Faded Embers

Faded Embers

The Embers has always been a fuzz designed to be clear. Something that works really nicely at low gain, and sits closer to a preamp than a traditional fuzz when you want it to.

The original version had an underdrive toggle, which gave you that rolled-back clean-up feel on a footswitch. But over the last few months, as I’ve been reworking everything, that idea has been refined into something simpler.

This is the Faded Embers.

A simpler approach

Faded Embers strips things back to what actually matters.

There are just three controls: Volume, Gain, and Bias.

The gain sweep runs from clean, glassy, almost preamp-like sounds, all the way through to a full fuzz. It covers a wide range, but in a more direct way.

How it behaves

One of the things I’ve always liked about the Embers is how it stacks.

Running it before overdrives works really well. You can set your main drive sound, then bring in a bit of that bias-driven texture on top. Keeping the gain lower means it doesn’t oversaturate, but you still get the character of the fuzz.

It also works well on its own for adding texture to clean tones.

If you’ve got a clean amp sound that feels a bit too clean or sterile, setting the gain low on Embers adds a bit of grit and movement without taking over.

Bias

The bias control is a big part of that.

It shifts the feel of the circuit, introducing more texture and slightly unusual behaviour without needing to push the gain too far.

It’s a different way of getting character into the sound.

The Faded finish

The Faded Embers is finished with the Faded finish.

There’s a burst of spray at the bottom that fades away as it goes up, and it’s designed to age over time. The more you play it, the more your own imprint shows on it, in the same way a guitar with a nitro finish wears in.

Availability

The first batch of Faded Embers is available now.

It’s a small run, and once those are gone the shop moves to pre-order. After that there’ll be a short gap before they’re available again.