A Fond Farewell and Bon Voyage to Christian Livingstone as we Celebrate 9 of his Best Magnetic Effects Pedals

Controls - Timbre, Balance, Master, Sustain.

The very first UVB-76 edition Buzzer (named after the Burns Buzzaround and cult Russian 'Buzzer' UVB-76 Radio Station) came out in black enclosure back in 2016, with the V2 reissue, as featured here out in 2018 - and acquired with the Black Moon from Northern Stompboxes. I have a few Buzzarounds in my collection - including the Basic Audio Nonts, Function F(x) Hive Mind, and the Mojo Hand FX Rounder - all are excellent examples of that type of Tone Bender adjacent fuzz - which many cite as the inspiration for the MKIII Tone Bender. Christian is the master of picking the best combination of controls for maximum impact - and the Buzzer will certainly hit rare spots that few others Buzzarounds can match! Balance here is essentially a Volume and Bias control, with Master and Sustain being Gain and Saturation - and Timbre impacting Fuzz Character. For sure a worthy and interesting take on the genre. Note that the pedals also has a charge pump to ramp up the voltage internally. The accompanying demo vide is for the earlier UVB-76 edition!

Controls - Tone, Mids, Volume, Gain.

I believe this is roughly based on the Fuzzrite format - it certainly sounds very ballpark to that texture. Perfectly described as a 'Splatty' style Fuzz - a little bit messy - but joyful to deploy. Again Christian has selected some cool Soviet Germanium Transistors here which do the job wonderfully. The combination of Tone and Mids should really be featured on more fuzzes - it's certainly featured on several of my own favourites. Another great example of its genre.

Controls - 2 x Volume, Tone, Gain, Engage Channel A | B.

Not the first to combine Tube Screamer and Rat in the one enclosure but a very neat version of that nonetheless. Would have been nice to have had an Order toggle in addition but otherwise a nicely compact and bijoux pairing of these very complementary drive circuit. That said I actually probably use the stand-alone Lonely Robot more - with its somewhat more extended granularity. Still a worthy acquisition even though this hasn't been that much in the rotation of late!

Controls - Regen/Resonance, Speed RATE / Range : Higher / LFO Off / Lower, Speed, Level, Dry>Wet Mix, Frequency Sweep.

This had a cameo in last year's '2021 Year of the Phaser' - where I was encouraged to acquire it largely because the new Datsuns' Eye to Eye Album which inspired it - impressed me so much! I acquired 8 new phasers last year - with some really heavy hitters amongst them - including the Flower Pedals Castilleja, Sitek Phasia, Strymon Zelzah and Thorpy Pulse Doppler. The Eye to Eye is not quite as lofty as those but still sounds amazing and does its own thing. A really great sounding analog phaser for sure - with plenty of range. Alas still no YouTube Demo for this - so I'm just using one of the singles from the Album that inspired the phaser!

Controls - Gain, EQ (Reutz Mod), Clip (Clipping Threshold), Volume, Bass, Treble.

One of my now around 35 Rat Style pedals - I snapped this up as soon as it materialised, being such a fan of the genre, and the extended controls here really help you to get so much more out of this format / circuit. Capable of so many more shades than the typically 3-knob Rat - definitely an upper echelon rodent! with unique nuance

Controls - Level, Low, Bias, High, Attack.

The first here of two absolutely legendary Magnetic Effects pedals - the enduringly popular and exceptionally versatile Solar Bender Tone Bender MKII style Fuzz, and White Atom Hybrid Everyday Fuzz. This started out in 2013 I believe as a grey hammerite 3 knob (Bias, Level, Attack) edition with push-button Fat switch. After that came the colourful core edition with Fat toggle-switch in place of the former button. Next we got the 4-knob version with additional Tone knob, then the 4-knobs + Low toggle-switch, and the final edition with fully-variable Mini Knob in place of the toggle. By my reckoning at least 5 editions, while only 4 were deemed fully production models. For many the Toggle and Mini Knob are interchangeable as the V3, while by my reckoning the final final version is actually a V4. In any case an exceptional MKII Tone Bender in a highly competitive category - and one of the most versatile. Possibly only pipped in overall versatility by Menatone's Law Bender!

Controls - Volume, Texture (Feel + Response), Gain, Bass, Mids, Treble.

The White Atom has to be the first choice Magnetic Effects pedal - one of its longest-running designs, coming only just after the first phase Fuzz-Wah and Kay Fuzztone pedals in around 2012. This is the Magnetic Effects pedal that has been most featured on this site - and is the one that I recommend along with the DOD Carcosa as the best first-buy Fuzz Pedal if you want to dip your toe into this genre - also two of the most versatile Everyday Fuzzes you can get your hands on.

The White Atom started as a 4-knob Fuzz with just Volume, Texture, Tone and Gain knobs - I believe for the first 2 editions. Next we had the 5-knob V3 - with the Tone spit out into Bass and Treble, and finally for the 6-knob V4 edition we get full 3-Band Active EQ with the addition of a Mids control. If you're new to Fuzz then this is the ideal starting point as its so easy to dial in - and there are so many flavours and textures available in this one box. I believe the Texture knob is a kind of bias control really - which obviously significantly adjusts the Character and Timbre of the output. If you only have one Magnetic Effects Fuzz - then this should be it, for two - add the Solar Bender! There's no Demo yet for the V4 - the nearest match is the precious 5-knob V3 as attached!

Controls - Volume, Treble, Gain, EQ (Low Boost) : Low / Stock / Lower, Preamp, Bass.

This is a cool dual gain stage proprietary circuit consisting of an amp-like JFET Preamp stage going into an overdriven Opamp with Silicon Diode Clipping second stage. We also have Active Treble and Bass Controls, and a 3-way EQ toggle-switch - which is neutral in the Middle and delivers more Lows and Lower Mids Up and even more Down,

The controls look like they're in a somewhat odd order with the Treble and Bass knobs diagonal rather than adjacent - I presume this is because they follow the flow of the circuit - where it's quite common that the Bass-shapping occurs on the input of the circuit and the Treble and Volume at the end! What we have is an incredibly versatile Overdrive - where the combination of Preamp and Gain give you a vast range of gain structure and character. It helps matters that the first stage is a little midsy itself. A really cool and distinct overdrive for sure. I wonder though why Christian chose the EQ toggle versus delivering an Active Variable Mid-Band control. Nothing to quibble about really as it's so easy to dial in and unerringly yields splendid results any which way - all the way from Low-Gain to quite a moderate Crunch - roughly Medium Gain therefore - and for sure the most interesting of Christian's drive pedals - while the Sandare / Satellite is pretty decent too.