“From tasteful rhythm overdrive to full on, singing lead sounds… Hendrixian walls of speakers tumbling to the ground”: Red Witch promises classic Beano-era Clapton, American Woman and more classic drive and fuzz tones with the Hypostasia

Red Witch Pedals has launched the Hypostasia, a limited edition overdrive and fuzz pedal that is hand-wired for maximum versatility and capable of delivering electric guitar tones that range from “tasteful rhythm overdrive” to a greatest hits of classic rock sounds that call to mind Eric Clapton, Randy Bachman, Jimi Hendrix et al.

The Hypostasia is launched as part of Red Witch’s Nouveau series, which means supplies of these are strictly limited. Ben Fulton is only making 59 of these, each hand-wired with through hole components, hand-numbered, and once they are gone they are gone.

“I wanted to create a pedal that bridged the gap between fuzz and overdrive, whilst allowing the user to access both of these glorious individual sounds,” says Fulton.

As such, you can run the Hypostasia as a pure overdrive pedal, as a fuzz, or dial in some magical combination of both. The magic, we suspect, will be in all the hot, fiery textures you can get from mixing them.

Red Witch HYPOSTASIA Analog Fuzz Overdrive Amalgam - YouTube

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There are four dials, all arranged along the top of the unit, the enclosure’s top left as a gallery space for another typically exquisite Red Witch design and the footswitch for engaging or bypassing the effect. It is a true bypass design.

The signal path feeds your guitar’s signal into the fuzz circuit first via an Input level control allowing you to dial in cleans, right on through to wall-of-fuzz maximalism. Dial in how much fuzz you need via the Fuzz knob. 

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This is then fed into the overdrive circuit, which applies a drive that could be anywhere on the spectrum between “tasteful rasp” – that edge of breakup heat – and “devastating roar,” and there is something pleasingly transgressive about the prospect of dialling in some feral sounds out of a pedal that is so tastefully constructed.

This is definitely not one that you want to step on after you’ve been out doing the garden. Indoor shoes only when this is on the pedalboard, please.

As Fulton’s tasting notes say we can expect anything from “tasteful rhythm overdrive to full on, singing lead sounds (think American Woman), from classic Clapton Beano era Rangemaster drive to Hendrixian walls of speakers tumbling to the ground”.

There is certainly a wide cohort of guitar players who would be interested in that sort of sonic adventurism. Of course, only 59 will be able to partake in it. 

Priced $349, the Hypostasia is not cheap, but goodness it is very pretty, and it sounds real nice. Shipping is free. See Red Witch Pedals for more details.