The Heather Brown Electronicals Spirit in the Sky is the third release (a Fuzz + tremolo pedal with a clean blend) by the New Jersey-based stompbox builder who goes under the God’s Mom nickname.
The circuit consists of a Ram’s Head-style fuzz placed in parallel with a JFET boost (described by the builder as “lush, fat, and sustainy”) with an optical tremolo that can be placed before or after it via the Flow switch.
The interaction between the fuzz and the boost allows a wide palette of dirt and textures ranging from sustained overdrive to full-on fuzz, with the options always just one knob away (the Blend one) to reintroduce some of the clean signal, for clarity and extra dynamics. Controls for Gain (for the boost), Tone and Sustain (for the fuzz) facilitate dialing in the sound in your head.
The tremolo features controls for Rate, Shape and Depth, and has its own separate footswitch.
Check out the sounds of the Heather Brown Spirit in the Sky in the videos below.
Heather Brown Electronicals Spirit in the Sky, Builder’s Notes
If you like the rolling growl of a good sustained overdrive, imagine having a bed of tremmed-out fuzz to lay it on. What if you could then fine-tune or sequence that wavy overdrive sound? Or maybe you want a cutting fuzz mixed in with that crisp clean so when it’s time to hit your boost, there’s another layer of grit adding subtle turbulence to those juicy amp sky tones. That’s the dream behind the Spirit in the Sky – a boost that allows you to create texture underneath.
So what is this pedal?? An optical tremolo? Correct. A fuzz (Ram’s Head)? Correct. A fuzz in parallel with a lush, fat, sustainy JFET boost? Correct. It’s hard to classify a pedal that can be a warm surfy tremolo one minute and a face-melting fuzz the next. It’s really the range of nuanced textures that make this thing sweet. Whether sustained ambient drones or sliced-up, pulsating throbs, you’ll find yourself in the smooth highs of a celestial universe.
- Parallel boost/fuzz – controls include: gain—boost // tone and sustain—fuzz // blend
- Analog optical tremolo – controls include: rate, shape (square to sine wave), and depth
- Flow toggle (A/Bs the tremolo to either post-fuzz or post-boost)
- Tremolo on/off stomp switch
- Master on/off stomp switch (affects the tremolo as well)
- 9 volts standard center negative
- 13mA draw
PS – It sounds great on bass and Rhodes too. This colorway is a limited run with Reverb. I’m unsure what the future holds for this pedal—it sure is an undertaking to make, but I love it so much and hope you do too.
