Why You Can’t Handle JPTR FX

This article is all about a German pedal company called JPTR FX (A.K.A. Jupiter Effects), created and managed by pedal-maker extraordinaire Chris Jupiter. Ideally, we would have flown out to Germany to conduct an interview with him in person, eaten some bratwurst, maybe stayed through Oktoberfest, but due to budget cuts we had to settle for a Zoom call.

JPTR FX was founded in 2016 by Chris Jupiter, A.K.A. Christian Lessenich [pronounced LESS-in-ish]. Chris changed his name because his real German name is (in his own words) “boring as hell.” In the interview, he explained:

“I lived a few years in Berlin to explore my creative side, and I started to paint...and I needed an artist name, so I chose Chris Jupiter, because Jupiter is for passion and art. Mars is for war stuff, and Venus is love, [but] Jupiter is creativity and passion.”

Chris initially got interested in pedals as a teenager by borrowing Big Sister, Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana CD’s from his older sister. Like many children of the nineties, he started playing guitar because he wanted to be Kurt Cobain (I mean, didn’t we all?). He even played in a death metal band in high school, and he quickly found out that the real key to imitating his favorite guitarist wasn’t necessarily the guitar itself. It all came down to the pedals.

Like all proficient death metal musicians, he eventually moved on to grunge, the far superior genre. He started tinkering and building pedals. Now, Chris was playing all of this loud, obnoxious, grungy music out of his home, which really ticked off the neighbors. According to him, they absolutely hated it. He even had some friends tell him that pedals were “for stupid people who cannot play guitar.” Chris’s response was Shakespeare-level eloquence:

“And I said, ‘Yeah, but you don't have to [play guitar well] if you sound cool.’ That's the thing. No-one needs a Marshall full stack, but it's fricking cool...Music is about enjoying cool things, not the right things, or the technically right things.”

Soon he started tinkering with pedals, and it eventually turned into a business that consumed his life. Five years later, his girlfriend builds pedals, his mom does the paperwork and sometimes they bust out 40 pedals in a day. That's a huge deal for a company this size.

Fernweh Delay

First up is the Fernweh Delay. More than anything, I like how overwhelming this pedal is. If I had to write a blurb for the JPTR FX pedal line, it would probably be: “If you want a simple pedal, then don't buy JPTR.” (If you’re reading this, Chris, you can totally use that.)

You really have to look at the photo to appreciate how many freakin’ knobs this pedal has. Eight. Eight knobs, plus three footswitches. There’s an aura of mystery around this pedal. It’s not super clear what any of these knobs do, so it encourages the guitarist to wander around the settings, to tinker and goof off a little. The name “Fernweh'' is actually the German word for wanderlust. This pedal uses the 2399 delay circuit, which is the karaoke chip. Chris pretty much threw the rule book out the window when he put this pedal together. As he explained in our interview: “We [developed] the Fernweh backwards. If you try to develop a clean delay, you search for the parts to make it cleaner, but no-one thought about, ‘What if I don't do it cleaner?’”

With eight knobs and three footswitches, there’s a lot to unpack with this pedal, but I love to stomp on the middle footswitch, which allows for this infinite chaos sustain mode.

Warlow Fuzz

Next up is the Warlow, which the JPTR FX website describes as a “fuzz monstrosity.” The enclosure is a major throwback, black and silver with what looks like actual wear-and-tear on the case; that said, it still sounds like a brand new pedal. I’d say that aesthetically this is the same thing as buying a pair of jeans that already has a hole in the knee. The circuit here is a version of the op-amp V5 Big Muff, tweaked slightly so it’s more of a unique sound that allows for a ton of mid-range. Now, I don’t play a lot of death metal, but I’m told that’s the genre where the Warlow really shines, so that’s what we attempted in this week’s jam. The jury’s still out on whether we nailed it, but I can confirm that this jam was probably the heaviest thing you'll ever hear me play.

Coincidentally, Macklyn Warlow is also the name of a faerie-vampire hybrid from the HBO series True Blood. I’m honestly not sure how that combination works (are we talking Tinkerbell with giant fangs, or Dracula with adorable fluffy wings?), but I think I’m better off not knowing.

Jive Distortion

Next up is the Jive Distortion. According to Chris, if you spell the word “jive” backwards it becomes “evil.” This pedal replicates the sound of a ’70s Akai Tape Machine, basically recreating the effect you would get plugging into one of these vintage units. If you plug in your guitar, vocals, whatever, you can use the tape machine as a preamp and it distorts the sound. I’d classify the Jive as an overdrive distortion, and it’s definitely the tamest pedal available through JPTR FX in the dirt category.

Coincidentally, Chris thinks it’s pretty hilarious that the best-selling pedal from a gnarly, death-metal-fueled company like JTPR FX is a “very nice, good and clean booster.”

Kaleidoscope Multi-Reflector Unit

Next up is my favorite Jupiter effects pedal: the Kaleidoscope Multi-Reflector Unit, which I’ve had for several years now. It’s not normal, it’s not predictable, but it is a lot of fun. Basically you can hold down the middle footswitch for a sustaining reverb feedback loop, and you can kill the dry signal for a full wet signal. This is a really amazing, crazy, lo-fi reverb.

Now there's a trick in here that's really fun, which he takes from the idea of verbing out a sound in front of a dirty amp. The distortion and compression of your amplifier come after your reverb pedals, so he went ahead and built the Kaleidoscope that way. It also allows for some saturation and compression after the reverb, which I think is pretty unique. Here’s how Chris explained it:

“We work a lot with the JFET circuits because I like that style of boosting, and that's my go-to. If I develop something, I put three stages of that boost, and put something between, and see what happens if I do this. The Kaleidoscope is self-developed and I'm very proud of that. If you play it with a band, you don't have a clean amp. There is no clean amp. There is no pedal platform amp. They all color. The speakers color 70% of your signal. And if a pedal doesn't work in the band situation, it's useless.”

Silvermachine Fuzz

The Silvermachine Fuzz is a dual gain stage fuzz. It’s a beautiful pedal, definitely a case of “less is more” as far as aesthetics are concerned. Visually, it harkens back to the old school British wedge, like a vintage Tone Bender. It’s a little wild, a little crazy and a lot of fun to play.

Super Weirdo Fuzz Modulation

If you want to understand the Super Weirdo Fuzz Modulation, you have to understand that the box comes with a set of googly eye stickers. Like, that says everything you need to know about this pedal as far as I’m concerned. I’d say that the Super Weird Fuzz has some of its origins in the Shin-Ei Super Fuzz, but it's a heck of a lot stranger.

Tesla Wolf Overdrive

Next step is the Tesla Wolf. Jury’s still out on whether this pedal is named after the inventor Nikolai Tesla or the Tesla electric vehicle sold by Elon Musk. We do know for sure that the Tesla Wolf is a fuzz. If JPTR FX wasn’t a German company, I’d probably compare this to a Swiss army knife, you know, because it has tons of modes and options. The analogy works as long as you don’t overthink it.

Death Saw Distortion/Fuzz

The last of these amazing pedals is the Death Saw Distortion/Fuzz, which is a pretty faithful adaptation of the BOSS HM-2. Here’s the main difference: no knobs.

Yeah, we go from the Fernweh, which has eight knobs, to the Death Saw, which has zero. There’s a reason for this. If you’ve ever played the BOSS HM-2, you know that there’s really only one way to play it: with all the knobs turned all the way up. So Chris took out the middleman, set the pedal like that and got rid of the knobs. The actual copy from the website is: “No knobs, no nonsense, no nothing,” which has a sort of poetry to it.

I’m a huge fan of Chris Jupiter’s work, and I can’t recommend these pedals highly enough. Do yourself a favor and buy one.

No, buy two.

You know what? Just buy all of them. You’ll be glad you did.