Terror tamed: KMA Machines unleashes the high gain beast with Guardian Of The Wurm distortion pedal

SUMMER NAMM: Following the trail of the KMA Machines WURHM Special Edition HM Distortion late last year, KMA Machines are again drawing blackened influence from the Boss cult classic and combining it with an ultra-fast VCA Noise Gate for the new Guardian Of The Wurm distortion pedal. Step this way for righteous gain that can be tamed.

"From chugging hard-rock, droning doom metal and grinding Swedish death metal, the beast abides," says KMA Machines. Amen to that! And the company say the usability here is beyond metal –  prog-rock, shoegaze and indie can benefit from this kind of control.

The WURM is already known for its configurability and the GOTW carries that flame with three different clipping styles: Silicon (like the original HM-2), Asymmetric (with more grit and less drive compression) and Off (Diode lift, perfect for bass and baritones).

The gate (named Tame) and Terror distortion have their own footswitches and you are able to activate both at the same time by holding down both footswitches for the pedal’s activation mode. Once this is engaged, both sides of the GOTW pedal will be activated with its Terror footswitch.

A Clean Blend can be mixed in for a tight low end and there's a four-band Active EQ, with variable centre-frequencies. There's much more… three distinct types of high mids frequency controls for dialling in your tone for maximum clarity in the mix and these features too:

• External Trigger Input to allow Noise Gate control from an external source.
• FX-Loop between Distortion and Noise-Gate, for signal-chain flexibility.
• Internal control for an input filter, signal-trigger source and Noise Gate response.
• Relay-based soft-switching, with variable Gate switching modes.

The noise gate function uses a Blackmer VCA and  internal dipswitch changes whether the trigger point for the gate is pre- or post-distortion, or pre-noise gate. The latter allows you to use the gate with your other pedals via TRS effects loop. 

The KMA Machines Guardian Of The Wurm pedal is available to order now at €299. See KMA Machines for more.