Just opening the box containing the Sputnik Germanium Fuzz pedal from Spaceman Effects was quite a thrill. I love how they make everything so shiny and sparkly, making you feel just a wee bit better about how much you just spent on an effects pedal. The silver bag makes it seem like you’re opening a window into space, about to be launched into the sonic atmosphere at breakneck speeds, and leaving all other guitarists’ tones in the dust. The knobs and toggles even look like they were stolen from a shuttle launch at the JFK Space Center, or found in the ruins on LV-426 by Ridley herself. The inside is just as gorgeous, with the most perfect attention to detail you will find in any pedal, ever, I’m quite sure. These guys don’t mess around with their pedals, in appearance or sonic quality.

The Sputnik’s knobs are even labeled to sound like it was created in a space station of some sort. Signal is what they call the Level or Volume knob, Calibrate refers to the overall Tone, and Range explores just what the Sputnik can do, from a sweet, crisp clean boost, all the way up to some of the most outlandish fuzz sounds you’ve heard yet. Producing fuzz-tastic sustain and tone for days, the Sputnik also has a few fun tricks up its Russian-influenced sleeves. The Filter toggle engages a second level of tone-circuit variation, which enables a whole new slew of fuzzy tones to come forward, and allows for a vast tonal range no seen often in fuzz units. The second toggle switch has 2 functions: the first, Sync, maintains the (relatively) calm settings the Sputnik normally has to offer. But the real fun lies in the Drift function of this switch, effectively turning your pedal into an array of strange and unexplored sounds, including vintage synthesizer, huge oscillations, vast crazy octaves and more. The amount of different fuzz tones available in this pedal is really astonishing, and half the fun is sitting down to find them over the course of many hours (or days, even)!

This pedal is RARE, with only a couple hundred total in existence. More quality fuzz than you can really imagine, you have to try it to believe it, seriously. If you can find one, you’ll pay for it, but it’s worth the money if you’re a lover of fuzz. Spaceman Effects continues to make incredible gear with incredible design and detailing – can’t wait to see what they come up with next!

Submitted by Mike B, Website