Lastgasp Art Laboratories Full-Flavour Gomorrah Input Sensitive Subharmonic Fuzz is very much a story of two halves

The meaning of ’Halves’ here is dual - as it concerns the 2 Modes - Subharmonic and Overtone, as well as the two hemispheres of the Tone and Sensitivity controls.

Controls - Level, Tone, Sensitivity, Mode : SB (Subharmonic) / OT (Overtone).

As per the full name of this Fuzz - it is incredibly sensitive - and in particular for the Subharmonic Mode - and very much needs to be the first thing your guitar hits in the pedal-chain. The two sides are really quite different. The Subharmonic Mode works best with the Tone and Sensitivity set in the left hemisphere of those controls - say between 9 o’c and Noon in particular. While the Overtone Mode is at its best with Tone and Sensitivity fairly cranked.

For the Subharmonic Mode - you get a beautifully textured low-end burble - with the occasional deeper note ’locking’ into place. It actually sounds really cool, but even with the Level maxed - I still beed to post-clean-boost this pedal to get it up to unity levels for the Subharmonic Mode. The other Overtone side is quite a different story - you can veritably crank all the dials, and you get a really blistering richly textured and loud fuzz Overtones output.

Both Modes operate somewhat differently and you definitely need different settings to get the most out of each - you can’t just flip the Mode switch!

I mostly operate this pedal in Overtone Mode with all dials maxed - and it sounds amazing. I would use the Subharmonic Mode more if it had more of a level output - while it sounds very muted in several ways versus the full-on Overtones mode.

I think I probably reviewed my 4 Lastgasp Fuzzes in order, and indeed order of preferences. All 4 are fantastic sounding, but the Super Oscillo Fuzz is King for me, followed kind of  equally by the Sooper Fuzz and Octavella. Possibly I would place the Octavella second actually - it really depends on my mood at the time. And the Gomorrah is 4th mostly because of its lack of unity level on the Subharmonic side - the Overtone Mode is of course fantastic sounding and easily comes up to universal unity levels.

The normal course of action to boost output is to add a couple of Clipping LED’s - but that can significantly alter the texture of the output - typically smooth it out a little, which would diminish the nature of this fuzz’s output. I have a few pedals with very even Modes - Clipping Modes often most typically. While some pedals - like say the TX Pedals Animalizzer Fuzz - get the formula just right - with a really precise selection of clipping Diodes - which all render without noticeable volume drops. Too many pedals out there have very uneven modes - which makes them counterproductive for flipping settings on the fly.

For the Gomorrah both sides can sound fantastic - it’s just that the Subharmonic side is a whole lot more ’muted’ and subdued. Even with the Level cranked it’s way under unity level in my rig. The texture and burble of that voicing is really cool, but with such a markedly diminished level of output it really isn’t fully usable in a live / on-the-fly situation. I still really like this pedal, and love the Overtone side - I feel something needs to be done about the other Mode to make it more dynamically usable.

My 3 recent Lastgasp pedals all came from Joe’s Pedals in the UK, where the Super Oscillo Fuzz is @ £229, the Sooper Fuzz is at £189, and the Octavella and this Gomorrah are @ £179. These are all very distinctive fuzzes, and well worth consideration. You can of course order direct from the Lastgasp Art Laboratories Store if you are in that part of the world (Australia), for those on the European mainland you have Effekt Boutique in Germany, and in the USA - Perfect Circuit is the best place to acquire these.

I’m delighted with my 5 Lasgtgasp Art Laboratories Pedals acquired to date - where the next one I will be targeting is the Lluna Oscillo Fuzz Drive with Voltage Dropper. Not stocked currently at Joe’s Pedals, but available from Effekt Boutique - I need to decide how quickly I want to get my hands on that one, or whether I’m happy to wait for Joe to order it in for me during the next re-stock. I have so many ongoing priorities currently - that it really depends on the context of what else is happening at the time. There are still numerous Infinite Wishlist targets to follow up on - and I have now featured 5 Lastgasp pedals on this blog in fairly quick succession. It’s probably time to shift focus to another brand in the interim - I will most definitely be getting in the Lluna though at some time is the probably fairly near future!

How many of you own at least one Lastgasp Fuzz - would be great to hear some further insights from you - until the next chapter of this saga!