Fjord Fuzz's Pedal of the Month for January - Njord is a really smart take on the legendary Shin-ei Resly Tone Leslie Simulator

So most people are familiar with the Shin-ei / Honey / Univox Uni-Vibe - which was once called the Vibra Chorus too. That actually evolved later in 1968 and overlapped with its predecessor - the Resly Tone Leslie Simulator - which I believe was out in very early 1968.

Both the Restly Tone and Uni-Vibe are photocell / bulb based modulators - where the ReslyTone uses a different set of phase capacitors. And wile the Uni-Vibe is more phasey / throbby, the ReslyTone is more of a sort of wobbly seasick vibrato - which sounds closest to those Leslie Rotary Speaker tones - that is to say the horn part really.

I wondered at Daniel Thornhill’s wisdom in delivering another sort of Proto-Uni-Vibe style pedal - so soon after the Frei - while this earlier predecessor to the Uni-Vibe actually sounds quite different to that - and as such is a somewhat different beast.

The original Resly Tone RT-18 had 4 knobs - Volume, Variation : Tremolo / Vibrato / Resly (rhymes with Leslie), Intensity, and Repeat Time. The Fjord Fuzz Njord has 3 quite different knobs :

Controls - Rate, Mix, Depth.

The Resly Tone’s Variation knob options give you a very good clue as to the nature of that pedal - which as mentioned is largely a shimmery / wobbly sort of vibrato. In some ways more elegant than the Uni-Vibe which is more choppy and interruptive. While the Njord is also a touch more forward in the mix - so it’s somewhat more potent too - which I guess is why it works so well after the gain stages.

I of course believe there is ample space for both of those in your life and on your rig - and the Njord / ReslyTone variety is much the rarer type.

As with the Frei - I have experimented with Pre and Post gain placement of said pedal, and while the Njord sounds great pre and post - I kind of prefer it more when placed post my gain pedals - where I prefer the Frei in front. I also deploy quite different settings - with the Frei Rate normally turned down low - while my preference for the Njord is Rate on Max, Mix @ around 9 o’c and Depth @ 12 o’c to 3 o’c.

This is the first of Fjord Fuzz’s ’Pedal of the Month’ projects where there will be individual releases for most months - besides the ones when there is a mainline pedal launch. I already have my hands on February’s candidate - which is another really intriguing addition to the Fjord Fuzz roster - obviously in embargo for now! I look forward to sharing those details soon, enough - I can see Daniel is already teasing that pedal!

There are just a handful of Njords still available - courtesy of the Fjord Fuzz Webstore for $150.

Both the Fjord Fuzz Njord and Frei are superb - and I like them both pretty equally - I’m delighted to own both!