AROUND FOUR YEARS ago, a video surfaced of Eric Gales demoing the debut fuzz pedal from a new company based in the U.K. It racked up a serious amount of views, thanks to the jaw-dropping licks and tones coming from his hands.
“The thing I like is you don’t even need to turn the fuzz off; you just roll the volume down and it’s clean,” said Gales, showing how the Pedal Pawn Fuzz could be tamed from something full-bodied and explosive to a hi-fidelity glassy spank using just one control on his Magneto guitar. Since then, the company — launched by guitarist Chris King Robinson — has gone from strength to strength, with limited-run specials of their favorite circuits like the Germanium Fuzz with vintage CV7003 Texas Instruments transistors and the more recent 2N404 Fuzz with transistors housed in ultra-rare Mullard Gold Saucer cans dating back to December 1965. Another addition to the range came in the form of the Octone, voiced after a rare 1970s Octavia that packed the right amount of fatness underneath those instantly recognizable Roger Mayer-designed overtones.
They’ve also applied the same painstaking level of care into their other pedals, often using Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix as tonal reference points. Of course, every company will probably tell you they’ve gone to the ends of the earth to perfect “that sound,” but in the case of Pedal Pawn, they tracked down one of SRV’s actual TS9 Tube Screamers — most likely the one used for his legendary El Mocambo performance — and cloned it alongside a vintage Bluesbreaker to make the dual overdrive BluesPrint. Then there’s the Texan Twang, a recreation of the Texas Ranger boost built by SRV tech César Díaz, or the Chicken Quiff, which reimagines the César Díaz Texas Tremodillo.