When Page needed an aggressive sound for his new band, he reached for one of 2 small Supro combos. The smaller of these was lovingly nicknamed "the skunk" because of the prominent white stripe running over the top of its cabinet.
No stranger to fuzz boxes and boosters, for sure Jimmy made this small amp "weep as though struck with malice" by driving its front end.
But it was not the sound of Hendrix with a raging stack of Marshall plexis and 4x12 cabinets. Page being a wizard in the recording studio knew that sometimes a smaller guitar tone sits better in the mix. His iconic early "heavy metal" sound came from a diminutive Supro model 1606 branded "Super" by its creators. This sound is best recognized by the song "Communication Breakdown," but legend has it that he also used it on the solo to Stairway to Heaven after not finding a suitable sound from any of the larger amps available to him.
The Skreddy Skunk Drive masterfully emulates the effect of a certain model of low-Wattage amp being hit hard by a 1960's fuzzy booster. Cleans up with the guitar volume like you would want it to, serves as a fantastic base tone, and can be used to kick up a solo way out front in the mix.
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You'll find that sound, and you'll be very pleased with the guitar volume cleanup, which yields colors and textures you've heard before but never thought you could achieve.
It seems to respond better, actually, to the guitar volume than by setting its drive knob lower. You'll get livelier top end with the drive knob cranked or darker tones with it backed down, so keep this in mind when considering its lack of a "tone" knob.
Excellent midrange cut but without any of the "nasally" tone associated with modern overdrive designs
Inspired by the recent, magnificent documentary “Becoming Led Zeppelin”, we delve into the era when British engineer Gary Hurst founded Sola Sound, bringing fuzz distortion into maturity with his Tone Bender pedals.
As seen in this film, Jimmy Page recorded the legendary debut album, with his “Dragon” Telecaster
that he calls “The Excalibur”, plugged into a Sola Sound Tone Bender Mk 1.5 and a small Supro
“Super” 1606 combo amplifier.
This low-wattage amp was nicknamed “the Skunk” because of the large white stripe surrounding its
cabinet.
The Skreddy Pedals Skunk Drive 1606 is designed to faithfully recreate the tone of this rig and it hits the spot!
You can easily reproduce the sound of timeless classics like “Communication Breakdown”.
Skreddy Pedals began its operations in 2004, founded by electronics engineer Marc Ahlfs. Headquartered in Carson
City, Nevada, it remains a small “boutique” company to this day.
One of the flagship products in the Skreddy Pedals range is the “Lunar Module ”, considered one of
the best silicon fuzz pedals on the market.
The Skunk Drive 1606 manages to tame a fuzz-like distortion approaching a well-calibrated overdrive. This unique
pedal fuses the fuzz tone with the warmth and character of a small tube amplifier.
Another strong point of this Skunk Drive is its high reactivity to the playing dynamics and the volume of the
guitar. These remarkable results are obtained with only two simple controls. Increasing the Drive knob increases
the high frequencies while lowering it obtains warmer tones with a pleasant response on the mid frequencies.
This allows for easy switching from a basic, rounded sound to a more cutting distortion for lead playing.
Adjusting the Drive control produces a momentary “crackle” as the transistor’s bias point is
reset; this feature has a famous precedent in the Z-Vex Super Hard-On.
Marc Ahlfs is a genius: this seemingly simple pedal actually has an effective dual action, combining resonant
sustain with warm, rounded overdrive: highly recommended!
Just got the Skunk today and played it next to my 4 knob xx. They have a bit over overlap but where the xx sounds like a generic low watt Supro style amp, the Skunk sounds exactly like the Zeppelin records. Skunk has less low end but when you hear it there is no mistaking it absolutely nails the sound we’ve all heard a million times. Awesome pedal, great range of gain with the guitar volume.
In his inimatable fashion (although Vai/Satch-influenced), using some of the best available digital amp sims, doing what he calls "blues shred"
Pagey tones for days. Short snippet, jamming with my Telecaster and my buddy Austin on his Hammond B3
Just slightly lowered guitar volume, bridge pickup
