Rainger FX Dr. Freakenstein

Submitted on July 22, 2010

This is an extreme tone-mangling distortion, adapted from John Hollis' 'Crash Sync' circuit. While giving amazing single note sustain it copes quite well with chords too. It has an amazing kind of built-in noise gate to it - dead silence between notes (which is very strange for a distortion!).

There's a volume and a tone knob, the latter (labelled 'OSC') actually controlling how one internal oscillator interacts with another...
This sounds great at any setting, but also is really exciting as you adjust it - like a cross between a wah wah and a phaser. So an LFO option is incorporated to modulate this control (giving a triangle wave-shape, speed adjustable from a slow sweep to a fast wobble). There's a switch on the front panel to turn this on or off, and the red status LED flashes to show the speed.

Also, being Dr Freakenstein Fuzz, of course it has an assistant called Igor - which is a large postage stamp-sized pressure pad that you tread on. This plugs in via mini-jack to either tweak the OSC (tone) according to how hard you press, or to adjust the bias of the modulation range; on a fast modulation setting, this can give an effect reminiscent of a bubbling synth, sweeping down from high cutoff to low.

Igor is like 'aftertouch' on a synth - but for guitarists. It's a new thing - tiny, light, and practically no moving parts. One Igor comes with each Dr Freakenstein.

There's also a meter for monitoring your input signal, plus - for a full gothic 'Dr Freakenstein's laboratory' vibe - the whole thing is mounted in a miniature boffin-style plastic desk console (170mm x 125mm footprint) complete with knife switch that you throw to turn it on.

All units now have a 'DC in' socket. Plus it's also available in footswitchable version - with a separate on/off footswitch.

NOTE: this is not a foot pedal - in full melodramatic style you have to get down on the floor and crank the switch by hand... Throw the lever and all the lights come on, the meter jumps into action, and the monster sound comes alive!