Ashdown Engineering’s Geezer Butler ‘Pedal of Doom’

Ashdown Engineering announces the launch of the Geezer Butler ‘Pedal of Doom.’

Over the past 18 months the team at Ashdown have been talking internally about what a great bass distortion requires to derive a useable tone from. Fundamentally it revolves around an EQ, a pre-determined structure to drive the right frequencies for the right track, to cut through or to sit back with rich depth right in your favourite pocket with your rhythm partner in crime. With this Ashdown looked no further than Geezer Butler and his use of dynamics in his songs that resonate as real today as they did when recorded.

The groove of the ‘Hand of Doom’ with Geezer and Bill, the change in character makes that track what it is. So, what if you could control the pre-EQ of each drive with an active 5 band EQ? Giving you two separate tones with two individual drives that can be punched in at the desired moment to give you much needed boost in rich harmonics.

So given the revelation Ashdown set about making the ‘Pedal of Doom’ forged in the deepest darkest depths of… Essex. Featuring an on-board transformer isolated Di output, with two switchable EQs. Dual VU meters that are designed to ensure your bass signal is balanced on the input and output of the signal path. Use of the Input meter to drive the EQ to the desired level dependant on the output of your instrument. The Output meter ensures the signal going back to your amp is as it goes in to avoid any unwanted gain jumps or in the opposite to ensure gain bumps when required.

Of course, the need to drive those sounds with rich harmonic distortion was a necessity of this pedal with the option to dial in just the right amount of gain for those moments that require the sound of Doom switchable when required.

After having countless requests to make a Geezer Butler preamp pedal based on the Head of Doom Ashdown jumped at the project, and now presents ‘The Pedal of Doom.’

The compay wanted the pedal finished to a high standard before presenting it to Geezer, so after a few months the pedal was ready and sent it over to Geezer for his approval, not knowing what we had been working on, Geezer was blown away with the pedal and had some very kind words to say: “This is without a doubt the best sounding and engineered pedal I have ever played and with my amp it truly has the sound of doom I live for.”

Shipping from January 2022 Ashdown will be showcasing the product at our pop-up store in London at number 10 Denmark Street throughout October 2021.