PEDAL 1: POLTAVA FUZZ WAH
Let’s kick things off with a really obscure
but incredibly cool tone machine. The
Poltava Fuzz Wah is a treadled hybrid
fuzz-wah-vibrato-tremolo. The Soviets
were big fans of packing absolutely
everything into one box, and this pedal
is no exception. Thankfully, there is no
Cyrillic here (save for the little red button
between the pots which is essentially
the “engage” switch), and the universal
language of pictures drives the controls
here. Those two red arcade-like buttons
are for engaging the two effects; the
bottom one is for the fuzz and the top
is for the wah and LFO. From top to
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TONE TALK //
bottom, the controls are Tone, Volume,
and LFO speed. When using the wah,
you’ll find it’s a completely normal wah
until you reach the full toe position,
which is when the LFO engages. It’s a
chugging throbby mess of a tone, and
it couldn’t be more beautiful. Adding
the primitive fuzz into the mix makes
this thing whirl and scream in strange
and messed up ways you have probably
never heard before. If you want to hear
how it sounds, look up the demo from
the ever-excellent Soviet Guitar Effects
on YouTube.
Back in the U.S.S.R.: 5 Pedals from Behind the Iron Curtain