We’re checking out CopperSound’s new Kingpin germanium clipper & Iris optical compressor pedals.
CopperSound is a pedal company out of Boston, Massachusetts USA (birthplace of Jonathan Richman) founded by Alex Guaraldi in 2014.
Since then they’ve been building a range of interesting, useful pedals, slowly growing and recently collaborating with the likes of Jack White on a signature unit.
You might recognise CopperSound from their successful Telegraph pedal, the tremolo/stutter pedal with the morse code key on top.
What we’ve got here are a pair of single knob, one switch pedals from the CopperSound ‘mini’ series that each do one job, and they do that one job well.
The Kingpin is a germanium diode clipper driven by a pair of FETs, a MOSFET to push the vintage diodes into clipping, and a JFET to boost the level afterward.
It’s a nicely voiced piece, with plenty of grit, some harmonic fizz, and a clarity that is never lost, no matter how hard you drive it.
The toggle switch lets you select three levels of how hard you’re clipping the diodes, from sort-of-subtle to saturated, and the volume knob controls the overall level.
You can also run this thing at 18V for some extra headroom when you’re mauling sound through the new old stock Ukrainian diodes.
The Iris is an optical compressor, using an LED and a light dependent resistor to control the compression action. It’s kinda hard to talk too much in depth about compressor pedals, but this one is fast enough to not sound like you’re obviously using one.
The switch controls how hard you’re squishing your signal, from smooth to snappy, and the knob controls your output volume. This thing has enough output volume to push the front end of a tube amp into a little drive.
The compression setting built into the Iris is pretty versatile so it’s super useful, which is great because messing around with attack and release settings on a pedal compressor between songs is pretty damn boring, but having a great compressor is handy thing, it makes you sound like an incredible, even player, and we could all use a little help sometimes, right?
Both the Kingpin and the Iris are a very pedalboard friendly 1590A enclosure size, for those with concerns about their precious real-estate.
CopperSound were also kind enough to throw their popular Telegraph v2 pedal into the box – it’s an interesting pedal in that there’s a kinda unnecessary morse code key glued on the top that you use to trigger the non-latching footswitch of this kill switch and stutter unit.
You can set the thing to either kill all signal until you press on it, or kill when you press on it, or you can use it to add momentary tremolo for some super cool Pete Townsend of the Who style pick up toggle switch outros.
Or other cool guitar momentary stabs – it’s actually really interesting! The speed on it is adjustable too, and you can do that via knob, expression pedal, or CV (control voltage). It’s a cool concept, and I guess the steam-punk-esque switch does give you a bigger footswitch to target.
The CopperSound Kingpin and Iris are a set of mini-sized pedals that both do one job, and they do that job really well. A simple one knob, one switch layout on beautifully simple, hand built circuit boards.
The Kingpin runs at $99 US, Iris at $129 US, and if you’re keen, the Telegraph v2 is $249 US; all come with a lifetime warranty and are available from good pedal retailers worldwide.
Find out more over at CopperSound pedals.
