“It could be something you could bequeath to those you love”: Red Witch’s Apothecary pedals could outlast every other stompbox on your ’board – and even become family heirlooms

Pretty much every pedal firm will champion the ruggedness of its gear, but few (if any) have made claims as bold as Red Witch has regarding its all-new Apothecary line. These near-invincible stompboxes, it says, could outlive a player's entire pedalboard, and could even become heirloom pieces for years to come.

“I wanted to design a pedal range that’ll last 10, 20, 30, 40 years,” says designer Ben Fulton. “It could even outlast yourself! It could be something you could bequeath to those you love.”

The five-strong series comprises the Euphorium Fuzz, Epiphamous Drive, Invidium Phaser, Cynosium Modulated Delay, and the Plurious Chorus, with the classic effects built to stand the test of time – and the stomp of gigging musicians.

At the heart of their steeliness is a rock-solid footswitch, which is guaranteed for 100,000 cycles. That leaves most standard pedal switches, guaranteed for a mere 20,000 to 30,000 cycles, in the dust.

“It’s a more cost-effective way to mount sockets on a PCB,” Fulton explains of the build process. “But the problem is if the nut comes a little loose and the foot goes [in] the wrong place, you can not just damage the socket but can damage the circuit board. I wanted to avoid all of that.”

Putting his money where his mouth is, Fulton and Red Witch offer a lifetime warranty with each pedal, which can be registered to its original owner.

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The quintet is gorgeously designed, with unique botanical artwork, four colored aluminum knobs, and a single footswitch, each ensuring the series aesthetic is as sharp as a B.C. Rich headstock.

But what do they sound like? Well, the Euphorium Fuzz aims for a range of vintage tones, from soaring, laser like fuzz to Jimmy Page’s germanium fuzz pedal sounds.

A pair of circuits feature in this silicon fuzz pedal. Bliss mode puts the circuits in series, while Fuzz, Tone and Volume controls are self-explanatory. The Grain dial presides dominion over the “sputter” of the effect, a feature lifted from Red Witch’s Fuzz God series.

The Led Zeppelin inspiration continues with the “beautiful, uncompressed, transparent Plexi-esque” Epiphanous Drive. Volume and Drive dials are joined by Bite and Body for frequency tweaking and attack altering, and there's also a mini-switch for engaging Fulton's pre-baked EQ preset.

The Invidium Phaser can trace its origins back to another Fulton build, the long out-of-production Moon Phaser. The FET-driven analog phaser pedal lifts the “tremophase” mode from the pedal, which blends amplitude modulation with the phase-shifting, and a two-stage phaser, and it can be made the shimmer or throb via the Cosmos control.

There's also an Infinity mini-switch for spaced-out phaser madness, alongside more Earthly delights in Tone and Volume controls.

Tape echos prove the core inspiration for the Cynosium Modulated Delay, which has been gifted an expanded 2000ms delay time. Based on the Red Witch Violetta and Magesteria delay pedals, its quartet of dials controls Delay, Regen, Depth, and Blend.

Last but not least, the Plurious Chorus Vibrato is a descendant of Red Witch's Andy Summer-adored Empress chorus and is a BBD-driven analog chorus pedal. Aiming to be more subtle than the rest of the competition, its sounds are personalized via dials for Voice, Depth, Veolce (velocity), and Blend.

The pedals are priced at $249 apiece, but with prolonged life expectancies and the fact the New Zealand firm's artful, bordering-on-boutique creations have never been budget buys, it isn’t a crazy outlay.

See Red Witch for more details.

For more crimson witchcraft, check out the Frank Zappa and Santana tone chasing Euphemia, or the touching one-of-a-kind pedals built in memory of Fulton's late father.