Cornerstone's new Nero Dumble-Fuzz is a brilliantly nuanced take on a classic vintage fuzz, packed with smart design details and features - inside and out!
Upon first glance you just surely can’t but concede that this Nero Fuzz is a most magnificent detail-oriented design masterpiece as ever there was - and for sure one of the very best-balanced designs currently out there. I love Emilio’s new gun-metal grey / titanium coloured and engraved knobs, the raised surrounds for the mini knobs, and the back-lit lights - including the main Cornerstone Logo Ident.
The enclosure finish is beautifully textured too - with a fetching gleaming metallic gold print - there are lovely details to be found everywhere. In fact the only thing I would change here is the screws on the back! - make those black or titanium to fit the rest - but that is a very tiny minor thing to mention - and not at all important really in what has been accomplished so well here.
The look and function of this pedal is totally top drawer every which way - and has an incredibly wide appeal, in particular for those who don’t like the noisier / wirier / more visceral side of fuzz, and typically rather prefer to temper their fuzz voicing with an overdrive. In essence that’s what the Nero is doing - combining a smart, versatile classic Fuzz Voicing with a Dumble Overdrive (Cornerstone’s own Gladio SC).
It’s actually a very unique take on the Classic / Vintage Fuzz - very obviously Fuzz Face territory - but with numerous interesting deft touches. I’m given to understand that the circuit here is mostly opamp-based, and combines a Cornerstone Gladio SC circuit with a largely opamp-based Fuzz circuit also. The construction of the pedal is alas a reverse-board type, and I don’t have the time or patience to remove all the sockets etc to fully uncover and inspect the insides, so we will mostly focus here on what we can see, what we can hear, and what we can feel!
Controls - Volume, Gain, Comp (Parallel Fuzz to Gladio Mix / Temperament), Tone, Bias 1 (Gritty > Smooth / Fuzz > OD), Bias 2 (Gritty > Smooth / Fuzz > OD), remote - Bias 1/2 switching port.
The Volume, Gain and Tone parameters are all very straightforward, with even and predictable tapers, and plenty of range on each dial. The 2 Bias knobs - 1 & 2 allow you to set 2 different voicing presets in effect - which in the first halves of those identical dials delivering Rough and Gritty, more Fuzz-like sounds in the left hemisphere / CCW, and smoother and more more full-bodied Overdrive sounds in the right hemisphere / Clockwise.
The Compression control is a clever Parallel Mix - which blends progressively more of the Gladio SC with the Fuzz Voicing side. It’s at its most Fuzzy fully CCW, and then you Temper the Fuzz with the Gladio as you raise that dial.
There are several unique aspects to the core 'Fuzz' voicing - including the most beautiful sustaining harmonics - really deeply richly textured - but with a somewhat flowing sheen throughout. And the Nero really caters to most tastes here, I suppose bar those who like their Fuzzes really Raw and almost Nasty Sounding. There are multiple sweetspot voicings to be found onboard - but each and everyone is well behaved and sort of evenly 'tempered' in some way. The playability and action / interaction of this pedal is great - with really decent under-the-fingers feel, and excellent guitar gain volume cleanup. Where operating the pedal is effortless really - super easy to dial in and delivering killer voicings every which way - bar the raw edgy side as mentioned. This is most definitely a 'Gentleman' Dumble-Fuzz - with impeccable manners!
Everything truly feels high quality here 'Deluxe even - including those soft-touch footswitches. Emilio explained to me what he set out to achieve at the recent London Synth & Pedal Expo, and it's most definitely Mission Accomplished!
The pedal arrives with all the big dials at noon, Bias 1 @ 9 o'c, and Bias 2 @ 3 o'c - and you can easily adjust from there - sounds great right from the get-go!
My preferred settings are - Volume @ 3 o'c, Gain @ 3 o'c, Comp @ Min, Tone @ 3 o'c / Max, Bias 1 @ Fully CCW, Bias 2 @ Fully CW. Those get about as close to searing Fuzz and Overdrive sounds as this pedal can muster - of course with the signal impeccably balanced and tempered throughout. I was concerned that the Nero might lack volume or gain range - but it really has plenty of everything.
I feel this is a most magnificent execution / achievement, and promises well for the future of the Cornerstone brand. This Nero Dumble-Fuzz is an incredibly Refined / Deluxe experience - and the look of the pedal is one of the handsomest I've seen to date. I understand Emilio Massari and his designer spent a good couple of years honing the project, and it looks like it was time very well spent.
The Nero Ticket Price here of €299 | $299 | £259 is relative high, while with the exceptional quality of finish and extensive feature set - you could have expected it to be at least 100 credits more in each currency. It has been so well received already that Batch 1 is mostly sold out now - but do check all the dealers! The Cornerstone Website has a decent 'Where to Buy Section' I would start my search there and on Reverb.com! There's also a decent Nero Info Page on that site - that is well worth checking out. Thanks also to Mike Smale at Musifacts for organising my Nero for me!
My Nero alas did not arrive until 18:30 on the evening that I'm writing up this review - so a couple of hours playing time, followed by a full write-up - which when you see this will have been just last night! I did the main visual mostly in advance, but have done some further revisions today. Ideally I would have liked more time to live with the pedal - but I can tell already that it's going to be in regular rotation for me - it has a most delicious harmonic texture that is distinct from pretty much everything else I have - my Paul Trombetta Bone Machine GTX gets me kind of into similar territory - while the Nero voicing sounds very distinct for me.
As always I try to give as full and complete a picture of said pedal that I can - and this one's legend will run long for sure! The visual theme came about via 'Nero the Roman Emperor' associative reasoning - which led to a laurel wreath - which evolved in about 20 total iterations to this final format - which I'm about as pleased with as the pedal itself! It really is a special pedal, and I wanted to have a special visual to match!
The Nero Dumble-Fuzz is very highly recommended indeed. While purist fuzz fans should note that this mostly is at the other end of the spectrum to the rather more rawer fuzz circuit designs of luminaries like say David Thornhill at Fjord Fuzz, and Markus Reeves at Reeves Electro! All these together are equally exhilarating each in their own way - while they will each also appeal to a slightly different type of player.
Emilio set out to create and everyman fuzz that always stayed within the bounds of tastefulness - but with plenty of textural richness and versatility - and it pretty much hits every marker!
Demos
