Wisconsin’ s McCaffrey Audio may sound like a new name in the world of guitar pedals, but the company’s CEO and founder Ryan McCaffrey is not a novice to the manufacturing game, having been running RJM Effect before starting this new adventure in 2014.
The company’s goal is to create stompboxes inspired to vintage classics, with a sonic signature immediately recognizable as an exact recreation of the originals, but also featuring unique character and features.
McCaffrey Audio is currently manufacturing three pedals: the most popular is a recreation of the of the 90’s Sovtek era Muffs called Green Vodka Muff, with an added mid presence to cut through the mix, and original knobs like the Sustain (which increases/decreases the amount of fuzz/drive/gain to provide everything from classic green muff sounds to modern chunk), the Beef Switch (an extra mids boost) and the Pass Switch (a three-way low frequency boost).
Zero to Sixty Drive is instead a Tube Screamer kind of overdrive, supercharged with extra flexibility thanks to a Boost Switch (affecting bass frequencies) and a Shift Switch (which gives you access to three diodes configurations ranging from the stock, symmetrical silicon clipping, to no diodes at all, to a mix of diodes in symmetrical clipping).
The third pedal in the manufacturer’s arsenal is the Reactor Boost Compressor, which is presented as a quirky compressor that also works as a boost and tone enhancer, featuring an interestingly named Critical Mass Switch, which adds two levels of bass boost.
