Children of Cthulhu
Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 8:02 pm
So the story, yes there is a story. The original idea here, as I recall, was to have a large box cool artwork version of the Meathead ‘extra’…a Meathead what?
A few years ago now I made a small bunch of custom Meatheads that had one extra control knob, a tone control. These were sold via the forum back when it was just a small gang of social rejects lurking about talking about Roberta Pedon's mammaries. The extra control was entitled ‘flesh’ t’was a tone control so it adds…flesh. Makes sense, ay. These grubby little pedals all went off to there new homes and to be honest I didn’t really think too much about them the years that followed. It wasn’t until Mr.Sickle acquired one of these pedals that I even considered revisiting said creature. Donovan referred to his newly acquired weapon as ‘Flesh-head’ He expressed great joy over its sonic destructive techniques. He also expressed an interest in doing some custom artwork for a new limited run of the newly named Meathead Extra…the Flesh-head.
So Donovan slogged away at the artwork, and I do mean slogged. Without going into too many details we had many a set back, plans were foiled, designs had to be changed. What you actually see on these enclosures now is the result of a fuck load of work on his part. Even so, it’s not exactly what was planned. Compromises had to be made.
The artwork we finally could roll with was sent off along with the enclosures. A certain someone who is kinda meant to oversee such operations informed our screen printer of the incorrect colours…oopsie.
Though they do kinda look spooky, ay. Heh. So we ended up with the these enclosures that seemed to have had a life of there own. They kinda called the shots for us in a sense.So, anyways. Yes. The original idea was to use the original Meathead Extra circuit. That is, a Std Meathead with the tone filter from the DLX. I decided the only change I would make to celebrate the new funky artwork would be to make the circuit all germanium over the regular silicon fuelled circuit. Once I had the enclosures to hand I didn't quite feel the same about them and bearing in mind months and months had passed due to the set backs, these pedals were supposed to be complete and on sale Halloween 2009. Donovan jokingly (I think) said that this pedal was cursed. I started to believe it. I have a few retarded thought processes that I don’t like to deviate from. One I always stick to is ‘old shit is old’ as in, forward motion; don’t look back, onwards and upwards. Go with the flow….be water, my friend. Did I curse the project by breaking the rule? I’m gonna do old shit!?! Oh noes…
With that in mind I set about re-designing….or should I say designing the Flesh-head. I use the term ‘design’ loosely mind you. Hammer and nails, son, hammer and nails.
In a nutshell I deigned the circuit around the artwork. Yup. Not the wisest thing to do but it was fucking good fun. So I have an enclosure that looks like H.P Lovecraft’s remote control. This shits gotta sound old, yo….like real old. Like a dinosaur is a spring chicken at the side on this monster bastard. Some crude pulsating mass of life force. Kinda like those fucked up things you see that live a mile beneath the ocean. Ugh! Whats that, man? Its got teeth in its ass!...is that its stomach? I can see its stomach! Ah that’s freaky shit….you get the point, right?
So in fuzz terms, see I got to the point eventually. Quite simply. Origins, a MKII. The core tone is based around an original small board Sola Sound MKII. Tuning, a Meathead. More volume. It’s shouting not talking loudly. The barn doors are wide open. Tone shaping, a MKIII. Bass boosted at full, mids scooped as the ‘Viscus’ dial is lowered. You even have pointless amounts of treble when its fuelled dialled to the left. Cthulhu in a jam jar? Hey lets have pictures. Much writing hurts my face.
In use. Up full all the way! Have you read that gibberish I wrote on the Meathead DLX page? No, well this applies much so here too. Primitive attenuation. Up full, pull back as needed. The Volume ‘Atrum’ boosts high end like the Std Meathead’s ‘Dirt’ control does when set near maximum. The tone control ‘Viscus’ offers a good degree of tone shaping being able to boost bass and mids. Donovan even added these funky triangle markers around the controls. They make for a most excellent visual marker for dialling in certain tones. The Fleshy does offer up something different when you push the chickens to each of the differing triangles corners. The circuit was primarily designed for low tunings and high output amplifiers. It does comply a little more with smaller combo amps than say the Meathead Dark, being that its all germanium and voiced a little more primeval, but still, its bass response and tuning will be at its finest into a 2x12 or a single 15, at minimum.
It will handle high gain p-ups but you’ll still get more boost from a medium gain humbucker than something that will slam the shit out of it. Its sounds totally king bastard massive with a Strat or a Tele! It’s a full-on fuzz box intended to lay down planet sized riffs but…it can relent due to its vintage roots and its germanium engine. New old school?
Brass tacks. There are 10 of these available. 12 made in total. Unit#000 is Donavan’s, #001 is mine. #000 and #011 are white. The other 10 are black. The screen is not always perfect. Any little flaws on the pedals are highlighted in the listings. These listing are auctions* This shit is custom, yo. This is it there ain’t no more. Times are listed below, all GMT. All 3 days auctions starting at £66.66.
#002 Mullard OC78 - 12.00pm January 18th 2010
#003 Mullard OC78D - 3.00pm January 18th 2010
#004 Mullard NKT275 - 6.00pm January 18th 2010
#005 Mullard OC71 - 9.00pm January 18th 2010
#006 Mullard OC71 - 12.00am January 19th 2010
#007 Mullard OC71 - 3.00am January 19th 2010
#008 Mullard OC71 - 6.00am January 19th 2010
#009 Mullard OC71 - 9.00am January 19th 2010
#010 Mullard OC71 - 12.00pm January 19th 2010
#011 Mullard OC81D - 3.00pm January 19th 2010
The shit will be listed here: http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/Different ... festationz
#002 and #003 have fractionally more gain than the other units.
Feel free to post questions and shit here, more pics going in the Flesh~head section, clips are being worked on…
* There is a secret BIN for something else
Sounds? How bad?....some bad.
http://stompboxes.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=5316
