Z.Vex releases Abbey Road Fuzz Factory 7 to mark 50 years of the Beatles' classic
You never give me your money? That's because we're saving up for this ridiculously expensive ltd edition stompbox . . . Duh!
To mark the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' Abbey Road, there are all kinds of special things going on, such as the super-deluxe reissue, the new video for Here Comes The Sun, and a reprise of Beatlemania as fans took to the famous zeba crossing to recreate Iain Macmillan's classic cover photo.
And now Z.Vex have gotten in on the act, too, releasing a super-limited edition – as in only a dozen of these will be made – Abbey Road 50th Anniversary Fuzz Factory 7 guitar effects pedal.
Only 12? That's nuts. And Maxwell would probably have to smelt his silver hammer down and sell it to afford this $469 (£425 approx) stompbox.
But detail on this hand-painted pedal is lovely, with Z.Vex's favourite characters recreating the Abbey Road cover on a power-blue, sparkling metal enclosure. Even the NOS 1960s germanium transistors have been painted blue and emblazoned with 1969 and 2019.
The pedal itself has a similar set up to the Russian Fuzz 7 and modifies modifies the Fat Fuzz Factory to make an occasion of things. While it shares the Fat Fuzz Factory's controls for tone, volume, gate, comp, drive, and stab (controlling feedback pitch), the three-position toggle switch has been replaced with a nine position rotary switch to offer a wide sweep of frequencies.
You can have this thing really rumble with the lows or cut glass with the highs. The pedal's passive tone control has its own footswitch to engage and you can use this as you would use your guitar's tone knob to roll off treble when it gets shrill.
You can find more details and order direct from Z.Vex .
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Jonathan Horsley has been writing about guitars and guitar culture since 2005, playing them since 1990, and regularly contributes to MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitar World. He uses Jazz III nylon picks, 10s during the week, 9s at the weekend, and shamefully still struggles with rhythm figure one of Van Halen’s Panama.
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