Black Arts Toneworks Pharaoh

The Black Arts Toneworks Pharaoh is an analog fuzz pedal built on Big Muff roots, with a range that stretches well past a classic Muff. Black Arts describes it as going "from a cleanish boost, to a light OD, all the way to saturated fuzz," so one box can cover low-gain overdrive duties and full saturated doom fuzz¹. Coda Effects, which traced the circuit, found it very similar to the Big Muff circuit and credited its early success to "huge, warm, doomy sounds"².

The pedal launched in 2011³ and is made in Chattanooga, Tennessee⁴. It lists at $189¹.

What it does to your sound

The Pharaoh's circuit is a Big Muff relative with what Black Arts calls "a few twists"⁶⁷. Where a classical Big Muff gives you gain, volume and tone, the Pharaoh adds a high-end compensation knob, a hi/lo gain switch and a diode selector, giving it more controls than a classical Big Muff². The result is a fuzz that can be dialed back to a light overdrive or pushed into saturated fuzz, with the character of the clipping itself selectable.

For bass players, Black Arts says the circuit delivers "huge fuzz with NO low-end loss, and without squishy flubby tones"¹.

The controls

The dual tone control is the Pharaoh's main departure from a stock Muff. Darren, rhythm guitarist of Ancient Warlocks, whose review Black Arts published, found the tone controls "very interactive and a really broad range of stuff you've never heard from a Muff type can be made"⁶. He also noted the pedal "sounds great on the low setting but that's not really my bag and I'll be leaving it on high for the foreseeable future"⁸.

Diode modes: silicon, germanium and diodes out

The three-position diode switch selects what clips the signal in the final distortion stage²:

• Silicon diodes: "a raspy distorted sound"¹
• Diodes out: more volume and headroom with less clipping¹
• Asymmetrical germanium diodes: "a warm, tubey old school sound"¹

Darren compared the settings directly: with the diodes in, the pedal is "a little more compressed and still sounds really cool but when I switched them out it just felt" bigger⁶. The diodes-out position is the one to reach for when you want openness and headroom; the germanium position leans old-school and warm.

Power

The Pharaoh operates on a standard 9V DC power supply, center negative, drawing 10mA¹⁵. There is no battery connection¹, so it needs a power supply from day one. At 10mA it is an easy load for any pedalboard power brick.

History and versions

The Pharaoh first launched in 2011³ and was an immediate success for the small builder². Production ran in small numbered batches: the second batch was six pedals¹⁰, and Darren's review unit was Pharaoh #23⁶. The price has moved over the years, from $140 with US shipping included¹¹ to the current $189¹. Custom color work was offered for a $10 upcharge and was later handed off to the artist who handles the company's printing and graphics¹¹.

The Pharaoh family grew into several versions:

• Pharaoh Supreme: adds a Pre knob and a Clip knob plus extra diode settings (BAT41 germanium, asymmetrical BAT41, silicon, MOSFET, LED and bypass). Black Arts calls it the "Supreme fuzz-stortion" and has since discontinued it¹².
• Son of Pharaoh: a version built from the same parts bins as the Pharaoh and Pharaoh Supreme, with the same sonic abilities; also out of production¹³.
• Sarcophagus: a double pedal containing the Pharaoh and LSTR circuits in full¹⁴.
• Custom and limited editions: including the Fire on White Pharaoh built for FuzzBoxGirl, and custom color schemes like the Dark Blue/Black on Transparent burnt orange Custom Primitive Pharaoh¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷.

Within the Black Arts lineup, the Pharaoh is what the maker calls "the utilitarian BMP," voiced middier than the Crown of Horns¹⁸.

Players and reviewers

Jeff and Matt of High on Fire used Pharaohs on their new material, according to Black Arts Toneworks¹⁹. Darren of Ancient Warlocks used his live and at practice, and as a hobbyist pedal builder he "was impressed at the layout and build quality," expecting a much higher price⁸.

Pedal of the Day's Mike B. reviewed it in 2014 and summed up its range⁴:

He concluded it would be on his board for a long time⁴.

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