The Vaderin Pedals Vaporizer is an octave-up fuzz, a pedal that adds a note one octave above what you play on top of a fuzz voice. Writing on Delicious Audio in April 2021, Paolo De Gregorio described it as having "multiple personalities": ring-mod octave-up tones, a "Super Fuzz-esque eggs-in-a-frying pan octave sizzle", straight-ahead gated octave fuzz, and more1. It sits in the fuzz lane alongside other Fuzz Pedals, and more specifically in the octave-and-pitch territory of Octave & Pitch Pedals.
How it works
The Vaporizer produces its octave-up effect through diode signal rectification, using germanium diodes for the octave-up stage1. That places it in a recognizable lineage: De Gregorio put it "in the Ampeg Scrambler/Green Ringer/Fender Blender/Ace Tone FM-2 family of octave-up fuzz pedals", the classic designs that generate an octave above the input note by rectifying the guitar signal1.
Despite that family resemblance, the Vaporizer is not a modified version of the Ampeg Scrambler, Green Ringer, Fender Blender or Ace Tone FM-2. It is its own circuit within that tradition1.
What it sounds like
The pedal's controls let a player dial in a prominent octave-up and combine it with a velcro fuzz, a style of fuzz known for its choppy, dying-battery decay, for what De Gregorio called "a wide range of tones"1. The three described behaviors give a sense of its range:
- Ring-mod style octave-up, with the unstable, inharmonic character that label implies
- A Super Fuzz-style octave sizzle, the aggressive upper-octave fizz associated with that design
- Straight-ahead gated octave fuzz, with a gated, stopped quality between notes
Delicious Audio also pointed readers to a demo video by collector//emitter, writing: "Check out the range of bad behaviors this baby can display in the following video by collector//emitter"1.
Context in the Vaderin range
The Vaporizer is one of several fuzzes Delicious Audio has covered from Vaderin Pedals, including the Cherry Fuzz 'Stainer, a two-transistor fuzz, and the Radio Dirtman, a fuzz/drive design1.
Videos
collector//emitter
Noise Generator
Harsh Tones, Inc.
Sources (1)
- Vaderin Pedals Vaporizer Octave-Up Fuzz, Delicious Audio, 2021-04-01
