Beetronics FX Release the Exceedingly Appealing Vezzpa Octave Stinger Dual-Mode Gated and Upper Octave Opamp Fuzz

Readers may recall that I’m not exactly overly keen on pedal enclosures with top-mounted knobs - preferring instead to have top-mounted jacks and forward-facing controls. So as reported, I wasn’t that enamoured with the initial Babee Series Fatbee Overdrive - it really depends where it goes on the board for it to be fully practically and usefully accessible and easily tweakable and visible. While I may come around on the Fatbee eventually!

However, and somewhat against my usual nature, I was immediately dazzled by the Vezzpa Octave Stinger - I think everyone will agree that the sort of vintage enamel style of enclosure artwork is probably the most gorgeous thing that Beetronics have created to-date! I often talk of Guitar Pedals as being delightful jewel-boxes of inspiration - and here is an actual jewel box - in just how elegantly pretty it is. I immediately went for one of the 50 Limited Reverb.com Purple Editions - which is winging its way to me now, and which variety looks like it’s on the brink of being sold out - in fact most certainty will be by the time this article goes live.

That’s not too bad a thing necessarily as the standard box is just as stunning by default. In fact there are a variety of custom editions doing the rounds as most of the demo artists received a unique bespoke version for themselves - with name applied and a totally different colourway all-round. As you can see from the selection of videos below. Most of those have gold knobs, but a couple have silver too - versus the black knobs of the actual publicly released versions. Note that as always Beetronics will be doing later batches of special edition colourways - so there is no need to panic! I really like the Purple one though and am not so bothered by what pops up next as a limited edition. Even though some editions are likely to be even more attractive.

So what does this tiny device do with just two knobs - Left = Volume and Right = Gain. The pedal’s added smarts comes via a highly dynamic footswtich - which you double-click to toggle between Gated Fuzz (FUZZZZ) and Upper Octave Fuzz (STINGER) Modes - with corresponding Left / Right indicator LEDs. It also has a momentary function - whereby if you hold down the footswitch when OFF - it gives you a blast of the selected Mode, while when ON it momentarily flips to the opposite / alternative Mode - a really neat trick for sure.

Most importantly of course is that the fuzz sounds great on both Modes - really thick on the gated FUZZZZ, and gloriously harmonising on STINGER. Such that there is no need really for additional Tone controls - it’s just a lot of fun every which way and a genuine must-buy for most fuzz fans! Certainly a shoe-in for me!

Pricing is as before at $199 and the pedal is available from the Beetronics Webstore as well as several dealers already - and Reverb.com.