Gone Fishing Effects Booooom/Blast

The Booooom/Blast is a signature drive pedal for Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro, built by Gone Fishing Effects, the operation run by the band's longtime guitar tech Richard "Churd" Pratt. It puts two separate circuits in one enclosure: Booooom, an aggressive overdrive based on a germanium diode clipping section, and Blast, a transistor-based fuzz that ranges from grainy break up to full-on velcro squarewaves¹. Neil described it as "two pedals in one box," with each side having its own footswitch¹.

The pedal was named after "Booooom, Blast & Ruin," a track from Biffy Clyro's 2009 album Only Revolutions². Every unit is hand-built by Pratt and painted and signed by Neil, and each run has been limited to 200 units, which has made it one of the harder pedals from the maker to get hold of: examples have changed hands secondhand for over £500³⁴.

The Booooom and Blast sides

The two halves of the pedal do different jobs. Booooom is the overdrive side, built around a germanium diode clipping section with asymmetrical clipping, which Guitar.com reported "generates a gritty and very amp-like roar, from a warm and subtle boost right up to thunderous overdrive"⁴. Blast is the fuzz side, a transistor-based circuit that can move between grainy break up and full-on velcro squarewaves¹.

Guitar.com's review characterized the two sides in its own words: Booooom is a "thick, aggressive germanium diode overdrive" and Blast is a "wild transistor fuzz effect"². The Blast side was described as producing "a colossal 60s fuzz tone that morphs into joyous square wave fuzz with infinite sustain at a twist of the 'syrup' control"⁴².

Neil's brief for the pedal, as he told Guitar.com, was blunt:

Controls and footswitches

Both effects are activated by independent true-bypass footswitches, so each side can be used alone or together². The control names are unusual but the jobs are familiar.

Controls and functions per Guitar.com's review²

The pedal also has independent input and output jacks for each side of the effect, which are internally combined if you are not using an external pedal switching system. That means the two circuits can be split out and reordered in a larger rig, or run as a single series pedal straight into an amp².

The Syrup knob on the Blast side is the one that drew the most attention. Guitar.com reported that a twist of the syrup control morphs the colossal 60s fuzz tone into square wave fuzz with infinite sustain⁴. On the Booooom side, the reviewer found the Jaggy tone control "has an impressively full sweep from dark to stinging"².

Simon Neil's signature pedal and its limited runs

The Booooom/Blast began as a collaboration between Pratt and Neil, with Pratt hand-building each unit and Neil painting and signing every enclosure⁵. The first run went up for preorder on 6 November 2020 at £299 through the Biffy Clyro store¹, and the first batch of 200 sold out via the webstore¹⁵.

A Version 2.0 was announced on 25 November 2021 with the same specifications as the first, the only visible change being that the paint stripe across the white case was changed to peach. Like the first, it was limited to 200 units, still hand-painted and signed by Neil, with preorders opening at store.biffyclyro.com at 11 AM GMT on 30 November and shipping expected on 28 January 2022⁴.

What reviewers said

Guitar.com reviewed the pedal in May 2021 and rated it 9 out of 10, summing it up as "gigantic overdrive and fuzz tones suitable for setting moshpits alight"²⁴. The review earned the pedal a place in Guitar.com's Best Premium Effects Pedals of 2021 awards, where the site wrote: "With gigantic overdrive and fuzz tones suitable for setting moshpits alight, mission surely accomplished"⁶.

Specific findings from the review:

• The Booooom side is "extremely touch-sensitive" and responds to picking-hand dynamics much like an old tweed amp².
• The Booooom side "pulls off that rare trick of making your core tone sound bigger when engaged"².
• Both circuits "stack exceptionally well, and the uncompressed clarity and sheer weight of the tone remains a welcome constant" with both engaged⁴.

Neil's own view of the overdrive, quoted by Guitar.com: "It's one of the most transparent loud overdrive pedals on the market. With so many distortion pedals you get loads of fuzz and saturation, but with this the guitar still breathes"⁴.

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