Big is Beautiful

We're back with another sweet creation from our good friend at BMF Effects, and this one is equally as impressive as the last one. There is no doubt in my mind that Scott Kiraly (BMF owner/builder) possesses the unique ear and talented hand that comes with designing Grade A effects pedals. There is definitely an elite group of special effects/gear builders out there and Scott falls into that category easily. Looking inside most pedals you'll notice there isn't much to them, just about anyone with a little time and patience could put together and build their own stompbox. In fact there are tons of kits and schematic websites one can sink into to learn the whole pedal building game. To build something truly golden you need someone like Scott Kiraly, which instinctively know what good tone sounds like and what players want to hear. It is this type of pedal wizard that is able to build and design the masterpieces we all fall in love with. The BMF Effects line has quickly become one of my favorite stompbox companies. May they keep on coming!

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BMF Effects

presents

the

Fat Bastard

Clean Boost

Need a little weight added to your sound? How about beefing up that already thick'n'gooey rhythm tone you use? Or maybe you just need to push your lead tone into that epic howling scream that causes both you and the listener to go into a world of inspiration. The Fat Bastard is the perfect pedal for the job, a pedal capable of taking that tone you've worked so hard to dial-in and give it size, weight, and balls. With only one knob, a true bypass switch, and in & out jacks I doubt anyone will have any trouble flying this puppy. It is as simple as plugging in and rolling the Fat Bastard's boost knob to the desired setting. The pedal works great with clean, dirty, and fully saturated tones. It can be used as a clean booster, to help drive your amp, and to help push other pedals. I found the Fat Bastard was able to hold it's own with every type of pickup I threw at it, and noticed it took well to my guitar's volume and tone knobs. Another huge positive about this pedal is that it also works beautifully with bass guitars, keyboards, and lap steels. Such a simple little box, but what a giant champion.

The name says it all, Fat Bastard! It gives whatever you stack it on a boost of girth and attitude. There are pedals made to completely disguise your sound, pedals made to lightly color, and then there's pedals like the Fat Bastard that are made to enhance your root tone. I started out by plugging the Fat Bastard into my dear sweet Erica (Hagstrom Viking), and played through a '65 Deluxe Reverb. I dialed in a nice'n'chimey clean tone with both Bass and Treble knob at 7, and volume at 5. The guitar's semi-hollow woody tone combined with the Deluxe Reverb and two superb hand wound vintage voiced hunbuckers created a tone that floated across room and dug it's nails into the wind. Once engaged the Fat Bastard added a touch of boomy lows, tight'n'round mids, and neutral highs. I did this with the pedal set to noon. The feel of the sound didn't change at all, I could still control and manipulate the tone in the exact same way. Only now I had much more honk and girth behind it which made it stand out quite nicely. This is great for live situations when the rest of the band is overpowering your amp. Next I cranked the amp up a few notches and let the tubes cook the tone into nice creamy overdrive. Here is where I found the Fat Bastard to work most of it's magic. Alone the amp sounded wonderful. With the pedal thrown into the mix things got even better! I dialed the pedal right around 75% and let it fly. I heard the room fill with soul and power, organic richness, and evenly balanced EQ projection all the way across the board. The amount of control I felt in my fingers was as if the sound was coming straight from my hands. I was able to get a booming lead tone, and by shaving off some of the guitar's volume also able to attain crunchy overdrives and semi-clean tones. I was more than satisfied with the results I got with the humbuckers, now it was time for some rockin' good single coils. One of my favorite guitar tones has always been that of a Strat, booster, and tube amp. Single coils produce an entirely different kind of grit, it cuts through a lot more aggressively and flies right down the center of things. This is why I have always been so driven towards Jimi's guitar sound. For this I went with a higher gain amp, a 100 watt Super Lead pushed to a war glory rock tone. Getting a evenly balanced dirty tone from a proper Marshall is always fairly easy, some of the best root tones come from these amps. Again I dialed in a fairly strong dirt tone and used the pedal to push it further. With the Super Lead having much more string than the Fender clean tone, I was able to beautifully balance everything by blending in the Fat Bastard's tone. What can I say? There isn't much to it. When a pedal sounds and works great, it sounds and works great. Some other cool tricks I was able to pull off with this pedal was stacking it up with other overdrive and distortion boxes. Imagine those super killer tones you're able to get from your favorite stompboxes... now imagine them being pushed a few notches further. Placed before other pedals the Fat Bastard worked just like it did when pushing an overdriven tube amp. It added spice and character, size and weight. When stacked after other dirt pedals it drove the overall signal much higher and made things stand out beautifully. For such a simple little pedal the Fat Bastard is capable of a lot. These are the types of effect pedals that you find living on people's pedalboards. Pedals that work with you and make you work for them. If you're looking for a booster with a little something extra this is the pedal for you. It also works great when left on and worked into your root signal. I am super stoked to have found BMF Effects and am quite excited to continue bringing you guys more and more of these amazing boxes. Keep them coming Scott and keep up the great work!

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For more info on BMF Effects go to www.bmfeffects.com or click on the direct link in our sidebar. We will be looking at more awesome stompboxes from BMF in the near future so please keep an eye out. We'll be back soon.

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