Gone Fishing Effects Announces Version 2.0 of Simon Neil Booooom/Blast

November 28, 2021 · 2 sources

Gone Fishing Effects makes the Simon Neil Booooom / Blast, a dual overdrive and fuzz pedal built with Biffy Clyro frontman Simon Neil. The pedal, made in the UK, houses separate overdrive and fuzz circuits in one box, and grew out of a collaboration between Richard "Churd" Pratt of Gone Fishing Effects, Biffy Clyro's longtime guitar tech, and Neil himself¹².

The design brief behind the original, in Pratt's words, was simple¹:

The two sides of the pedal take their names from Booooom, Blast & Ruin, a track on Biffy Clyro's 2009 album Only Revolutions. Booooom is described as a thick, aggressive germanium diode overdrive, while Blast is a wild transistor fuzz effect¹.

Key features of the pedal as reviewed:

• Independent true-bypass footswitches for each effect
• Independent input and output jacks for each side, internally combined if not using an external pedal switching system
• Dual blue LEDs that glow dimly when bypassed and brightly when engaged
• 9V DC mains power only, so no battery option
• Dimensions of 167 x 115 x 78mm¹

Controls are kept deliberately minimal, three knobs on the Booooom side and two on Blast¹:

The original pedal carried a price of £299, and its first batch of 200 units, each enclosure hand-painted and signed by Simon Neil with cosmetics echoing the artwork from 2020's A Celebration Of Endings, sold out through the Biffy Clyro webstore, with more being made at the time of the review¹.

Guitar.com's reviewer rated the original 9 out of 10, with the verdict "Gigantic overdrive and fuzz tones suitable for setting moshpits alight," finding the Booooom side extremely touch-sensitive and the jaggy tone control full-sweeping from dark to stinging, while Blast delivered a colossal 60s fuzz tone that morphs into square wave fuzz with infinite sustain¹. The pedal also appeared in Guitar.com's best premium effects pedals of 2021².