Old Blood Noise Endeavors has just dropped a contender for the Weirdest Fuzz Pedal of 2024, with the Pardner.
Beyond the name and the obvious Wild West theming, key to the Pardner’s unique offering is the use of a ‘Lasso’ mode that enables it to be influenced by an external pedal via a send and return.
Fuzz pedals have been around since practically the dawn of the riff but, rather than offer up another retro clone, the Oklahoman firm is clearly aiming to rethink our relationship with the perennially popular effect.
The Pardner’s core fuzz is built on resonance and “warbling saturation with a synthy edge,” with controls on hand for tweaking its bass, treble, and the volume of the effect. A filter control also adjusts how lean or gluttonous-sounding the fuzz is – skinnier to the left, and fatter to the right.
The Synthy/Fuzzy switch and the Intensity dial are pretty self-explanatory and help further the personalization the pedal offers.
But the Lasso is where its versatility really takes hold. This mode offers a variable overdrive, with the use of a partner pedal opening up a whole new world of “endless sonic possibilities.”
The Order toggle switch can see the effects “riding along side-by-side” when in the central position (parallel), or it can be set so the fuzz runs into its 'pardner' pedal, or vice versa.
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OBNE says hooking Pardner up with an envelope filter or a reverb pedal yields particularly good results, but it’s worth experimenting with just about any stompbox.
This feature is augmented by Volume and Drive controls to tailor the dynamics delivered by whichever pedal pairing players opt for. If this part of the pedal is used without another pedal hooked up, it simply becomes a no-nonsense drive pedal in its own right, and a “pretty darn” good one at that, its makers say.
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The pedal is US-made, powered by a standard 9V plug for easy pedalboard integration, and each side of the pedal offers soft-touch bypass footswitches.
The OBNE Parnder costs $229 and is available to order today. Visit OBNE to learn more.
