Outlaw Effects recently showed up to the party—the ongoing effect-pedal party, that is—blurring the lines of boutique and budget effects in a micro-sized box.
I recently got my hands on the company's 24k Reverb, Quick Draw Delay and Five O’Clock Fuzz.
First impression? Everything is well marked. This sounds like a given, but I’ll occasionally try a pedal named something like "The Woodpecker." Next I’ll spend 20 minutes figuring out what the "Beak" and "Sapsucker" knobs do. With Outlaw Effects, Tone is a tone knob, Sustain means sustain. Kudos, Outlaw!
Each pedal features staggered input/output jacks, top-mounted 9-volt power jacks and true-bypass switching. The case is a hardy aluminum that's well suited for gigging.
24K Reverb has three knobs; Reverb, Tone and Decay. There's a three-way toggle switch to select between Room, Plate or Spring reverbs. In the clip below, I started with a subtle Spring reverb, followed by a deeper, surf-inspired Plate reverb and finished up rolling the Tone back for a darker deep Room reverb.
Quick Draw Delay features three knobs; Echo, Time and Repeat. Echo is the volume knob of the effect. The overall vibe is more of a vintage-inspired delay than a cleaner, modern delay. Time offers a range of 20ms to 620ms. My clip starts with a cool basic delay to fill out a rhythm guitar part. I end with a lick and crank the Repeat all the way up. By rotating the Time knob, you can channel some self-oscillating madness.
Five O’Clock Fuzz was, by far, my favorite, and not just because it has a mustache drawn on it. The knobs are Level, Sustain and Tone. While many would blow by this thinking it’s a Big Muff copy, hear me out. In the clip hear it goes from a smooth Eric Johnson-style fuzz to a razor-thin thrash tone. To finish up the clip, I wanted to show how it can hang as a fat bass fuzz pedal too.
Web:outlawguitareffects.com
Average Street Prices: 24K Reverb, $89; Quick Draw Delay, $59; Five O’Clock Fuzz, $49.99
