Peachfuzz went out of production in 2009, perhaps coinciding with the global economic downturn and the drying up of bank lending for commercial ventures but is soon to return through a Kickstarter endorsement.

The generosity of the Kickstarter Community has been fantastic, no doubt assisted by the incentive reward of being able to pre-order one of the new versions with a donation of just US$295.

It all gives a new meaning, if I can borrow the idiom, to putting the pedal to the metal.

Happy fuzzing.