Calling the Pine-Box Crooked Teeth a “tremolo pedal” is a little bit limiting, because this Stereo In/Out device can do a lot more than your regular tremolo.
The product of years of experimentation, and (at least in part) of a collaboration with Demedash Effects the Crooked Teeth feeds your guitar’s signal into a raw and heavily saturated preamp and then routes it into a highly configurable dual tremolo.
The Preamp
The preamp’s character is controlled by the Texture knob, which can deliver a spectrum of tones ranging from light and fuzzy overdrive to heavier fuzz sounds, by starving the transistors at higher settings. This interacts with the Tone control and feeds both tremolo circuits.
The Tremolos
Two identical rows of knobs (Depth, Rate, and an 8-way LFO Shape rotary dial) control the two tremolo circuits, whose speed can be independent from one another when using the Rate knob, or be set through the Tap Tempo footswitch, which synchronizes the two waves. An Invert toggle makes the two LFOs work against each other – i.e. starts going up in volume while the other goes down.
Routing (Mono, Stereo + Dual)
The Crooked Teeth can be used in Mono (both tremolos channeled through one Out), in Stereo (the two tremolos play in Stereo on both Outs), but also in Dual, with each tremolo assigned to its own Out.
This looks like a super-fun, creative device, check out the demo by Demos in the Dark.
CROOKED TEETH IS ONE OF THE LONGEST RUNNING PASSION PRODUCTS AT PINE-BOX HQ. IT HAS SEEN MANY DIFFERENT CONFIGURATIONS OVER THE YEARS. IN LATE 2019 I DECIDED TO SCRAP EVERYTHING I HAD TO CHASE MORE FUNCTIONALITY.
TREMOLO HAS ALWAYS BEEN A FAVORITE EFFECT OF MINE. IVE STEERED MORE TOWARDS VINTAGE OFFERINGS AS WELL AS AMP TREMOLO, BUT I’VE ALWAYS BEEN LEFT WANTING MORE. IF YOU HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED THE FEELING OF CRANKING A LOW WATTAGE TUBE AMP TO ITS ABSOLUTE MAX, AND RUNNING ITS ON BOARD TREMOLO, WELL THEN YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT. THAT IS THE SOUND I AM TRYING TO RECREATE. RECREATING THIS SOUND ISN’T QUITE ENOUGH THOUGH. NOT ONLY DID I WANT THE FEELING OF HOT TUBES, I WANTED THE FUNCTIONALITY THAT MODERN TREMOLO DESIGNS HAVE TO OFFER. WAVEFORM SELECTION, TAP TEMPO, THE LIST GOES ON.
CROOKED TEETH SOLVES THIS ISSUE.
YOU HAVE AN ALWAYS ON, RAW AND HEAVILY SATURATED PREAMPLIFIER ON THE FRONT END OF THE TREMOLO. YOU CAN GET EVERYTHING FROM LIGHT AND FUZZY OVERDRIVES TO A DECENTLY HEAVY FUZZ TONE ON THE FRONT END, MUCH LIKE A LOW WATTAGE VINTAGE AMP. ALL OF THE NOISINESS AND CRACKLING THAT LET YOU KNOW YOU’RE PLAYING SOMETHING ONE OF A KIND AND SOMETHING SPECIAL. YOU HAVE A TEXTURE CONTROL WHICH GIVES YOU A BIT MORE SATURATION, AND STARVES THE TRANSISTORS. THIS CONTROL HAS A WIDE SWEEP AND CAN COVER A LOT OF GAIN TERRITORY. A SOMEWHAT INTERACTIVE TONE CONTROL WILL ALSO HELP YOU DIAL IN YOUR EXACT TONE, AS WELL AS GIVE YOURSELF A LITTLE BIT OF A BASS BOOST INTO FUZZ TERRITORY. THIS CIRCUIT IS DRIVING THE FRONT END OF EACH TREMOLO. AND MUCH LIKE PLAYING CRANKED TUBE AMPS, A LOT OF TONES CAN BE FOUND BY JUST EXPERIMENTING WITH AND UTILIZING YOUR GUITARS VOLUME CONTROL.
NOW FOR THE TREMOLO SIDE OF THINGS.
CROOKED TEETH IS A STEREO TREMOLO. YOU HAVE FULL CONTROL OVER EACH OUTPUT. TWO INDIVIDUAL TREMOLOS THAT EACH GIVE YOU CONTROL OVER DEPTH, RATE, AND WAVEFORM.
YOU HAVE THE OPTION TO SYNC THE RATES VIA THE TAP TEMPO SWITCH AND THE ABILITY TO INVERT THE LFOS, OFFERING YOU EVEN MORE DEPTH AND MOVEMENT WITIHN A STEREO SETUP.
THE LIST DOES NOT END HERE.
WHEN IN STEREO, THIS DEVICE IS FAIRLY STRAIGHT FORWARD. YOU HAVE FULL CONTROL OVER EACH OUTPUT.
WHEN IN MONO, YOU HAVE FULL CONTROL OVER EACH CIRCUIT….THROUGH ONE OUTPUT. THATS RIGHT. YOU CAN NOW RUN BOTH SIGNALS IN A SERIES INTO ONE OUTPUT WHILE STILL HAVING CONTROL OVER EACH DEPTH, RATE, AND WAVEFORM. THIS IS PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT FEATURE WITHIN CROOKED TEETH.
THIS IS A HIGHLY EXPERIMENTAL NOISE MACHINE. WHILE IT CAN BE VERY STRAIGHTFORWARD AND SIMPLISTIC, THIS IS A DEVICE THAT WILL OFFER YOU A SONIC LANDSCAPE THAT YOU’VE LIKELY NOT EXPERIENCED. IT IS NOT TRANSPARENT. IT IS NOT WITHOUT CHARACTER OF ITS OWN. ONE DAY I MAY RELEASE A SIMPLER, MORE TRADITIONAL TREMOLO THAT WILL GET THE JOB DONE. BUT TODAY, WITH CROOKED TEETH, WE ARE INSPIRED TO PLAY AND TO CREATE, AND TO FIND NEW SOUNDS THAT WE’VE NEVER HEARD BEFORE.
