Fans of Syd Barrett, the unstable but genius lead songwriter/guitarist of early Pink Floyd, should lend an eye and an ear to the Kasleder Pipergate, a tribute to that incredibly influential artist who presumably used a Selmer Buzz Tone (mixed with an assortment of delays and reverbs) for his palette of tones that all but defined the psychedelic sound of the ’60s.
With its gritty and raspy tone and slightly chaotic character, the Buzz Tone perfectly complemented Barrett’s whimsical and experimental style, distinguished by jangly and dissonant chords, unpredictable strumming patterns, and liberal use of echo and feedback.
This pedal sports a circuit that’s faithful to the original’s three (rare) Germanium transistor topology, but modernized for contemporary guitarists – for example, it’s in a much smaller enclosure and runs at 9v instead of 3v!
The Pipergate also includes a Buzz knob that lets you set the bass gain range.
Check out the videos of it!
Kasleder Pipergate, Builder’s Notes
THE STORY
Pipergate is our homage to the guitar tone of the psychedelic rock pioneer Syd Barrett and his sound presumably using the Selmer Buzz Tone booster/fuzz pedal.While faithful to the three-transistor topology of the original pedal, we have improved the circuit so that today’s guitarists can easily use it on their pedalboards. The pedal runs now on standard DC9V instead of the 3V of the originals.
The improvements include a new function, namely the Buzz knob that allows the user to adjust the bass gain range. Every control went through a little fine tuning from us that now allows a way broader range of tones to be set. The same sound of the original with new possibilities added.
This is a specialty box built around three extremely rare, matched Germanium transistors. It is the imprint of the sound world of an era that does not belong to the mainstream these days.
I would recommend this pedal for the connoisseurs of very rare fuzz pedals of the time when the distorted guitar signal was born.
