TX Pedals Nebulae Gain Texturizer is a superb all-rounder versatile Boost, Overdrive and Fuzz based on the Sam Ash AstroTone
This is my second TX Pedal after the superb Animalizzer MufferFuzzer - surely every household now owns a copy of that WonderMuff! And the Nebulae is most certainly cut from the same cloth - in being about as versatile and expansive as it can be for this format.
And this is my second AstroTone Fuzz too - after the Analog.Man take on the same. And I dare say the Nebulae has a little more range to it - especially courtesy of that handy Presence boost - which loads up the 1kHz frequency cluster and you get a really cool Upper Mids Boost with some extra sizzle!
Controls - Volume, Gain, Tone, Presence (1kHz).
I recall from playing my first AstroTone how much I enjoyed the Fuzzy-Drive textures of this type of circuit. I’ve called it a ’Gain Texturizer’ as it typically adds in a lovely gritty texture at any level of gain you wish to set.
TX Pedals is of course my good friend Rikk Cabecas - and he’s done some handy recommended settings which all worked really well for me and my setup / rig - with the exception of the final ’Full On Fuzz’ preset.
For me if I turn the gain much beyond 3 o'c it starts to over-compress and choke up a little. So for my preferences the ultimate Full On Fuzz voicing has Volume @ Max, Gain @ 3 o'c, Tone @ Max, and Presence switch On!
I really feel this pedal excels on those in-between settings - and it delivers a superb dirty boost, treble booster, overdrive, fuzzy-drive and of course full-on fuzz! Obviously there's some lea-way as to what some people prefer to call the higher levels of distortion - for me this pedal is all different fuzz hues - up and down the gain scale - with plenty of range on each of those knobs.
If I was being extra fussy I might request a little more output volume - but really this pedal is pretty much perfect as is. The AstroTone is one of the great fuzz circuits for me - hugely versatile - and this Nebulae is a really smart take on the format. It has a little more in the top end than my Analog.Man - but they're both brilliant really! The Nebulae is undeniably prettier though - and with those cool aluminium knobs it has to be the more appealing choice!
You can order your Nebulae from the TX Pedals Webstore for €185 - where Rikk makes these in the usual small-batch fashion.
There's only one demo to date which though gives you a decent overview of what the pedal is capable of. The AstroTone circuit is one that's often overlooked - but it's for sure one of my favourites - there just aren't many takes of it in existence. If you like the sound of this style of fuzz / texturizer - then then Nebulae is imbued with some unique features to make the most of that format.
Would be quite cool to see Rikk do an expansive Animalizzer style take on the Nebulae at some stage - with all those extra features loaded into the mix. I'm sure that would make for a similarly superb all-rounder variant. I don't believe any proper extended-range AstroTones have been created to date.
Great sounding highly versatile all-rounder fuzz in any case - and eminently suitable for fuzz-haters too - as it delivers so many interesting Overdrive style voicings!
Demos
