Campaign to Revive the Cult Classic Blakemore Effects Deus Ex Machina Opamp Fuzz!

Blakemore Effects was Boutique Pedal Builder Blake Hickey’s Brand - which he ran from July 2011 to circa December 2018 - before he switched over fully and incredibly successfully to Investment Accounting - wholly retiring from the pedal business at that time.

During his relatively brief tenure as Blakemore Effects, he was responsible for some truly exceptional mid-size fuzz boxes in particular, while his notable pedals included the Bi-Polar Octadrive, Dreamsicle IC Fuzz, Deus Ex Machina Opamp Fuzz, Motor City Fuzz, Mustang Overdrive, and R.O.U.S Distortion (Rat). 

Blake also ran and organised the excellent ’Circuits to Cure Cancer’ pedal initiative - where custom pedal editions were sold to raise funds for Cancer Research.

He was particularly adept at creating pretty unique Opamp-based Fuzzes and Distortions - where his Deus Ex Machina (DEM) would garner a cult following - largely as that business was being shuttered. If you scour the various Gear Forums on the web, and Subreddits and the like - you will see numerous interested parties enquiring as to how they can get their hands on one of those elusive DEM fuzzes.

For a lot of us - much of this passed under the radar at the time, and I wasn’t fully switched onto to the delights of the Deus Ex Machina until my good friend Bob Guido, Artist and Producer at large asked me if I knew where he might be able to get his hands on one of these evidently pretty darn rare Blake Hickey signature pedals.

He and I scoured the web for a couple of weeks - yet besides just finding further references and evidence of other individuals desperately seeking the same - not a single available example was discovered in the wild - not on any continent!

We then did some deep diving into what made the circuit so special. Where it is somewhat very originally based on an Opamp / IC type Muff, but sounds nothing like that because of its Pre-Gain Mids Boost circuit / control, and Clean Blend. Our understanding was that this pedal found particular favour with Shoegaze fans - who loved to run / blend Reverb into the front of those fuzz pedals in particular.

The tone / texture of the Deus Ex Machina sits somewhere between a searing / soaring Brian May Top-Boosted Vox Tone, and a Tone Bender MKIII - while at the same time having its own distinctive character in the mix. The Brett Kingman Demo (as below) is the definitive reference - and that’s all you need to hear to get how special this fuzz is.

There doesn’t seem to be anything exactly like it out there - there are some pedals that can get you pretty close - like the Bardic Audio Devices 2 Stroke Beaver, and KMA Machines Chief Disruptor - while even those don’t nail the DEM tones exactly - there’s some extra sear going on there, where my good friend Rikkard Kabesson (Ricardo Cabecas) of TX Pedals (You must check out his Animalizzer Fuzz) - thinks there may be a Sallen-key Filter circuit arrangement or similar going on in there too!

Those of us who are keen on the Deus Ex Machina - love everything about that pedal - including the original metallic orange ’wings’ artwork as pictured above - and would like to see it revived in its entirety - with all the original aspects intact - knob choices and all. While since Blake Hickey is so successful in his current career, we don’t believe he would accommodate / consider a return to his pedal-crafting days in any way. So the question is - would he licence the design out or collaborate with a partner of his own choosing - to bring about a revival of his pedal in some fashion. Say just an initial run of 100 or so to test the waters - with the option to produce more - depending on how quickly those sell out.

These used to go for $149 I believe back in the day - while they surely justify a $200 price tag nowadays. There were some custom editions of that pedal out there with an additional central toggle-switch - which purpose I’m not entirely clear on. Back when his Blakemore Effects brand was being retired, Blake offered up to continue to use and respond to his blakemoreeffects@gmail.com email account - largely for ongoing maintenance enquiries concerning his pedals - but he stated he was also open to talking about gear. So I will surely try that route once this article is up and gaining some traction. I also have reference to Blake’s professional LinkedIn page - which I can use as a further avenue should that be necessary.

The idea is to inspire a swell of support to get the Deus Ex Machina pedal revived - hopefully with Blake’s input / cooperation / original schema, or at the very least his blessing - and that some enterprising soul/s could be instrumental in making this happen. I’ve already reached out to a few pedal builder friends - while now I’m reaching out to the greater community - with the hope that some of you might have a connection to or some sort of influence on our gentleman in question.

This post will also serve to show just how many interested parties want this to become a reality again.

So by all means feel free to lend your support and join us in this movement!