“Angry, aggressive, loud and brutal”: Combined, these 36 fuzz pedals are a literal work of art – individually, they sound terrifying

UK pedal company Gone Fishing Effects has unveiled its latest fuzz pedal – and it’s a literal work of art.

Only the Dead… features a hand-painted illustration from artist Chris Dorning, which is cleverly spread across a highly limited run of 36 pedals. Anyone who buys one will get to choose which section of the artwork they get – could be a skull, an electrocuted dog skeleton or a soaring fireball. It’s all cool. And just look at that LED placement!

Sonically, the pedal promises to take no prisoners: Gone Fishing founder Richard ‘Churd’ Pratt describes its tones as “angry, aggressive, loud and brutal”.

Those sounds come courtesy of “carefully selected” germanium transistors, which means that while full-bore settings occupy doomier territory, backing off on your guitar’s volume control should clean it up nicely.

It sounds pretty punishing on bass, too, as evidenced in the pedal’s demo by Empire State Bastard bassist Naomi Macleod.

The Only the Dead… circuit has previously appeared in a similarly adventurous Gone Fishing pedal design, The Rage of the Tsar, which was introduced back in May 2021.

Gone Fishing Effects was founded by guitar tech Pratt – who has worked with Biffy Clyro, Kasabian, The Prodigy, The Script, Editors, Helmet and Oceansize – in 2020.

His first offering was the Simon Neil Booooom/Blast signature distortion pedal. A second version followed in 2021, while a highly limited one-of-one pedal called the Grim emerged in 2022.

The 36 Only the Dead… pedals cost £245 each (approx $300), and go on sale on September 22 at 6pm BST (1pm EST) at GoneFishingEffects.com.