The Blurry is a limited edition pedal with a particular story that was highlighted by the JHS Show in their “Best of 2022” episode. It now sells for around $500 used on Reverb.com.
Commissioned by Berlin-based cult electronic artist RIP Swirl to a product design studio called Boost (which has nothing to do with boost pedals), the Blurry is a 4 knob dirt box with an expression output and a unique case design that we could describe as a “roof-shaped” case, where the footswitch is on a diagonal surface facing the player, while the knobs are on a less steep diagonal surface facing the other way.
The circuit consists in a RAT-style pedal with a synth-style resonant filter whose peak frequency can be controlled via an expression pedal, with results ranging from wah-like sweeps to more intensely resonant “synthy” tones when the “Res” knob is close to maximum levels.
Here’s the JHS video with the Blurry Pedal in it. We added it to our article about the Best RAT-Style pedals.
Blurry Pedal, Builder’s Notes
Our friend Luka Seifert aka RIP Swirl asked us if we can build a guitar pedal for his next solo album “Blurry” released by Public Possession. This design task was interesting for us as a studio because it went beyond the task of shaping a physical object, it was about shaping a sound and it’s interaction.
Based on some patched-together established circuits we tried to approach the sonic ideas in Luka’s head in a collaborative and iterative process. Finally we designed our first PCB.
The very archaic appearance corresponds to the rather brutal sound effect. But the two beveled surfaces of the case also fulfil a practical purpose. The pedal lives on the floor and is mainly operated by foot. The on-off footswitch is angled towards the user and the knobs, which are operated by hand, are located on the opposite “roof” side and are thus protected against accidental kicks.
