Whether bass players, you know, matter, is debatable, but there are still plenty of cool pedals out there for ’em. Rainger FX out of the UK developed a really nifty fuzz/distortion pedal called the Dr. Freakenstein. It’s designed to work in tandem with the Igor mini expression pedal that modulates different parameters for some super “out there” sounds.
Basically, you’ve got a big rotary pot controlling “Overtone,” or the amount of distortion. This can also be manipulated with the Igor expression pedal if you want to adjust the gain in real-time. Like I said, pretty nifty. On the bottom of the pedal are two buttons: LFO and Mix. Pushing LFO modulates the Overtone automatically without using Igor, and Mix switches the sound from full-blown fuzz to a blend of fuzz/clean. If you choose to run LFO on, then Igor will control the speed of the modulation.
Dr. Freakenstein additionally features a built-in noise gate which is incredibly helpful for keeping wild distortions like this reasonably tight. Moreover, there’s an “Active/Passive” switch inside, allowing the pedal to be used with a variety of instruments. So go ahead, fire your bassist and steal his Dr. Freakenstein because it’ll work with guitar just fine.
Thank you, No Treble, for getting on this! For ordering info and a full spec rundown, check out the official Rainger FX page here.
