Step

Fuzz

It only seemed polite, when tasked with providing some of the most basic yet fundamental sounds in electric music, to put them all in one box.

The STEP is a one-stop source for several flavors of fuzz, overdrive, and boost tones coupled with a switchable, sustaining and pure upper octave. With four tone-shaping switches and a texture control inspired by the Attack knob of the Mk1 Tone Bender, the STEP is an unusually versatile tool.

Hear the STEP (with appearances from the Small Echo Array): Part 1, Part 2

Controls:

Volume (left knob)- Loud! or quiet.
Texture (right knob)-
    In all modes: 11 o'clock is a good starting point. Going CCW from there darkens the tone and creates a more muffled clipping character. Going CW brightens and, at extreme settings, introduces a more scrambled, lightly gated, and sharp distortion.
    With octave: 9-12 o'clock provides the most symmetric and pure octave. Varying in either direction will make things more asymmetrical and, as a result, reduce the intensity of the octave.
Switch 1 (under S)- Adds a full-range boost at the start of the circuit. This generally leads to either overdrive or fuzz, depending on other settings.
Switch 2 (under T)- Boosts treble and gain without removing bass. This is a less extreme boost than Switch 1 and provides a low gain overdrive with most settings.
Switch 3 (under E)- Activates the upper octave circuit. The STEP uses a specially biased transformer-coupled frequency doubling circuit that provides a cleaner, sustaining character.
Switch 4 (under P)- Adds an additional amp-like gain stage to the end of the circuit.