The Cog Effects Rogue One is an analog octave fuzz pedal for bass, announced on December 16, 2016. It combines two full-featured Grand Tarkin bass fuzz channels with a third parallel sub-octave channel taken from the company's T-70 circuit, and Guitar Interactive Magazine's Jonathan Graham summed it up as a pedal that "provides enormous flexibility and skull-crushing tone."1
What it does to your sound
The Rogue One is built around two Grand Tarkin fuzz channels running alongside a sub-octave channel borrowed from the T-70. The octave section has two controls, filter and down.1 The A/B footswitch lets you swap between both fuzz channels on the fly, so a player can set one channel as a low-gain base tone and the other as a heavier voice and move between them mid-song.1
Cog Effects' founder described the combination in the launch release: "This is the best bits of the Tarkin, Grand Tarkin and T-65 added together to make a speaker-busting combo."1 The company also described the pedal as "equally at home in a synth bass setup as it is on a rock pedalboard."1
Big Muff connections
gearnews.com's Jef reported that the Rogue One is Cog Effects' take on the classic Electro-Harmonix Big Muff fuzz pedals, and that it "seeks to emulate many versions" of the Big Muff.2 The Depth switches carry that further: they change the clipping voicing so the pedal can, in Cog Effects' words, "transcend through a broad range of Triangle, Russian" tones, referencing the well-known Big Muff editions by those names.1
The clipping itself is switchable. The clipping diodes can be removed from either or both clipping stages on the fuzz channels, and gearnews.com lists the levers as Depth 1 and Depth 2, plus Clip 1 and Clip 2 for removing the diodes, one lever per fuzz channel.12
Controls and switching
| Control | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Clean, Level (Wet), Tone, Mids, Fuzz | Knobs, one set per fuzz channel | Shapes each fuzz channel's clean blend, wet level, tone, mids and fuzz amount2 |
| Depth 1, Depth 2 | Mini toggle switches | Change the clipping voicing across Triangle, Russian and NYC style tones12 |
| Clip 1, Clip 2 | Mini toggle switches | Remove the clipping diodes from each channel's clipping stages12 |
| Clean Kill (Mute) | Mini toggle switch, one per channel | Mutes the clean signal when the octave is engaged, to help balance levels between modes12 |
| Filter, Down | Octave controls | Shape the sub-octave channel2 |
| A/B footswitch | Footswitch | Swaps between both fuzz channels on the fly1 |
The Clean Kill toggle exists on each channel because the octave and fuzz run in parallel: muting the clean signal while the octave is engaged helps keep the two modes level-matched.1
Power and build
The Rogue One runs from a 9-volt standard DC input and features true bypass switching.1 It is housed in an individually engraved Hammond 1590XX aluminum enclosure.1 Cog Effects pedals are hand built in Sheffield, UK.2
Price and availability
The Rogue One was announced as available in December 2016. MusicRadar's Michael Astley-Brown reported it available for £230 from Cog Effects, and gearnews.com listed the RRP as £230.32
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Questions
Is the Cog Effects Rogue One true bypass?
Yes. According to the press release announcing the pedal, the Rogue One features true bypass switching, so the pedal's circuit is removed from the signal path entirely when it is switched off.
What power supply does the Cog Effects Rogue One need?
The Rogue One runs from a 9-volt standard DC input, as stated in the Guitar Interactive Magazine announcement. No battery option or current draw figure was given in the launch coverage, so a standard centre-negative 9V DC supply is what the pedal was announced with.
Is the Rogue One based on the Big Muff?
It is a take on the classic Electro-Harmonix Big Muff fuzz pedals, and gearnews.com reported that it seeks to emulate many versions of the Big Muff. Cog Effects itself describes it as the best bits of its own Tarkin, Grand Tarkin and T-65 circuits added together, and the Depth switches sweep the clipping voicing through Triangle, Russian and NYC style tones.
What does the Clean Kill switch do on the Rogue One?
The Clean Kill toggle on each fuzz channel mutes the clean signal when the octave is engaged, which helps balance levels between the fuzz and octave modes. gearnews.com lists it as a mini toggle switch labelled Clean Kill (Mute).
Can the Rogue One be used with guitar or synth bass setups?
Cog Effects described the Rogue One as equally at home in a synth bass setup as it is on a rock pedalboard. It was announced as an octave fuzz for bass, so bass is its intended instrument, but the maker's own framing covers synth bass and rock pedalboard use.
Where is the Cog Effects Rogue One made?
Cog Effects pedals are hand built in Sheffield, UK, according to gearnews.com's report on the Rogue One. The pedal sits in an individually engraved Hammond 1590XX aluminium enclosure.
Sources (3)
- Cog Effects Launches Rogue One Octave Fuzz, Guitar Interactive Magazine, 2016-12-16
- Cog Effects' Rogue One: A Death Star-sized bass fuzz pedal!, gearnews.com, 2016-12-18
- Feel the force of Cog Effects' Rogue One octave fuzz pedal, MusicRadar, 2016-12-16
