NAMM 2016: Stone Deaf unveils five new guitar effects pedals

Introduction

NAMM 2016: Manchester's Stone Deaf – famed for its PDF-1 parametric EQ stompbox among others – has revealed a host of new pedals due to hit this year.

Common among the stompers is true bypass relay switching, quality components and nine-volt power supply operation, not to mention some stunning graphics.

All of the pedals will be available from March/April – there are some tasty amps on the way, too…

Stone Deaf Syncopy

A true BBD analogue delay with 500ms of delay time, the Syncopy promises clever filtering for “crystal clear delay tones”, not to mention tap tempo, presets and MIDI control.

As well as controls for tone, time, level and feedback, the Syncopy also offers modulation and tap divisions for the pedal's tap tempo, all of which can be stored using four onboard presets.

MIDI control allows players to change presets and even expand to multiple banks, while an expression pedal can be assigned to feedback, time and mix mod controls – smart stuff for a relatively compact stompbox.

Stone Deaf Tremotron

Packing a serious amount of versatility given its fully analogue signal path, the Tremotron offers the usual rate and depth controls, plus a wide array of shapes, including sine, square, ramp, reverse ramp and more.

Elsewhere, the pedal offers adjustment over tone and level – always handy on tremolos to avoid perceived volume drops – plus, by pressing each of the rotary encoders, players can add another 'layer' of volume modulation for multiple simultaneous tremolo action.

Like the Syncopy, the Tremotron packs tap tempo with adjustable tap divisions, four presets, expression input control (for rate, depth and shape), not to mention MIDI input for additional preset banks and switching.

Stone Deaf PDF-2

The successor to Stone Deaf's flagship PDF-1 parametric equalizer, the PDF-2 lowers the noise floor and adds an adjustable gain knob and dual footswitch for clean and dirty channels, plus expression input controls.

At its core, the PDF-2 is a parametric EQ with adjustable distortion gain, and offers a frequency response from 35Hz to 6kHz, which is sweepable via an expression pedal for wah and phaser-like sounds.

Stone Deaf Kliptonite

Hold on tight, we're going with the press release on this one: the Kliptonite is a “dual velcro fuzz and overdrive pedal, which splits an op amp-based distortion circuit into two halves and mixes them both back in again”.

The pedal's Mirror Mix control adjusts the mix of the two sounds from 50/50, 75/25 or 25/75, and can be flipped over using the footswitch – so, from 25% overdrive/75% fuzz to 75% fuzz/25% overdrive.

Otherwise, the Kliptonite features a parametric EQ with adjustable fuzz and distortion gain (via a single control), as well as a 35Hz to 6kHz frequency range, while an expression pedal can be used to adjust the frequency for wah/phaser tones.

Stone Deaf Warp Drive

Stone Deaf promises that the Warp Drive can articulate high gain like a proper high-gain amp, with parametric EQ control over the full frequency range, from 35Hz to 6kHz, plus a built-in noise gate.

Dual channels (with or without noise gate) are also on offer, while – like other Stone Deaf pedals – there's optional expression pedal control available for adjusting distortion frequency or creating high-gain wah and phaser effects.