Rarest Pedal EVER
Sometimes I have to wonder: am I doing anything of value or worth? Am I contributing to society, or am I just taking away? Am I being selfish? What does all of this mean? What is life even for? But I also think: what's the rarest pedal on earth?
Try and guess which question we’re tackling in today’s article.
In 1985, Ibanez followed up the famous 9 Series with what they called the Master Series. We see it in the Ibanez Electronic Products Catalog from that same year. They're mostly all black, though there are a few weirdos that come in a beige/tan color. The Metal Screamer was part of that series, which I put in my very own Bonsai. Apparently, though, this series didn’t do that well, because one year later they released a brand new series of pedals called the 10 Series, also known as the Power Series, also known as the greatest pedal series of all time.
The advertisements for this release are next level, definitely dipping into the tried-and-true aesthetic of “future of the past” (ex: you have a bunch of kids from the ’50s gathered around a giant 10 Series pedal instead of a radio, or a group of B-movie scientists examining a guitar pedal and looking utterly perplexed).
The 10 Series is, without a doubt, my favorite series of all time. It includes not one but two modulation pedals (the DML10 Modulation Delay II and the DML20 Modulation Delay III), the OT10 Octave and the TS10 Tube Screamer Classic that John Mayer made so famous, plus circuits like the SS10 Session Man. It's unbelievable. The look, the sound, the creativity of these designs are to die for. Now, until very recently, I had all but one pedal in this series. All but one. You guys know me. That’s painful. Even worse, the missing pedal was the rarest pedal on the face of the earth. I had searched for it all over the place, I had contacts in every country scouring markets and pawn shops; I had traveled to the ends of the earth digging through guitar shops to find it. It was literally impossible to find.
I’ll be honest: I’d given up. I had moved on, and made peace with the fact that I had all but one guitar pedal. Like Rose Dawson, I let my dream drift away and freeze in the North Atlantic.**
**Yeah, that metaphor got away from me there at the end.
But then a miracle occurred. My good friend Young Snouse, creator of the Blackbox Overdrive and overall pedal-maker extraordinaire, sent me the missing piece: an Ibanez SK10 Visual Super Product - Sound from USA, along with this letter:
Hey, Josh, meant to send this your way a good while back, but you know how it goes. I heard you were looking for one of these from a mouthy little bird. I hope it brings you all the joy its brother has brought me. Thank you for shining some light on my little corner of the universe.
Merry Christmas,
Young Snouse
Honestly, I can't even begin to explain my excitement at holding this pedal in my own two hands. The Ibanez SK10 Visual Super Product was made in a very, very small run for a shop in Japan in the eighties. I don't know how many there are, but I know there aren't enough. The controls say tube, EQ and power, plus there’s a side control labeled “warp selector”. Before we even played this pedal, I had questions: why does the box say “mirage”? What is a Visual Super Product? That’s not even bringing up the “Sound from USA” tagline, which makes no sense because it's made in Japan.
Unfortunately, this pedal was made forty years ago (sorry in advance for your existential crisis), so the best Nick and I could do is play the dang thing to see how it works. The short version? It works.
Longer version: the “tube” knob feels like drive control, so whatever the circuit is I’d guess that “tube” is an overdrive distortion knob. The ''EQ'' knob lets full brightness in when I turn it all the way up, meaning it allows you to add in or roll back the high-end. The “power” knob is volume, without a doubt. The warp selector option is probably just showing that the “tube” and “EQ” knobs turned up together can create different tones. Basically, you have a metric butt-ton of options with this pedal, and Nick and I attempted to play through all of them. Let’s tackle the most pressing questions right up front.
Can you do a “Breakfast Club” style jam with this pedal? 100% yes.
Can you get a fuzz sound out of this pedal? Yes, you can.
Does it stack well with another overdrive? Yup.
Does it pair well with other pedals in the 10 Series, like the DL10 Delay? Absolutely yes.
Does it do a killer grunge/rock distortion? Yes, it does.
Can you also play clean tones through the SK10? Yes sir, you can. In fact, the lighter I play, it stays clean just like a tube amp. It sounds exactly like the way that that operates in real life when you're cranking an amp and digging into it or backing off the input signal of the guitar: less is cleaner, more is distorted.
I still wanted to try to answer the question: what is this pedal? I opened it up and looked at the circuit, which is a dual op-amp. This means that this pedal could be a clone of something familiar or it could be something completely unique-- the dual op-amp setup means that two circuits are in play, although only one is necessarily being used. It’s difficult to know for sure, but I lean towards it being a hard clipper/classic ’70s style circuit. That would make sense with the touch sensitivity.
I’m going to shoot straight with you guys. After performing a series of tests (read: jamming with Nick for about two hours) and looking over this circuitry myself, I’m pretty sure I know what the circuit is. But I’m not telling. I want to preserve the magic here. You aren’t going to learn how the sausage gets made in this article, and honestly I think that’s for the best. I want to maintain the sense of mystery, because life’s too short. You could get hit by a bus tomorrow. You could get hit by a bus today. Or you could never get hit by a bus at all. We just don’t know.
In all seriousness, I can’t wrap up this article without giving another huge thank you to Young Snouse. Sending me this pedal as a gift is mind-blowingly generous and really, really kind. I don't take that lightly.
Also, you should check out Young Snouse’s gear. It’s quality. My favorite is called the Snouse Blackbox Overdrive 2. I love this pedal, and I’ve already shown it off on the JHS Show loads of times. It’s a fantastic Bluesbreaker-style overdrive. If you like my Morning Glory or the King of Tone, you’ll love this pedal. Check out Snouse on Instagram or www.snouse.com and order one; they're super affordable and you will not be disappointed.