From the captain:
basically a fuzz face clone (circa 2012). It is a pool of thought and
ideals. All the little iddy biddy nuggets of information learned from
screwing around with this circuit over the last 10 years. Nothing
revolutionary and no reinvention of the wheel just a different slice of
the same cake.
The destination on the trip: The Black Acid has
substantial weight and heavy saturation without having a complete
strangle hold on the lower frequencies. It has the same perceived
amplitude as the old Meathead Dark but with the lows being tighter with
greater clarity. It has considerably more output than a stock Fuzz Face
but I’d say that it retains more of the vintage nature than any of the
Meatheads, I guess you could say the frequency spread is more even. The
highs and lows are nicely balanced so the projection is good plus with
the mids not being as forced the clean-up from the guitars volume
control is very pleasant, though pleasant wasn’t really plan here.
The
construction style and the internal arrangement is the same as with the
Priest. A much simpler circuit with components specially selected to
get the job done. At the heart of the Acid is a pair of Magnatec
BC109’s. UK made transistors don’t you know. A great quality component
that really complements this circuit set-up. Even running flat-out and
blowing the barn doors wide open there is cleanliness or crispness to
the tone. Don’t get me wrong, it’s as sludgy as fuck but sludgy without
having cotton wool forced into your ears.
The controls are pretty
damn obvious but I’d say the rule of attenuation applies to this pedal,
as in I’d advise starting out with the Drive and Fuzz controls wide open
and them bringing them back to where you’d like be at. The Fuzz is as
you’d find on any Fuzz Face or the Tone Benders Attack control, it’s
only really gonna kick-in with the heavy on last quarter of the turn.
There be plenty of scope for cool tones and amp blending but if you want
the heavy open it up. The Drive is basically the pre-gain of the pedal.
It’s like having your guitars volume control on the floor. The point of
this is that it’s a great way to un-flab the lows when you’re driving
the thing hard into the front end of a driven valve amp. It also gives
up some great overdrive tones and just makes the box a whole lot more of
a flexible tool. The Drive and Fuzz controls also have a pretty sweet
interaction thing going off. The Black Acid ain’t as ‘yeah! lets fucking
party!’ as the Priest is on the controls front but put the time in and
the rewards will be plentiful.
