Farm Pedals The Altar is a limited edition overdrive/fuzz pedal from Farm Pedals, announced in February 2024. It is built on a dual-stage hybrid Germanium/Mosfet circuit, a design that combines a germanium stage with a MOSFET stage to shape its dirt tones1. It sits in the space between overdrive pedals and fuzz pedals, and the maker's other one-off dirt designs include The Mountain and the Subsoiler Fuzz.
What it does
Delicious Audio's Paolo De Gregorio, writing at the pedal's announcement, described the character this way1:
"The overall results are never clean, but rather raw, loose and at times hairy, ranging between gritty overdrive tones and the fuzz tones you can get when pushing a tube amp."
In other words, The Altar is not a pedal for transparent boost or edge-of-breakup subtlety. Its range runs from gritty overdrive up to fuzz tones of the kind a player gets from driving a tube amp hard, with a raw and loose quality throughout1.
Controls
The Altar keeps things simple. The documented control is:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Left knob | Sets the amount of treble and overall output; it also controls the circuit's gain stages and tone EQ1 |
That left knob works as more than a straight tone or level control: because it interacts with the gain stages and the tone EQ, turning it down changes the character of the dirt as well as the treble and output level1.
Availability
The Altar was announced as a limited edition, with only 50 units available as of 15 February 20241.
The Altar is a limited run of 50 units. A pedal produced in numbers this small may be difficult to find once the initial run is gone.
Videos
collector//emitter
Sources (1)
- New Pedal: Farm Pedals The Altar Fuzz, Delicious Audio, 2024-02-15
