Wren and Cuff collaborate with Coheed & Cambria to create Commemorative ANNA Pedal in celebration of 20 years since their Debut Album

So it’s been 20 years since the release of Coheed and Cambria’s excellent debut studio album -  ’The Second Stage Turbine Blade’. And Coheed frontman Claudio Sanchez approached Wren and Cuff’s Matthew Holl about creating a commemorative pedal to mark that grand occasion.

There are a fair few Coheed and Cambria fans among us - and ’Welcome Home’ is one of my all-time favourite and most played jam tracks - that opening minor riff is just amazing. In any case Claudio and Matt put their heads together and decided that the pedal to be created to celebrate this momentous anniversary should combine Claudio’s favourite pairing of Boss SD-1 into EHX Opamp Muff - or specifically Claudio’s 1981 SD-1 into his 1978 BMP.

The name ’ANNA’ comes from the fact that inside Claudio’s ’78 Opamp Big Muff is a label recording the name of the person who assembled said pedal - indeed the very same ’Anna’!

Controls - SD-1 Side } Drive, Tone, Volume, Gain : High Gain / Stock, Clipping Selection : SD / Boost / LED / TS, Drive Footswitch; BMP Side } Fuzz, Tone, Volume, Tone Bypass / Stock, Fuzz Footswitch.

Matt is incredibly adept at circuit replications and enhancements - and while the Big Muff Side is entirely true to the original - featuring that one’s same Tone Bypass toggle switch, Matt took a few more liberties with the SD-1 side - adding a higher gain voicing option, and including a 4-way Clipping Selection which takes said pedal into new territories.

In fact the only thing that requires any explanation is the Clipping Selection - where the first option is the totally stock and default vintage SD-1 asymmetrical type, then Boost (no clipping), next LED hard edge symmetrical clipping, and finally a slightly smoother TS Tube Screamer style clipping. So at a basic level - this is a proper hot-rodded / modded SD-1 - which is probably the main draw here if you’re not a dedicated Coheed and Cambria fan looking for some suitable memorabilia!

I personally would have preferred a vertical BB enclosure here - but it kind of makes sense to have this orientation - I glimpsed it when it was first announced and had it down as a nice-to-have then - without having done too much due diligence on it. I wasn’t aware that this was a limited batch edition and that the first and only batch to date was sold out very quickly. I can’t find any reference as to how many were created (200-250?) - but there is a waiting list now for a possible but not yet fully confirmed second batch - I think they’re testing the waters a touch to get an indication if there is sufficient demand remaining.

I would quite like to own this pedal in my current mindset - although I’ve not fully crossed the line to ’must-have’ territory yet. I am down on the waiting list in any case - in case I decide to pull the trigger - I like how the artwork echoes the debut album - while I would probably have preferred out a touch more detailed rendition of the dragonfly!

The ANNA pedal is priced at $349 and the initial batch sold out very quickly - while you need to email the waiting list - coheed-anna-waitlist@wrenandcuff.com - if you’re interested in being in on batch #2 if and whenever that does occur! Timing is everything for me - and ’nice-to-haves’ often miss out as I have so many other ongoing commitments and priorities - that it can’t be helped really that some pedals fall though the net on occasion.

The second batch may not happen anyway - so there’s no point in getting your hopes up yet!

I feel in this instance they should probably have done a ZVEX style exercise and left their order / pre-order window open for a month - to give everyone interested every chance to be in on the run!

It’s a cool combination in any case - and those extra bells and whistles on the SD-1 side kinda make it worth it!

Anyone here snag one from the first batch - and if so what are your impressions?