Animal Factory's Killer Pair of Chemical Burn and Baron Samedi are beautifully textural and visceral Fuzz Boxes
I recently shared a feature on Rare Discontinued pedals - and this was one of those. I had a while back been intending to get the pair of these - but other priorities and commitments got in the way - so that by the time I finally got to them - both had been discontinued for a while and were in very short supply indeed.
I managed to track down a Baron Samedi Bosstone style fuzz at Juno.co.uk but was unable to find a Chemical Burn Super Fuzz derivation anywhere at that time - after nearly a year and a half of fairly steady hunting - I even contacted the Animal Factory founder and head honcho Aditya Nandwana - but he just confirmed that they had stopped making pedals a while ago and were now solely focusing on Eurorack Modules.
However when I do one of my indepth articles I always spend an extra time on due diligence - and this time I really scoured the world with a fine tooth comb - and discovered that there was one final Chemical Burn pedal left in the wild - at a San Francisco synth shop - Mission Synths - so now I finally have that potent pair in the collection.
I wasn’t aware that there were 2 different editions of the Chemical Burn - where the former ’Damage’ 3-way toggle (Octave Intensity and Character) was replaced by a more granular and fully variable mini knob. So a greater sweep range - but you no longer get the cool LED colour change when you switch up the Damage value - so a more versatile pedal - but without the light-show!
These are both extended range genre takes - where the Chemical Burn is a derivation of Super Fuzz, and the Baron Samedi is a variation of Jordan Bosstone - both have 5 fully variable controls each and a most excellent full fat textured output. They are both Silicon Fuzz varieties where the originals of these tended to have Germanium - but some clever clipping diodes in place yield the same sort of vibrant textures.
These are the only pedals that I own which are made in India - Bombay / Mumbai - and Anditya has done a superb job on both of these - it’s a real shame that they are no longer available as they really are quite superb and distinctive. I’m certainly glad to have managed to finally have gotten both.
Here follow the individual details :
Animal 1 : Chemical Burn Fuzz (Super Fuzz) - discontinued - £158 when new
Controls - Damage (Octave Intensity and Character), Blister (Silicon > Germanium Diodes), pH (Bias), Degree (Gain), Agony (Volume).
The Chemical Burn is a superior Silicon transistor take on the Super Fuzz circuit - featuring 2 x BC109C and 2 x KSP2222A. Mine is the V1.2 edition with Mini Knob in place of the early 3-way colour-changing 'Damage' switch.
The knobs are somewhat oddly oriented here as the taper starts at 9 o'c and caries through to 7 o'c - so you need to factor that in on the preferred setting. The 'Damage' knob sweeps from thick and dark to sharp and thin character - where the early 1/3rd gives me the most impacting texture.
The pH Bias delivers odd artefacts at either end of the taper - with the most open and searing settings being around 10/11 o'c.
This is not necessarily the easiest pedal to dial in - but patience does deliver in spades with some really unique and distinct fuzz textures - really acidic and searing - and befitting the Chemical Burns moniker.
Preferred Settings are - Damage @ 9 o'c, Blister @ 2 o'c (mid-way between Silicon and Germanium), pH Bias @ 10 o'c, Degree (Gain) @ 3 o'c, and Agony (Volume) @ Max (7 o'c).
My only niggle here is that I could do with a little more Volume (Agony)- also maxing out the Gain (Degree) gets a little bit overly compressed and choked - so 3 o'c is around the optimal level for that.
All in all a really great take on the format.
Animal 4 : Baron Samedi Fuzz (Jordan Bosstone) - discontinued - £148 when new
Controls - Life (Tone), Death (Bias / Gate), Burial (Lows / Cut), Voodoo (Volume), Rum (Gain).
Aditya's take on the Jordan Bosstone Fuzz - is another Silicon Transistor classic - utilising BC109C + 2N3906 + KSP2222A. Like the Chemical Burn this is an extended range take on the format - where both these Animal Factory pedals have 5 creatively named controls.
The Baron Samedi is far easier to dial in than the Chemical Burn and easily has sufficient volume, where the Chemical Burn is a touch underpowered for where I need it to be.
Preferred Settings are - Life (Tone) @ 1:30 o'c, Death (Bias / Gate) @ 1:30 o'c, Burial (Lows) @ 8 o'c, Voodoo (Volume) @ 3:30 o'c, and Rum (Gain) @ 3 o'c.
The 'Burial' dial is a little idiosyncratic - and sounds sort of scratchy as your turn it - possible some kind of notch filter of some description - but I like it bassy and thick - with said dial at around 8 o'c. The 'Death' / Bias / Gate control is another one that is a little idiosyncratic - but overall as I said much easier to dial in than the Chemical Burns.
Both these Animal Factory pedals are fantastic takes on each genre - and sound different to the other pedals I have of those types. Overall I prefer the texture of the Chemical Burn - it has a slightly wider range of tones - but does suffer a touch from inadequate output. While the Baron Samedi is a great example of its type - not without a few idiosyncrasies - but actually relatively easy to dial in nonetheless.
I am of course delighted to own both!
Are any of you Animal Factory fans?
