Hello Gearheads! Today I’ve got a slight departure from my usual fuzzy findings here at Tinkercity Music… and I’m happy to report that it’s good, folks! The Skreddy Cognitive Dissonance MKIV is essentially a finely tuned and modified EHX Big Muff circuit in the vein of Mr. David Gilmour’s “Division Bell” and “On An Island” tones. Not to say that I’m not a fan of the big woofy and midrange scooped tones of the standard Big Muff Pi circuit… but I’ve never really bonded with them in my style of playing. To say I was surprised with the Cognitive Dissonance MKIV would be an understatement!
Marc Alfs of Skreddy Pedals has a penchant for the Big Muff circuit and it’s MANY variations. Without going into a long drawn out history of all the small and large alterations to the circuit after it’s humble beginnings in NYC by the crazed Mike Matthews of Electro Harmonix in 1969 — we can just say that there’s a lot of history here. Skreddy Pedals have always brought us incredible variations of that circuit, many of them becoming as rare as the expensive vintage originals. Skreddy’s tone shaping and subtle character additions have always made these circuits extremely useful and toneful. The Cognitive Dissonance MKIV’s name suggests exactly what it is… a 4th iteration of the circuit. One thing that is enlightening and inspiring is Marc Alf’s never ending quest to better his pedals and make the best versions for himself and his adoring pedal-opolis.
The Cognitive Dissonance MKIV appeals to me personally due to it’s more clear and open tone, compared to the vintage tones of say a Civil War or Ram’s Head Big Muff. Alfs calls it a “Modern variation, kind of a silky distortion, good articulation, and a fairly neutral voice rather than a heavily vintage-colored voice”. I was able to coax some of the best pushed and slightly distorted tones, as well as extremely fat and thick lead tones, from a simple set of controls. I found both the gain range and EQ to be extremely useful and easy to dial in. You can absolutely tell that there was a fair amount of care in getting that range to be super dynamic and great sounding. The pedal’s only toggle switch is an EQ option to move between Scooped & Flat Midrange content. Skreddy explains it as “The Scoop/Flat switch shifts the midrange content from lightly mid-scooped to just enough more mids to fill in the vocal frequency range in a natural way without altering the fundamental character.” I found the toggle to be really useful in getting different types of distortion tones, ranging from vintage fatter fuzz tones to more cutting modern metal tones.
Form, function and simplicity have always been what Skreddy is about. Creating some of the best sounding pedals that have always been within the reach of all types of players. In a world where $500+ fuzz pedals are a total norm, it’s really nice to see someone doing this type of work for the guitar community and the pedals still stack right up there with the best of them. Don’t get me wrong… if you follow my gear adventures you’ll know I love the rare, mojo filled boxes of joy… but damn man, it’s just nice to see killer pedals made by one gentleman, available to the gear-world, in this manner.
Hat’s off and volume up! Let’s roll!
Until next time, be sure to LIKE, COMMENT & SHARE this post and the following Skreddy Cognitive Dissonance MKIV DEMO on YouTube!
Tinkercity Music on YouTube SUBSCRIBE HERE!
Learn more about Skreddy Pedals & the Cognitive Dissonance MKIV SKREDDY PEDALS!