What piece of equipment do you have to show us today?
Sanford and Sunny Bluebeard Fuzz Pedal.
How did you come across this particular item?
This pedal was a gift from my former bandmate in Priests, GL Jaguar. They are handmade by our friend Sonny Simpson who used to work at a local used music gear store in College Park, Maryland called Atomic Music (the best music shop I’ve ever been to, by the way. If you are ever in the DC area, you should make it a point to check it out). The pedals have somewhat of a cult following and have been on back order for years. It’s just a simple metal stompbox with a bright blue light and the name of the pedal and number written in sharpie on the front, but every once in a while I have a gear nerd come up after the show, whether it’s in Worcester, MA or Dortmund, Germany, and ask if it’s a Bluebeard. I was very lucky to get my hands on one – because GL and Sonny are old friends, he was able to get one made for me as a Christmas gift. Shout out to GL, best gift giver in all the land.
What is it that you like about it so much?
Well first off, it sounds amazing. It’s basically a ‘70s Big Muff Lamb’s Head clone that Sonny tweaked to retain a lot of low end thickness for bass, but it happens to sound incredible on guitar too. It also has sentimental value, because it was a gift and is made by a friend. It was having some volume cut out issues a few years back and I was able to bring it over to Sonny’s house and sit around with his kids while I watched him replace a few components and tweak a few things to my liking.
How do you use it and how has it shaped the way you write music?
The pedal itself is versatile for a fuzz, but I use this pedal when I want the guitar to sound massive and searing, cutting over everything else. It’s used on almost every song at some point. On the new record you can hear it on ‘Go’, ‘Pressure’, ‘Material’, ‘XYZ’, ‘Skim Milk’, and ‘Punching Up’.
Tell us a little about what you have coming up?
We have our first LP coming out Friday June 8 on Domino Records. We’ll be touring the US in June, July, and August, and then will be heading to Europe for the first time in November.
Flasher’s debut album Constant Image is out now via Domino Records.
Image via Jen Dessinger.