STEPPING OUT

Why Fender tore up the rulebook with a new range of effects pedals

EVEN a casual inspection of the new six-piece range of effects pedals Fender debuted at NAMM showed it had moved a long way on from the bland, generic designs of the past. the control knobs are illuminated with blue LEDs so they can be seen on a darkened stage, and the battery compartment of each pedal is so easily accessible that a patent is being sought for its magnetic mechanism. so what gives? We spoke to stan Cotey, who was also behind Fender’s well-liked Bassbreaker amps.

“We tried to make them gig-friendly and easy to use. the user interfaces are right on their surface so there’s no shift, push-pull or whatever,” stan says, pulling out the vibey-looking santa Ana Overdrive to illustrate some of the player-focused. thinking behind the pedals.

“Alex Aguilar – who’s really well known in the bass world, and is also a ridiculously good guitar player – he’s designed highgain tube amps and things like that so he designed the santa Ana Overdrive for us. It’s a Field Effect transistor (FEt) based effect, which can be made to be like a tube stage in terms of how they distort. And the nice thing he did was design it to run at a higher [internal] voltage, which makes the pedal a little more dynamic so it cleans up better and the power is also regulated so it’s very consistent.”

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the pedals, though, is their modest price. Fender says the range will start at just £80 while the Mirror Image Delay and Marine Layer Reverb will sell for £110 each and the flagship santa Ana Overdrive will come in at around £160. Not bad for what is effectively a boutique drive. Fender says it is fully committed to the range and hopes to release new models every six months.