With the Fjord Fuzz Kvasir, Norwegian pedal builder Daniel Thornhill adds another chapter to his love story with fuzz – in this case through a pedal named after the most beautiful and wise man from Norse mythology.
Born from a random discovery made while Daniel was working on the Berserk, the Kvasir is a rather simple, vintage-style transistor-based fuzz circuit (similar to the ones found on old Fuzz Faces and Tone Benders) with a bias control and a “thickness” knob which is a little bit of a signature of the Fjord Fuzz pedals.
The result is a thick, velcroy musical fuzzbox with a great lead tone that cleans well with your guitar’s volume.
Mindblowingly, the launch video of the pedal was done through a video collaboration with the excellent Portland indie band Unknown Mortal Orchestra – check it out, below.
Fjord Fuzz Kvasir, Builder’s Notes
KVASIR was the most beautiful and wise man to ever live.
During the development of what was to become BERSERK, I stumbled across a hitherto unexploited component specification: the mighty power transistor. These are usually intended for high voltage switching and power amplification purposes and have quite different characteristics from regular silicon or germanium transistors.
KVASIR is a very simple vintage fuzz circuit perfect for showing off what the power transistor can do. It features a wide ranging bias control as well as a thiccness knob found on many Fjord Fuzz pedals.
There’s not much more to it, honestly. I just wanted to package the experience of the power transistors in as transparent a package as possible and give you maximum control over how they operate.
I left all the hiss and weirdness in so you can truly dive into it. The result is a supremely musical fuzzbox with beautiful guitar volume cleanup, amazing lead tone, thick, gooey velcro and much, much more. Go to your favourite music streaming platform to hear it in action as I made a song using it, together with my friend Ruban from Unkown Mortal Orchestra.
