We've all been there. Your Big Muff fuzz sounds amazing at home but when you kick it on in a band situation it just disappears completely. Sure, there are some modern BM style pedals with mid controls, but they were never powerful enough for my taste. What about a clean blend? I find they can often be too much of a stark contrast between the fuzz signal and your original clean signal. Plus that's been done before.
Soft Crush has a complete soft-clipping mid-focussed overdrive circuit in parallel with a crushing muff style fuzz. That's right - in parallel, not one into the other like a normal pedalboard setup. Because they are in parallel to each other, neither affects the other, but rather they blend beautifully together. A lot of work and circuitry was involved in making them play well together, including creating phase alignment between the two circuits, and numerous buffers and summing circuits. There are over 100 components in this pedal! And of course, you can just use either circuit by themselves if you happen to need it. But where is the fun in that?
Let's talk circuits. The fuzz is my own take on a tweaked Big Muff. Think something between a 70's Rams head and a 90's Green Russian. Big, mean and fat sounding, with a large tonal and gain range. The overdrive is based around a TS-808 Tube Screamer circuit but I moved the mid hump centre frequency from about 700hz to around 850hz. It can do the transparent drive thing, but can also push your amp to heavy saturation while pushing those important mid frequencies that make the pedal heard in a mix. This pedal is a perfect shoegaze pedal as it can do that wall of sound fuzz along with a cutting focussed jangle simultaneously. In certain settings it can sound like two double tracked guitars! But of course, it can also do indie, classic rock, etc. There are so many drive sounds in this pedal. And it's genuinely a lot of fun to play.
Details:
Demos:
| Title | Soft Crush |
|---|---|
| Category | Current Pedal Lineup |
| SKU | SC-1 |
| Condition | new |
| Color | Turquoise, Limited Pink |
This is my second Freqscene pedal after the Massiv and both are 10/10. This thing is so versatile: imagine getting anything and everything between a low gain drive/mid-boost sounds of a screamer, and an angry muff, with everything in between and more. Because they’re in parallel, there’s a sweet spot where it sounds like two guitar tracks, one overdriven and one’s big muffed, that’s my favourite setting in it.
Maybe the most instant excitement I’ve ever had from a drive/fuzz pedal right out of the box! So many different tones and combinations! Also such a great graphic design and build quality! 10/10
One of the best drive/fuzz pedals I've ever played, top 3 for sure. I've been waiting for a pedal like this to come by where I can have the hugeness of a Big Muff combined with the clarity from the drive circuit. Even better, it's incredibly easy to use and very versatile.
An instant classic, I love this drive! It’s one of those boxes that is endlessly tweakable without ever creating a bad sound, a rare combination in my experience. It’s versatile, expressive, and inspiring. It makes me want to play more which is what’s it’s all about. 🤙🤙🤙
Like most guitar players - I feel like it is an endless journey finding the "best" fuzz/overdrive/sustain pedal. There are a million pedals on the market that can check the box but every once and awhile someone comes along and really knocks it out of the park. I plugged this pedal in, messed around for a minute while getting acquainted and then could not stop playing. It was quickly obvious that this thing was all I needed. For years my Hizumitas has won the roulette of staying on my board. It took 5 seconds of playing back to back with Soft Crush to rip it off. Beyond stoked!
This is my second Freqscene pedal after the Massiv and both are 10/10. This thing is so versatile: imagine getting anything and everything between a low gain drive/mid-boost sounds of a screamer, and an angry muff, with everything in between and more. Because they’re in parallel, there’s a sweet spot where it sounds like two guitar tracks, one overdriven and one’s big muffed, that’s my favourite setting in it.
Fred · 2025-12-06Maybe the most instant excitement I’ve ever had from a drive/fuzz pedal right out of the box! So many different tones and combinations! Also such a great graphic design and build quality! 10/10
brantley gutierrez · 2026-01-14One of the best drive/fuzz pedals I've ever played, top 3 for sure. I've been waiting for a pedal like this to come by where I can have the hugeness of a Big Muff combined with the clarity from the drive circuit. Even better, it's incredibly easy to use and very versatile.
Patrick F. · 2025-09-17An instant classic, I love this drive! It’s one of those boxes that is endlessly tweakable without ever creating a bad sound, a rare combination in my experience. It’s versatile, expressive, and inspiring. It makes me want to play more which is what’s it’s all about. 🤙🤙🤙
Jasper · 2025-09-27Like most guitar players - I feel like it is an endless journey finding the "best" fuzz/overdrive/sustain pedal. There are a million pedals on the market that can check the box but every once and awhile someone comes along and really knocks it out of the park. I plugged this pedal in, messed around for a minute while getting acquainted and then could not stop playing. It was quickly obvious that this thing was all I needed. For years my Hizumitas has won the roulette of staying on my board. It took 5 seconds of playing back to back with Soft Crush to rip it off. Beyond stoked!
Matt T · 2025-09-27
