Dr. No Alain Johannes 11:11

The Dr. No Alain Johannes 11:11 is a two-in-one fuzz pedal: a low-gain fuzz and a fixed wah filter in one box, designed and developed in collaboration with the Chilean-born guitarist Alain Johannes as his signature effect¹. Gearnews described it as "a low-gain affair" whose fuzz "can be blended in with a fixed wah effect to achieve a tone associated with Alain's guitar sound"². It was built as a limited edition of 121 numbered copies, each hand-signed by Alain Johannes, and it is now sold out¹.

A low-gain fuzz with a fixed wah

The pedal carries two effects in one enclosure: a filter, described by the maker as "a set wahwah", and a low-gain fuzz¹. Dr. No states that "both effects can be used separate and at the same time creating magical onorthodox tones generating endless inspiration"¹, so a player can run the fuzz alone, the fixed wah alone, or blend the two for the tone associated with Johannes' sound².

The controls are as follows:

The knobs themselves are part of the design's story. The two bird skull knobs symbolize two people: the silver chicken head is Alain Johannes, and the bronze magpie skull is his late wife, Natascha Shneider¹. Gearnews noted that the settings of the two skull knobs interact, with some combinations agreeable and some discordant². The larger two coin controls represent Alain's birthday, 2 May 1962, and his Chilean origin, while the smaller two coin controls represent Natascha's Russian heritage and her birthday, 22 May 1956²³.

Alain Johannes and his signature pedal

Alain Johannes is a Chilean-born guitarist born on 2 May 1962³. The collaboration with Dr. No began in early 2014¹, after Dr. No sent him a box of pedals to his home studio 11AD in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, where Johannes used them in his studio work⁴. In January 2015 Dr. No announced it would "create a special custom 'Art' pedal for his musical hero and friend Alain Johannes", promising "never seen before combinations and features like 'custom coin knobs', 'skull knobs', cool new design"⁵. The finished 11:11 was designed and developed fully in collaboration with Johannes¹.

Johannes also made a demo video using the pedal so listeners could hear how it gets his tone², and he recorded a music piece called "The Adventures of Dr.No in the 11th Dimension" at his own 11AD studio in Los Angeles to accompany the project¹. Gearnews' reviewer found that "you can get close to his signature sound using the 11.11"².

The partnership continued beyond the pedal. In 2019 Dr. No set up a small European acoustic solo tour for Johannes, and later built a handmade pedalboard for his Eleven live tour, complete with pedals, case and power supplies; the "Eleven" logo on that board came from the 11AD studio⁶.

Why it is called 11:11

The number 11 runs through the whole project. The edition was limited to 121 builds, 11 times 11, each numbered and hand-signed by Alain Johannes¹. The copies were spread over 11 months, ending on 2 May 2016, Alain's birthday¹. Even the launch price carried the theme: Gearnews noted the €335 RRP was "again symbolic as the three figures add up to 11"².

Availability and what reviewers said

The 11:11 was a limited edition capped at 121 builds¹. When Gearnews covered the pedal in May 2016, it was described as available direct from the Dr. No Effects site². The maker's product page listed it at €623.00¹.

Gearnews' reviewer was taken with the look of the thing: "Visually, the pedal is stunning and a lot of care has been taken with the aesthetics of this unit"². On the meaning behind the design, the reviewer was more wry:

MusicRadar also covered the unveiling, calling it a symbolic pedal whose coin knobs encode both birthdays³.

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