Damnation Audio’s newest release is called the Ugly Twin, but that name seems to be fairly ironic because it is actually a trio of circuits that can be used separately or stacked for utter sonic destruction. It’s an octave fuzz (courtesy of a fantastic take on Dan Armstrong’s Green Ringer), a boost, and a germanium/silicon hybrid fuzz that has a 3 band passive tone stack based on a Marshall JMP. It also includes an active buffer.
The only control for the octave section is a toggle switch that engages a boost in front of it when selected. The fuzz section is only adjustable via tone and level – there is no fuzz control. You get more grit by simply driving that section of the circuit harder. The boost is controlled with a single knob and stays pretty clean until about the halfway point where it starts to break up, and it is just as good at driving an amp as it is at driving the next circuit in the chain.
While the effects are serial and there is no way to change their order, the pedal was designed with the best signal flow in mind. As the name implies, there’s nothing pretty about this thing. It gives you the gnarliest, grainiest blown out sounds imaginable. With a unique trio of effects and a set of not-so-obvious controls, you might think this pedal could self-destruct at any moment, and that’s just fine.
Here are a few videos for you.
