Fuzz Faces and Cry Babies: A look at guitar effects naming
Like most of us, I’ve been at home for the past two months. And, like many of us, I have more free time now that I’m not commuting, so I’ve been playing a lot of music. I’m a guitarist and, like a lot of guitarists, I have a few effects pedals to help me dial in the sound I’m looking for. Right now I’ve got a tuner, two Tube Screamers, and a compressor.
I also discovered that Dunlop, a major musical equipment manufacturer, is headquartered in Benicia, California, where I recently moved. So the other day I started thinking about the names of their brands and my gear, which led me to look more closely at the pedal market to find some good names and, inevitably, some stinkers. Here’s what I found:
A few good names:
Cry Baby
Dunlop has been making Cry Baby wah pedals for more than 50 years, and the name is fantastic because a wah can make a guitar sound like its crying, or wailing. This isn’t a safe name and that’s a large part of what makes it good. It’s evocative and it makes me smile.
Bad Bob Booster
It’s unclear who Bob is and what makes him bad, however this being a boost pedal maybe that’s how Bob manifests his badness — by cranking the gain of an amp to push it into overdrive. Who doesn’t want to stomp on a pedal that says Bad Bob knowing you’re going to play louder and with more distortion?
Fuzz Face
I like the alliteration with the “F” and “F,” as well as how the unit looks like a little face. It’s a weird name and I’m all for that. Is the pedal a Fuzz Face? Is my face getting fuzzed? Who cares, it’s unusual and super memorable.
Big Sky
The Big Sky pedal is a reverb unit, which provides reverberation on the signal — making it sound luscious, and deep, as if the sound was being played in a room much larger than the one you’re likely in. Big Sky is a great name for a pedal that gives you the effect of playing in a huge, open space — much like its namesake Big Sky, Montana.
Way Huge
I don’t know the backstory of Way Huge and I like it all the same. It’s unusual, it’s a little nonsensical, and as a name for a product line it makes sense, as their effects appear to be powerful.
Moogerfooger
Moog Music makes electronic instruments and I love how they chose Moogerfooger for their line of effects pedals. It’s goofy, it works nicely with their brand name, and it feels right poetically as a representation for some of the out-of-this-world sounds their pedals help to achieve.
Some stinkers:
Swollen Pickle
Nope. Just no. Dunlop has some great names in their portfolio but this, and most of the Way Huge products, have terrible names. Dunlop, I love you, but no.
Super Badass Variac Fuzz
Show me, don’t tell me. This is like that one guy who tells everyone he’s a badass but when time comes to do something badass, he’s nowhere to be found.
Surf Trem (Carl Martin Surf Tremolo Pedal)
Surfing is a cool sport, no buts about it. But why describe the cool thing when you can paint someone a picture? Surf Trem takes a cool sport and a cool sound (think Dick Dale) and wastes the opportunity with a boring name. It took my colleague Patrick and I a few seconds to come up with three names that beat Surf Trem: Hang Ten Trem, Endless Trummer, Pipeline Tremolo.
Bass Blogger (Electro-Harmonix XO Bass Blogger Distortion Effects Pedal)
I’m all for weird names but this is weird without the cool factor. Maybe there’s a backstory here about some bassist blogger who convinced Electro-Harmonix to make a pedal for them, but on the face of it this doesn’t make sense.
Karma Suture (Catalinbread Karma Suture Silicon Pedal)
There’s no clear connection to either half of this name with regards to function of the pedal, the Kama Sutra, karma, or sutures. You’d think there would be some kind of a story for such vivid and, to my ear, painful name.
Holy Stain (Electro-Harmonix XO Holy Stain Guitar Multi-Effects Pedal)
Gross. Just gross.
After emerging from an internet black hole, realizing that I had looked at nearly a thousand effects names, it is clear that most of the market uses descriptive and boring names — the kind that don’t make either list here. They’re just dull, names like Boss DS-1 Distortion (a great pedal, but a snoozer of a name). Which is really too bad, especially for an industry that helps people express themselves. I think a lot of these brands are missing an opportunity to capture the minds of their highly creative audience. That being said, I was glad to find some gems, I know more are out there, and I’ll be glad to stumble across them some day. In the meantime, I’ll be in my shed playing the Grateful Dead’s “Brown-Eyed Women” for the hundredth time.
