Interchange Noise Works' Killer Duo - Element 119 LED Clipping Distortion and On Air 2-in-1 Silicon Fuzz with Independent Boost

As JJ relates - the idea for the 'On Air' originally came about back in 2016 - when he serendipitously made contact with engineer Brandon Schock on Instagram. Those two got on so well that in the shortest time they were collaborating and prototyping the earliest version of the On Air Fuzz - an entirely new variety of fuzz. That edition emerged fully fledged in August of 2018 and was sold under the name of Power Pedals - which is the moniker JJ decided to use for his various earliest builds back then.

Shortly afterwards - in 2019, JJ felt compelled to shut down that business as he was heading off to College, or University as we call it over here! This was just before Josh Scott then had somehow gotten his hands on that earliest On Air Fuzz - and showcased it on the 31st October JHS Pedal Show - per the above video reference.

The 5-knob on air is a pretty distinctive dual-voiced Fuzz - with an additional independent Boost. JJ explains this as rather a 2-in-1 pedal - with two functions versus a Fuzz / Boosted Fuzz. In fact for me the Boost really works best on its own mostly - or combined with lower levels of the fuzz.

The On Air fuzz has a colour-changing / multi-colour LED, and JJ thought it would be cool to create a clipping drive / distortion which for the first time used that specific variety of colour-changing LED, which I don't believe had ever been done before. There are 3 core LED's build into the display of the pedal, and those are also the clipping path for the distortion - so the display lights up dynamically to reflect what's happening in the circuit - and based entirely on your picking technique and degree of attack. It lights up Red for Light clipping, Blue for Medium, and Green for Heavy. But more of that later in the individual pedal details below :

I have a feeling that the below Runway Audio feature may have been my first proper exposure to this pedal, while I can't fully recall how I came across that at the time - it does resonate very strongly for me, and is what first properly introduced me to these pedals.

The On Air has 6 controls - Bass, Mode : AM (Lighter) / FM (Heavier), Treble, Signal (Fuzz Level), Statik (Fuzz Gain), and Volume (Boost Level).

It's very much a 2-in-1 pedal with a separate independent Boost, as the Boost only really improves the tone of the Fuzz for me when the Statik control is set fairly low. The Boost works fantastically though with other Drive pedals in particular.

In the Up AM position you're able to get some cool fuzzy-drive sort of tones - where the Fuzz is slightly lighter and more open-pored. I largely prefer the full flavoured and more richly textured Down FM voicing of Fuzz with the controls set to Bass at 3 o'c, Treble at 9 o'c, Signal at Max, and Static at Noon. The fuzz does not tend to oversaturate as much as the Element 119 - so you can fairly freely crank both the Signal and Statik controls.

With my preferred setting you get a gorgeous rich and densely textured fuzz which sounds pretty complex and distinct and with a lot of harmonic detail. There is sufficient degree of cleanup too via your guitar volume knob. All in all a distinct and slightly different sounding fuzz - well worth adding to your collection.

The tone generation is courtesy of 3 Silicon Transistors - 2 x 2N5088 + MPSA13 - which should mean rather Tone Bender in makeup, while it renders rather more like a companion fuzz / super-fuzz - but without the harmonic octave. As a comparison it's slightly more cutting and sharper than the Beetronics Vezzpa in Fuzz mode - which conversely has slightly more low-end by default.

The Element 119 in many ways could not have happened without the On Air - as it was that pedal's Colour-changing LED which sparked off the idea for this. Where JJ thought it would be cool to create the first fuzz with a colour-changing Clipping LED.

The Element 119 has 4 simple control - Bass, Treble, Exposure (Output Level), Decay (Clipping Degree / Gain).

Central to the Element 119 are those 3 central LED's where the middle one in particular reacts to your picking and playing dynamics and lights up Red for Light attack, Blue for Medium, and Green for Heavy. The tone generation here is powered by a TL072 OpAmp, and 3 x 2N5088 Silicon Transistors - meaning you get a very fuzz-like distortion character - which I always like to call 'Fuzzstortion'. The output is a wonderful dense and raspy tone - which is again wholly distinct from other distortions - certainly not a Muff or Rat, which might have fairly similar topologies. This is even more its own thing than the On Air - while each is richly textured and distinct in its own way.

My preferred settings here are Bass and Treble at 3 o'c, Exposure at Max, and Decay at around 9 o'c. There is a very high degree of interactivity between the Exposure and Decay Knobs - and if you raise one you usually need to lower the other accordingly. When Exposure is Maxed out - the usable range of Decay is really only from 8 o'c to 11 o'c - as soon after that it starts to oversaturate and get slightly muddy - where you loose much of the definition - there you need to start dialling down the Exposure level.