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Elka DizzyTone

This is not a door-stop but a real effect pedal. It is the Elka Dizzy Tone! It had a hard life and has lost its logo: even the battery had rusted.

It looks quite ugly, and it sounds even worse, but in a good way. It is actually a relative to the VOX wah pedal below: it comes from Italy and has probably been built by Sola Sound. Its circuit is a straight copy of the Colorsound (or VOX) ToneBender MkIII, germanium transistors included. The only difference is the simpler tone circuit employed here.

The sound is great, real nasty, but great. It spits, it crackles, it compresses like crazy and it roars. I doubt anybody could use it for a whole song without losing its audience, but it is excellent in the studio for those times when you need to go overboard with distortion. It also has a great noise gate effect which helps control the beast inside.