Loud Button launches the appropriately-named WTF pedal

The WTF from Loud Button Electronics brings together high gain distortion and a low frequency oscillator (LFO) in one effects pedal. The result is somewhat difficult to explain but a number of adjectives do spring to mind (weird, psychedelic, out there, oddball). However, none seem to fit better than its given moniker.

The WTF circuitry essentially mixes synth tones with guitar distortion effects. I remember getting similarly strange sounds when I ran the Kitara review unit through a Little Big Muff and Cry Baby. If you imagine a Hawkwind or the 13th Floor Elevators gig with Tom Morello on lead guitar, you'd be getting close to the Pandora's box of tricks that this stomp box has to offer the creative electric guitar or bass player.

The 4.625 x 3.625 x 1.18-inch (11.74 x 9.2 x 2.99 cm) pedal features hand-wired, handmade circuit boards, aerospace-grade Teflon-jacketed silver wire, Metal Neutrik Input/Output jacks and a flashing RGB LED. It runs on 9V battery power or external AC adapter.

As the played distorted note decays, the oscillator takes over to drone at the base frequency selected by the user. The attack dial modulates the LFO to provide variable envelope sweep and octave-down effects, producing an impressive range of voices including a guitar sound like a sci-fi laser gun and "a twisted envelope filter effect that can spit out harmonic concoctions that mimic vocoder and ring modulation sounds."

Setting the gate to the left effectively tunes out the LFO and leaves you with a nice dirty distortion pedal effect. The more the knob is turned clockwise, the more the gate is opened to the influence of the oscillator. The volume knob does precisely what you might think and "meters a generous amplification factor."

The WTF carries a suggested retail price of US$219, although Loud Button says that you should be able to get one for a street price of $169.

The demonstration video below gives some idea of what to expect.

Source: Loud Button