52 pedals, week 4—Main.Ace.FX One Shot

This week I get to do something that I imagine I’ll do rarely during this series of 52 Pedals. I’ll get to write about a pedal I have actually played through. A pedal I have tried and obviously liked. If I didn’t like it, why would I write about it? I wouldn’t obviously. So hopefully that gives the One Shot by Main.Ace.FX a little bit more street cred. Because it is tried and tested—by me.

Conveniently, it’s also now available for purchase. Timing is everything.

If you missed it, I went to the 2015 Winter NAMM Show. I’ll be writing more about that soon—my Internet solution while in the USA was somewhat flawed. I’m not sure why, but the free Internet provided by the Anaheim Convention Center also seemed to have about 10,000 people connected to it every time I tried it.

Anyhow, while at NAMM, I discovered many guitar pedal manufacturers and Main.Ace.FX was one of my favourites. It’s easy to find someone making a fuzz pedal. It’s a popular market. People love fuzz.

What I liked about the One Shot pedal however was that it was so much more than a fuzz pedal. It has some killer fuzz tones in it if you’re interested, but it has the added bonus of including the oscillation switch. Turn that bad boy on and this pedal generates a level of freak that will keep you entertained for hours.

From memory the pedal came with the Glitch knob which came in handy when using the oscillation switch, a volume knob and two gain controls. I say “From memory” mostly because the knobs aren’t labelled on the pedal. Which is kind of cool. Why be stuck to the confines of normality and expectation when you can simply learn to use the knobs to create your very own version of perfect tone.

The Glitch knob generates all kinds of bizarre effects that get added to the fuzz sounds from the pedal. It’s rather difficult to describe, but to me it almost seemed to turn the pedal into a fuzz/modulation combination pedal. It was really unique yet cool.

The pedal reacted really nicely to the guitar’s volume and tone controls as well. Getting the blend between your guitar’s volume/tone and the pedal’s volume/gain is quite a bit of fun and just adds to this pedal’s versatility.

What also works for me is the artwork on the pedal. It’s cool, it’s black and the rest of the pedal is pure metal. What’s not to love?!

This pedal was debuted at NAMM 2015. Seems very fitting to me that I include it as the first post-NAMM entry I add to this series. Go check it out.

Disclaimer: I have played this guitar pedal. I have experienced first-hand the sound or effects of this guitar pedal. That does matter. It looks awesome, it’s obviously played by winners and I want one.