Solodallas Orbiter Fuzz Pedal *Authorized Dealer*
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The folks at Solodallas have made a name for themselves in recreating the "sound of Angus" via the Solodallas Shaffer replica pedal. The Angus tone is certainly not fuzz-based or even that heavily distorted. And with that in mind the handsome and ruggedly built Arbiter-inspired Orbiter Fuzz comes at the Fuzz pedal from a slightly different direction.
Fuzz pedals come in countless variations from low-fi and "spitty" to dark and wooly. The Orbiter sits somewhere in the middle of these two extremes and as such is much more applicable to various styles of playing. As to the controls, Solodallas describes them as follows:
- Fuzz: Controls the overall amount of fuzz by shifting the shape of the signal’s waveform from triangular to square as the knob is turned clockwise.
- Gain: Increases the amount of signal entering the circuit as the knob is turned clockwise, allowing the signal to be pushed into harmonic clipping for smooth overdriven fuzz tones.
- Bias: Increases voltage to the matched pair of transistors as it is turned clockwise, unleashing a wide range of vintage fuzz tones. Lower voltages produce spitty Black Keys responses, whereas higher voltages generate smooth American Woman fuzz.
For starters, the. Orbiter is remarkably touch sensitive to pick attack and playing dynamics. Running the fuzz control in the 9-12:00 region the amount of fuzz crunch is very controllable by how hard you attack the guitar. Play lightly it's "almost" clean, while digging in brings out increasing amounts of crunch. Secondly, even with the Fuzz dimed the guitar cleans up quickly and musically as the guitar volume is rolled down. This is a hallmark feature of many early germanium fuzz pedals, and while the Orbiter makes no mention of the type of transistors used, it's top of the class in this regard.
The Orbiter is also notable in its lack of over-the-top antics. Unless your thing is Noise Rock, the Orbiter will strike you as just the right amount of overdriven fuzz tones. Even with the Fuzz and Gain at maximum, the Orbiter stays relatively composed, and as we mentioned is very easily modulated with the guitar's volume control. About the only thing missing is that the Gain control changes the nature of the tone, but does not result in a large jump in volume. if you are looking for a significant increase in output, a clean boost post-Orbiter is a good idea.
The Bias control regulates the amount of voltage to the transistors, and we've seen this feature employed on some other fuzz pedals. This is a very handy knob, with low levels of bias voltage producing Lo-Fi raspy fuzz, while higher voltages smooths out the response, approaching more of a distortion tone rather than pure fuzz. With the bias control you've got a lot of different fuzz pedals all in one housing.
Other design features include a power supply design meant to emulate the characteristics of a carbon-type 9-volt battery. Some purists -- like Eric Johnson - run their vintage fuzz pedals on batteries. There is also an internal "drag" trim pot to fine tune the input sensitivity of the Orbiter to different types of the pickups. Fuzz pedals are very load-sensitive and this is an adjustment worth experimenting with.
With it's wide but very useable range of fuzz tones, and excellent touch dynamics and clean up capabilities the Orbiter Fuzz pedal will win over players who tend not to like fuzz pedals. You could even play AC/DC with it....which given its lineage makes perfect sense.
Technical Specifications:
- Input Impedance: 500 kOhm
- Output Impedance: 10 kOhm
- Power Requirements: External 9 vDC center negative power supply
- Dimensions: 4.75" x 2.50" x 1.5"
- Weight: 0.8 lbs
- Bypass: True bypass