Alex Guaraldi Reveals CopperSound's Kingpin And Iris

Kingpin was born from the idea to make an overdrive pedal that both uses Germanium elements and fits into our Mini Series format. Iris was a bit of a creative challenge. I wanted to make a streamlined compressor that could fit into our Mini Series. Compressors most often consist of large circuits. For our Minis, large circuits would need to me SMD, but I wanted to be able to make Iris in house. The end result is an original, optical compressor consisting of only 25 components.

Kingpin came about relatively easily. Only one revision was needed between the breadboard and the final prototype. Maybe a few months. Iris was the opposite. We did like 10 revisions and tweaks to the circuit from the first proto all the way through the last week before its release.

Kingpin uses traditional building blocks paired together in a way that I haven't seen done before. Especially while incorporating Germanium. Iris is a compression circuit that I've also never come across. As far as I'm aware, it's pretty original.

Kingpin's character is tough to put my finger on. It has a certain quality that evokes visions or garage rock and raw, classic rock. All while still retaining good clarity and definition. Kingpin can easily get tones in the vein of ZZ Top or The Black Keys.

Kingpin is a great always on pedal if you're into sounds that are in the camp of Supro/Silvertone. Somewhat "saggy" yet touch sensitive.

The Gain toggle switch on Kingpin sets the amount of gain from the MOSFET gain stage. This directly correlates to how hard the Germanium diodes are hit. The diodes are set up in a way that the clipping is never too compressed. A feature that can often be exhibited by hard clipping Germanium diodes.

Optical compressors are known for their smoothness. That was the first appeal when starting the design for Iris. The bigger factor was that the optical network of the circuit does a lot of the heavy lifting. This allowed me to get away without needing a very large circuit to achieve what we were aiming for. The optical element also directly inspired the artwork. The iris of the eye lets light in, just like an optical network.

A simple user interface has been the intention with the Mini Series from the start. We wanted to make the Comp toggle feature three distinct flavors of compression. Low has a light amount of compression that's perfect for chords/fingerpicking and simply squeezing a little more out of your guitar signal. Medium is a great balance for fingers, rhythm, or lead. Very noticeable but not extreme. High has the most compression and gets that "snappy" sound that most people think about when they hear compression. This mode is best for chicken picking and lead work.

Compression's main job is to even out playing dynamics. Simply put, a compressor helps to make your quiet notes louder while limiting your loud notes. This is something that is very useful for fingerpicking styles and lead playing.

Compression is a great studio tool, yet often misunderstood or difficult for everyone to implement. The studio environment is ground zero for obsessive tweaking. Iris is actually a good option for implementing the opposite approach - easily toggle between the three Comp modes, find what's best for the song/set up and leave it. Then the player can simply focus on the performance.

 Not yet! We're excited to see how players use these brand new minis in their set ups.

Not at all! We have several ideas brewing for fun minis to be seen in the future.

 

Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to Alex for generously participating in this interview, and we extend our appreciation to the entire CopperSound Pedals team for their exceptional support of FX Pedal Planet Online Store and the industry at large. To explore the remarkable range of CopperSound Pedals' effects, please visit COPPERSOUND for more information.