Rainger FX Dr Freakenstein Chop Fuzzz

The Rainger FX Dr Freakenstein Chop Fuzzz is a gated fuzz pedal with modulation features, built by the London-based maker Rainger FX and designed by David Rainger. Announced in November 2023, it is the latest installment in the Dr Freakenstein dynasty and, per Delicious Audio, the most advanced Dr Freakenstein pedal produced¹. It is an all-analog, full-on gated fuzz with overtones, a squarewave chop, a triangle-wave LFO and a customized VU meter².

What it does to your sound

The core is the same massive distortion fuzz circuit used in the original Dr Freakenstein Fuzz, the three versions that followed it, the first Dr Freakenstein Chop Fuzz, and the six minipedal versions¹. On top of that, the Overtone control works like a wah wah with the tone of an extreme phaser combined with the fuzz, which Delicious Audio's Paolo De Gregorio said "produces a very cool pulsating sound"¹. The LFO modulates in a triangle waveshape, and running the Chop together with the LFO creates helicopter effects or fast, bubbling, synthy-sounding textures¹.

Delicious Audio's buying guide put the concept plainly: "From the inspiring mind of David Rainger comes a fuzz-tremolo-phaser all in one beautiful box!"³ Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson, reviewing it among the best new fuzz pedals of 2023, called it "For a while my favourite fuzz of the year - certainly David's finest to date."²

The controls and the Igor pressure pad

The pedal's controls cover the fuzz, the overtone and the chop:

• Overtone control: sets the range of the extreme phaser combined with the fuzz. It can be set with the knob, or manipulated in real time by foot using the Igor pressure pad controller¹
• Hi/Lo intensity switch: a two-position switch for the effect's intensity¹
• Effect on/off push button: turns both the Overtone and the Chop effects off, leaving the gated fuzz on its own¹
• Hi/Lo Overtone range switch: mounted on the rear of the pedal²

The Igor pressure pad comes with the pedal and is made for manipulating the fuzz overtone in real time³. On the earlier Dr Freakenstein Fuzz, Delicious Audio's reviewer Eric described how the pad responds to "how much physical pressure is put on it", either affecting the oscillation controlled by the knob on the right of the pedal or adjusting the bias of the modulation range⁴. The same idea carries through the family: Premier Guitar's reviewer of the Dr Freakenstein Dwarf Bass listed Igor among the pedal's pros, alongside "Fantastically raucous and weird bass-fuzz tones on tap" and a "Compact and rugged" build⁵.

Where it came from

The Chop Fuzzz sits at the end of a long line. The original Dr Freakenstein Fuzz was reviewed by Delicious Audio in 2014, whose reviewer called it "the weirdest pedal I have ever come across", noting its "frighteningly loud" fuzz capability and a built-in mod switch that triggers high-resonance phasing adjustable in rate⁴. That reviewer judged that "the DrFF-3 makes up for its subpar versatility with extremely fun playability"⁴. The same fuzz circuit later appeared in the Bleep Fuzz, which used the "full-on" fuzz circuit from the Dr Freakenstein Fuzz in a smaller enclosure⁶. One of the steps between the original and the Chop Fuzzz was the Dr Freakenstein Chop Fuzz with just two zs, the predecessor of the Chop Fuzzz¹. David Rainger demonstrated that earlier Chop Fuzz on That Pedal Show in February 2023, billed as "Creator of the splutteringly splendid Dr Freakenstein Chop Fuzz"⁷.

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