BATH SALTS

Bath Salts are made in small batches and I work from a list. Due to the complexity of the build combined with real job and family duties, the wait time is a bit of a toss up ranging from 1 - 2 months. If you would like to get on the Bath Salts list you can hit the contact form button to email me and I will stick you on. If you follow me on Instagram feel free to hit me up there. At the moment I have halted shipping to the EU due to new GSPR regulations but hope to resume sending to the EU once the dust settles. Bath Salts is a large pedal that weighs a ton so the shipping cost to the EU is about X2 what it cost to send a normal size pedal so having one of these getting returned to me or just never getting delivered would be a nightmare for both parties. That said, if you would like to get on the list and you are from the EU just know that it will be impossible for me to give you even a rough turnaround time and we'll just need to play it by ear.

THE SLUDGE:

BATH SALTS is an end of the world sludgemaker running two abused circuits in parallel in order to create a menacing wall of sound. The main fuzz circuit is a massive square wave fuzz which provide enveloping filter fuzz spasms to bombastic synthetic lower octave fuzz sounds. There's also a toggle switch that turns the circuit into an oscillator type of fuzz that can provide subsonic low end rumblings to grating digital chainsaw like sounds. At times almost ring mod-esque sounding if the ring mod was provided by a vomiting robot.

In parallel with the main circuit is a non traditional one repeat delay that is squared up and acts as an additional layer to thicken the pedal's overall sound. The added sound oozes and drags behind the main fuzz signal and provides 2 flavors of wiggle on higher notes which have a haunted seasick type of quality. In development, my main goal for the delay was to use it in tandem with the octave down sounds Bath Salts provides in order to create a thick wall of despairing fuzz drones. Checks that box but also works well with the filtered fuzz sounds and oscillator sounds for those who are into dumb and grotesque sounds.

The overall intention was to make something gross. Goal achieved.

FUZZ controls:

SALT:
Controls the brightness of the led that alters the reaction of the light dependent resistor which creates the enveloping sounds. At lower freq settings via the FRQ toggle it also acts as a quasi tone control while at the same time adding synthetic artifacts on one end and cleaning up the signal at the other.

FREQ:
Controls the frequency of the filter. Thick or thin. At the thickest (counter clockwise side) there is a boost in volume so adjust the circuits volume control to taste.

MIDSCOOP:
The mid-scoop filter is a tweaked version of the nasty filter found in the Shin-Ei FY2 circuit. Slightly altered and the control varies the amount of scoop / adds mids back in.

VOL:
Independent volume control for the fuzz side of the pedal.

FUZZ TOGGLES -

SQR:
Three positions that alter the high end content of the square wave fuzz. 2 contains the most high end, 1 has a little less high end. 3 has the least. All 3 positions effect the how the envelope responds to the fuzz signal. A little wilder response in positions 1 & 2. Tighter in position 3 which also has the best tracking for the lower octave sounds.

FRQ:
Position 2 is the "stock" setting. It's brighter than settings 1 & 3 and is where the enveloping fuzz shines the most. Position 1 can still do enveloping fuzz sounds with the Salt control set to the bright side and Freq control adjusted to taste. Keeping the Salt and Freq controls in the far counter clockwise range gives a nice lower octave to doom things out. Position 3 is more extreme than position 1 as the Salt control works more as a fine tuning for the lower octave.

AGATA:
Toggles between the "normalized" fuzz state in position 1 or as an Oscillator fuzz in position 2. At some settings, the high end gets like Dolphin screetch high, so watch your ears...

DELAY controls:

DRAG:
Adjusts the delay time. At low settings, there's a doubling effect but not akin to a normal thickener, more like you've had no sleep and have had a bit much to drink and like to add sedatives into the mix. At higher delay settings, the dragging quality is more pronounced like your clean signal has been squared up and then ingested into an abused PT2399 delay chip and then puked back into the signal chain.

VOL:
Independent delay volume control. There is a ton of volume on tap here and you will likely only use about the first 1/4 of rotation on the control. I tried ways to make the circuit not as loud but they all seemed to neuter the overall sound and you are really just trimming it's volume to sit where you want in conjunction with the fuzz circuit.

DELAY TOGGLES:

HURL:
Changes the response of the drag control. In position 1, the ooze is steady and works well throughout the DRAG control's rotation. Position 2 is slightly more unstable and may add some noise into the circuit and completely breaks down on the DRAG control's higher settings.

Additional notes;
The BATH control is a master volume in a sense but also adds gain when turned up. Best practice would be to set the fuzz channel high/loud even to the max, then set the delay volume to taste, and then adjust the Bath control. Be careful to not destroy your speakers and/or ears.

The left footswitch takes the delay circuit in and out of the mix. Likely to experience a pop when engaged but likely won't matter.

BORING GEAR REVIEWS DEMO