The delightful and unique intricacies of hand-crafted, family-values Flattley Boutique Effects Pedals

So Paul started off his career at the highest calibre of electronic engineer - which friends and family then took to mean that Paul was the master of the soldering iron - and he was frequently called upon to repair friends' musical gear - Amps, Guitar electronics, and of course the odd Pedal or two. In fact Paul turned out to be quite the dab hand at working with musical devices too, where is wife Jan latterly encouraged him to take up a more proactive role in that discipline and perhaps develop and build a couple of pedals of his own rather than always be working on other people's devices.

Paul of course then took his many years of Avionics electronics experience, combined with all the amp, guitar and pedal servicing he had latterly been involved in, and set to creating his very own range of pedals.

A key artefact in the early formation of Flattley Pedals was the above pictured Grim Reaper tapestry / throw - which kind of inspired the skull motif and ident which then went on to represent the brand. The 'Reaper' name also ended up on the very first Flattley pedal in 2016 - the 'Reaper Distortion', a cool take on the ProCo Rat, which was then fairly quickly followed by Paul's first Wah pedal - which is a genre he's become closely associated with.

On his wife Jan's encouragement, Paul had begun experimenting with his own pedal designs during and around 2015 and it was around a year later that he decided he had something worthy of hanging his name on. Paul is actually just one year older than I, and by the time of his creating Flattley Pedals he was nearing his middle years - which was also significant in that he had an adult daughter by then - Phoebe - who would complete the family dynamics of that business by taking up the roll of chief graphic designer - so pretty much right from the start all 3 family members were immersed in the Flattley Pedal business one way or another.

Most of the unique Flattley Pedal features evolved fairly early on - and were pretty much all in place by 2017 - just a little over a year into the business proper.

For the purposes of this article I will be leaning into the Platinum Series / Range - which features a slightly higher level of detail in terms of the intricacy of the pedal finish - which needs to be deconstructed here really for full effect.

All Platinum Series pedals benefit from :

• Laser Etched Knobs - an approach which allows the wrap-around graphics to properly shine - uninterrupted by on-pedal labelling
• Skull Ident Footswitch Toppers - there is a plate on the front edge of the pedal which has the Flattley Logo and Product time - while when viewed from above - the only sign of branding on the pedal is courtesy of the Skull Footswitch Topper / Barefoot Button
• Halo LED / Base Plate Illumination - Flattley rely on a slightly softer status light policy - where you either get a Halo / LED Ring around the footswitch, or the base plate lights up - like on the Wah pedals - to indicate that those devices are engaged
• Superior Finish - the Platinum Series in particular has a 10 step finishing process - which delivers a deep 3-Dimensional artwork - with sparkle!

Here are the 9 steps of the exacting Platinum Series Finishing Process

• The bare aluminium enclosure is abraded to ensure that the primer adheres to every surface facet
• Enclosure is then coated with Etch Primer which ensures maximum anti-corrosion protection
• Typically 3 coats of Primer are applied - each lightly abraded to ensure optimal smoothness
• Several coats of base colour are then applied until the finish developer a rich and incredibly smooth depth dimension
• Next Metallic Holographic Chrome Flake is applied - suspended in a clear inter coat - to deliver that inner 3D sparkle
• Then entire enclosure is Hydro Dipped for the typical skull motif Flattley graphics
• Enclosure placed on a drying rack to dry naturally
• Hydro-Dipped Design sealed and coated in 3 coats of clear lacquer - with each wet-sanded and polished to optimal shine
• Final buffing with polishing compound and wool finishing pad for the ultimate in deep lustre high gloss finish!

The very first pedal to bear the Flattley name was of course inspired by the above formative Grim Reaper Tapestry.

Paul did a cool take on the ProCo Rat originally - which carried the rather apt moniker of 'Reaper Distortion'.

There were 4 controls - with a 4th knob Rotary Mode Selector : DS1 / DS2 / DS3 / OD1 / OD2 / OD3

At the start we first had a 1590B variant, which was then refined and shrunk down to 125B format - as pictured.

And the second pedal to emerge was the rather complex Type 1 Wah - where Flattley is probably nowadays most associated with that genre.

The Type 1 Wah emerged rather fully formed with illuminated base, etched legend knobs, and a fetching blue 'Paisley Skulls' hydro-dipped artwork.

It comes with 4 control knobs - for Range, Inductor, Gain and Q - making it one of the most versatile and full-featured Wah out there.

Over the 7 years of Flattley's history to date no pedal has sold more than the Centurion Transparent Overdrive (Klone), which has also existed in the most variations over the years - and in fact is available as both Platinum and Silver Series.

I'm quite taken by the Freegun artwork seen top-right in the above visual. Would be cool to review that at some stage! Other editions featured here are the Blue Chaos Skulls, Union Jack Punk Skull, and of course the current mainstay Paisley Skulls artwork.

Following on from the various Centurion editions, it's the super-versatile Revolution Overdrive which comes next, just ahead of the 2 Wah Types.

The Revolution is an r-evolution of the TS808 circuit - with the addition of Clipping Options which gives you 3 distinct votings / flavours of overdrive. Utilising Silicon Diodes, and Red LED's as well as just the core Opamp breakup.

There are currently 7 pedals in the Platinum Range :

• Centurion Transparent Overdrive (Klone)
• DG Fuzz Dual Gain Classic Fuzz (Fuzz Face)
• Revolution Dynamic 3-Voice Overdrive (TS808+)
• Solaris Pro Fuzz with Boost 
• Violet Classic Amp-style Tremolo
• Type I 3-in-1 Wah (external controls)
• Type II Wah (Internal controls)

I have had both the DG Fuzz and Revolution Overdrive on the board for a while, and will follow this article with detailed reviews of each. In the meantime here below follows a relatively succinct description of each of the current Platinum Pedals alongside a key demo of each.

All pedals can of course be ordered direct from the Flattley Pedals Webstore,

There are also a variety of International Dealers - including ATB Guitars, Coda Music, Intersound Guitars, Ivor Mariants Musicentre, Modern Music, Music City, Soundhouse, Sound Unlimited, and The Guitar Store in the UK.

Amelia Island Fine Guitars, Austin Guitar House, Gear Hero, Lloyd's Guitars, Rock N Roll Vintage & Synth City, Steve's Music Centre, True Tone Music, Vison Guitar, and Water Wheel Guitars in the USA.

Ohms Music Store, and Made for Bass in Canada

Mocha Earth Music in Australia

Yuanguitars in China

Royez Music in France

Haar Guitars in The Netherlands

Gitarhuset Megastore Alnabru in Norway

Cotton Musical Supply in Germany

Controls - Gain, Tone / Treble, Volume.

Great sounding Klon style circuit with all the dynamics and flavour of the original.

Controls - Tone, Fuzz, Volume, Grunt

Beautifully dynamic, rich and fat sounding Silicon Fuzz Face with Flattley Ace Boost integrated into the circuit, and an additional 4th Grunt control - which is connected to the internal buffer, and allows you to dial in progressively more low end fatness.

Controls - Volume, Drive, Tone, Clipping : Silicon Diodes / Opamp / Red LEDs.

Beautifully expressive full-fat Overdrive with 3 voicings onboard and beautiful cleanup dynamics.

Controls - Volume, Sustain, Tone, Boost Footswitch, Fuzz Footswitch.

A really versatile simple fuzz with gain internally set to max - controllable via your guitar volume knob. Plenty of dynamics vial your guitar controls - also two flavours of Boost - second stage diode clipping (mellower), or second stage feedback enhance for a more aggressive tonality. Boost essentially consists of twin Red LEDs.

Controls - Depth, Rate, Volume, Waveform : Triangle / Square

Really versatile Tremolo with the simplest of controls - can be as smooth and lyrical as you like - or choppy in the extreme.

Controls - Range, Inductor :  Halo / Fasel / Both, Gain, Q Bandwidth

3-in-1 Wah pedal defined by its Inductor selection. With all key controls external to the pedal - makes it incredibly easy to adjust on-the-fly! One of the most versatile Wah pedals currently on the market!