Since the fuzz effect was invented in the early ’60s, guitar players have gone to great lengths to achieve the perfect fuzz tone. Legends say that Duane Allman placed his fuzz pedal in the freezer between sessions to cool down the transistors, and that Roger Mayer meticulously modified Hendrix’s Fuzz Faces beyond recognition in search of an elusive, magical fuzz experience. Fortunately, even apart from these mythological methods, there’s one trick that always works: use a dying battery!
Inherently simple devices like fuzz circuits are extremely sensitive to the amount of voltage that they receive, thus any change in the voltage from your power supply will cause drastically different tones. Guitarists eventually caught on to this hack and began draining their batteries to try and find the sweet spot for their fuzz pedal. A good idea in theory, but who has time for that? Then, just a few years ago, a certain unnamed guitarist reached out to me for a practical solution for this technique– and the Volture was born.
The Volture is a modern-day device for your vintage fuzz circuitry. Simply place it in between your power supply and your pedal, and you can precisely trim the input voltage and perfectly replicate the tone of a dying battery. As the song says: “Power is made by power being taken.”
Though JHS Pedals developed it specifically for vintage fuzz circuits, the Volture will work on any fully analogue pedal. In fact, you might be surprised by the trippy sounds you find lurking in your favourite overdrive or distortion!
Specifications
- Power Requirements: 9V DC negative centre (power supply not included)
- Current Draw: 12mA
- Dimensions: 3.6″ x 1.5″ x 1″
- Weight: 0.60 lbs.
