Way Huge Electronics has unveiled the Stone Burner Sub Atomic Fuzz, a fuzz pedal with an octave down feature that looks a dead cert to to be championed by all those rock guitar players out there who specialise in large riffs at high volume.
As electric guitar tones go, this is the nuclear option, or at least one of the many nuclear options on the market today, and what makes the Stone Burner so destructive on the face of it, is just how low you can go with that sub-octave effect. Select one octave down and it’ll be a test of the human physiology, and the integrity of the digestive system. Select two octaves down and, well, that just sounds plain nuts.
One the face of it, the ‘Sub Atomic Fuzz’ part of its designation makes us think that Way Huge is channeling Oppenheimer, casting Jeorge Tripps as lead scientist on the Manhattan Project, with his latest mad scientist design a pedal to make mushroom clouds out of your guitar amp speaker.
But the name Stone Burner gives it away; this is another foray into the lore of Frank Herbert’s Dune, following the 2021 release of the slider-equipped Atreides Analog Weirding Module.
Now, these pedals share some sonic DNA, with both sharing the sub-octave feature. Though on the Atreides you had to activate the two octaves down mode via an internal switch, whereas here on the Stone Burner everything is where you need it, with a mini-toggle for choosing your sub-octave poison.
The controls, then, are fairly straightforward. There are large dials for Volume and Sub, with Tone and Fuzz mini-dials underneath. The input/output jacks are mounted on the top of the enclosure for easy pedalboard integration, and if you have got 9V of the good stuff to spare, you are off to the races.
It is early days yet. Way Huge has just announced this release and retailers worldwide are taking preorders now – £185, $169 street since you asked. And yet we can’t help imagine what our guitar might sound like if we ran the two-octave sub fuzz sound of the Stone Burner right into the Atreides with the two-octave sub mode activated.
Would the 10” speaker cone in our test combo ever be the same again? One day we hope to bring you the answer.
While you can dial the octave effect out of the sound, you can clean it up a bit with the fuzz, this is not one of those options for the casual consumer of fuzz.
The Stone Burner sounds like a specialist’s weapon, a new frontier for adventurous guitar players to explore. For more pics and details, pop over to Jim Dunlop.
