Ease of Use: Affectionately named after "The year that punk broke", 1976, this pedal is not difficult to use by any stretch of the imagination (punk). It has 4 controls, the oddly titled: Punk, Slam, Spikes and Menace. I didn't have a manual (or any of the original packaging, etc for that matter) with mine, so I had to figure out what each of the controls do through experimentation. This is an extremely interesting pedal, as you can add a more coloured overdrive/distortion sound to the mix and mad is the only word I can think to describe it - fuzz.
Punk - this controls the fuzz. At full tilt this makes your amp sound like its on the verge of exploding! It sounds like an earthquake. You can also use this control to turn the fuzz off completely and just use the pedal as a more extreme version of the DS-1. A really nasty sounding distortion.
Slam - this controls the amount of distortion. Goes from off to meltdown.
Spikes - this acts like the tone control on your guitar (if you've ever used it, not many people do). At off it's all bass, turn it clockwise to roll in some treble - at full you get more bite than Joe Strummer so beware.
Menace - this is basically a volume control. It doesn't really colour you sound, its quite useful though. // 8
Sound: I don't know what the DOD guys were smoking at the time, but this pedal sounds awesome! It doesn't do punk at all. (by punk, I mean real punk: The Clash, The Specials, Wedding Present- UK indie/punk, etc, none of that hi-gain power pop nonsence: Green Day, GC, Blink 182 et al, those evil creatures who've made careers out of using the name of punk in vain - Sid Vicious wanabees - and lets face it, Sid Vicious was THE Worst Musician To Grace God's Green Earth TM), but thats enough of a rant, that's besides the point. Back to business.
The Punkifier is better suited to out-and-out Noise. White noise. We're talking The Boredoms' massively distorted, virtually unlistenable noise records (which I love, which is why I love this pedal). I use this pedal with a Marshall Shredmaster and a Boss DD-3 for the ultimate nasty guitar tone through a 30w Vox Amp (unfortunatley not an AC30, I'm only a poor student). Oh, and my trusty Fender Telecaster (single-coils rule, humbuckers are for sissies). I plan on getting an envelope filter, probably a DOD 440 (they're definatley one of my favourites) and an MXR Blue Box (for those moments where I need to go from Billy Corgan-esque Fender Blender-style heavy overloaded octavia guitar to SNES/Atari bleepy-bloopy retro computer game theme tunes-type noises) and a volume pedal. They're massively under-used and extremely useful. I am also building my own old-school Fuzz pedal with a Germanium transistor for that '60s/'70s flavour. Isley Brothers, Dave Gilmore and more. Not that I'll be sounding like either of them.
This pedal is best for noisy stuff, but you can also do a reasonable Queens Of The Stone Age sounds with alternate tunings and mild tweaking of the controls. Just don't expect to turn up the gain, set the controls to full and you'll get instant punk. It will eat you alive. For the best sounds (most listenable) try Punk at 9 o'clock, Slam at 1 o'clock, Spikes at virtually full and set Menace (volume according to your personal prefernce, I use mine at almost full and then Overdrive it with my Shredmaster). I've only given this 4 points instead of 5 because it may take some getting used to, it's an acquired taste to say the least. // 8
Reliability & Durability: Well its certainly one of the better DOD pedals. It's a USA model (and extremely rare). The built quality is pretty good. It's in a heavy-duty metal box (with a not so heavy-duty footswitch). As with most pedals that have a clip on battery cover they tend to go walkabouts, although I still have mine. Just make sure you check if you plan on buying one, although it is standard DOD fare and people do sell spares on eBay, etc. // 8
Impression: I play weird experimental stuff, as well as more conventional music. Real songs (with words) for example. I play everything from Joy Division, to Radiohead, via Nancy Sinatra, The Who, Dylan, Black Sabbath, The Boredoms, Pink Floyd, Graham Coxon, and my own creative masterpieces (if I may say so myself). This suits me down to the ground. - Try it with an octavia to really make some noise. - Try it with chords, nobody plays through an octavia with chords - it makes a right mess. Experiment. Its what fx pedals were invented for. If it were lost/stolen, I would go after the thieving git with a golf club and take their legs out! // 10
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