Bolt & Forge's Jason Lilly makes really smartly designed and engineered analog pedals up in the Pacific Northwest corner of the USA
I first caught sight of some of these courtesy of my good friend Paolo De Gregorio’s Delicious Audio site - and was determined to do a feature - as this brand properly deserves some coverage. I had meant to to this a while ago but I’ve been somewhat inundated of late.
Bolt & Forge is a one man operation - Jason Lilly - if you don’t count the sheepdog ’Banjo’. And he’s made a very strong start with an opening salvo of 4 really cleverly designed pedals.
We have the Appaloosa Germanium Overdrive - actually Germanium Diodes assisted MOSFET, then the Bad Hoss Harmonic Sustainer - which sounds like a very unique evolution of a sort of Muff circuit - which is why I labelled that ’JFET Muffy Fuzzy Drive’. Then the Ol’Ephraim Germanium Sustainer - which is sort of a classic voiced Fuzz, but not exactly - again a Germanium Diodes assisted MOSFET core circuit. And finally we have the Sawbones Optical Compressor whose unique differential is its extremely transparent / non-colouring and noiseless output.
All of these are evolved and elevated beyond the circuits that inspired them - by using more temperate and uniformly reliable components. Which should give you easier dial-in and better reproducibility. Jason seems to be as obsessed as I with producing exceptional harmonic output for his pedals. It’s what I love most about so many of my favourite varieties how those musical artefact bloom and percolate.
The intention is to get some of these in at some stage - though probably not for a month or two, as October is already overly chaotic - but where I wold love to do some proper hands-on in-depth reviews - where I can really test the mettle of Jason’s circuit designs.
I love the high quality consistency of theme and trade dress here - where the common ingredient in all of these is a consistent look - black facia plates onto orange enclosures, with high quality milled aluminium knobs - and that unifying Lightning Bold LED window - which marks each of these pedals out as a Bolt & Forge production - very neat and elegant overall.
Here follows a brief description of each - hopefully with more in-depth reviews to follow ...
Note that all have the same price tag of $249.99 - of course available right now from the Bolt & Forge Webstore.
Appaloosa Germanium Overdrive (MOSFET + Germanium Diodes) - $249.99
Controls - Master, Gain, Bass, Treble, Boost.
Germanium Overdrives are all about that beautiful grit and harmonics - readers should know by now how much a fan I am of harmonically elevated gain pedals - and the smart addition of a Boost control really allows you to beautifully extend and accentuate the harmonics of this overdrive. Great concept and beautifully executed here.
"With boost, gain and master controls, the Appaloosa uses gain staging like a tube amp and makes it simple to dial in an edge-of-breakup tone or any amount of grit or dirt you need. The tone controls add another layer of versatility. For example, you can turn down the bass control if you need a mids-forward type of overdrive, or turn up both tone controls for a scooped-mids sound."
Circuit Features :
- 100% analog signal path
- Hand-selected Germanium diodes
- Studio-grade, MOSFET opamps
- Metal-film resistors
- Audio-quality film capacitors
- Noise-filtering choke
- Hand-wired
Bad Hoss Harmonic Sustainer (Sort of JFET Muff) - $249.99
Controls - Volume, Sustain, EQ : Scoop / Flat, Tone, Gain : Low / High.
This is a sort of extended range Big Muff of sorts - which really focuses on the lower gain dynamic - in bringing forth those kind of fuzzy-drive tones. A slightly more open-pored take on that circuit but very obviously from the same overall stable.
I actually really like a Mids Boost on my Big Muffs, and one of the classic brands Vick Audio - of which I own all 5 Big Muff variants - has a similar Mids EQ switch to the Bad Hoss - but that is a 3-way - Boost / Stock (Scooped) / Flat version. Perhaps Jason can look into that as a further future evolution.
"So what’s a harmonic sustainer? Well, it’s not exactly a fuzz and not exactly a distortion. The Bad Hoss is a complete evolutionary leap in design from its ancestor, making it perfect for garage rock, fuzzy blues, stoner rock or violin-like sustain on lead lines."
Circuit Features :
- 100% analog signal path
- Audio-grade, low noise JFET transistors
- Metal-film resistors
- Audio-quality film capacitors
- Noise-filtering choke
- Hand-wired
Ol'Ephraim Germanium Sustainer (MOSFET + Germanium Diodes) - $249.99
Controls - Volume, Sustain, Tone.
Probably my favourite sounding of the B&F gain pedals with really beautiful harmonic character from those 4 Germanium Diodes.
"It’s labeled a ‘sustainer’ because it’s not exactly a fuzz and not exactly a distortion. In short, its sound character is like a germanium fuzz, but it’s consistent, reliable, easy to use and has the dirt level of a distortion pedal."
"If you love the sound of a small tube amp wound up to 10, you’re gonna dig Ol’ Ephraim. It uses four hand-tested, low-leakage germanium diodes to get those iconic sounds while keeping it as simple and easy to use as possible to call them up on command."
Circuit Features :
- 100% analog signal path
- Hand-selected Germanium diodes
- Studio-grade, MOSFET opamps
- Metal-film resistors
- Audio-quality film capacitors
- Noise-filtering choke
- Hand-wired
Sawbones Transparent Optical Compressor - $249.99
Controls - Volume, Sustain, Bass, Treble, Clean Blend.
A super low-noise and exceptionally transparent optical compressor with 2-Band EQ. Very strong is some areas but missing the fairly typical Attack & Release parameters. It's not unusual though - plenty of compressors offer fairly simple topologies - and the fact that you have EQ, Volume and Blend here - besides the degree of Compression / Sustain - gives you enough of what you need.
This is such a crowded market nowadays, with so many smart options already out there - while there is still an elegance here to recommend it.
"In addition to it not adding any noise to your signal, the Sawbones is transparent, meaning it leaves the sound of the rest of your rig intact while you dial in the compression level you want. A rail-to-rail, studio grade JFET opamp, combined with the ability to run up to 18 volts, means you’ll never have issues with headroom."
Circuit Features :
- 100% analog signal path
- Studio-grade, MOSFET Opamps
- Metal-film resistors
- Audio-quality film capacitors
- Noise-filtering choke
- Hand-wired
