When Bob Mould and I started talking about pedals it was like a crazy dream for me. Growing up, Bob had been a major contributor to my musical upbringing and one of the main reasons I used an MXR Dist + when I started playing guitar.
I started making the Beauty & Ruin signature pedal based on an old vintage unit I had, and named after Bob's new album. We initially hooked up after I made a tribute pedal for Bob that I called the St Paul Distortion that Bob started using, but that's another story.
So when Bob contacted me and asked if I was interested in doing a limited run of pedals for his new album, Patch the Sky I was very excited indeed.
The album wasn't going to be out for about 3 months but I make all my pedals, by myself, by hand so it was a daunting task indeed to try and keep this place going and make an extra batch of pedals somewhere in amongst it.
Because of the way I make pedals we settled on there being 50 of these new Sky Patch distortions. These are .... essentially the same as the Beauty & Ruin with different artwork, based on the album cover, and a slightly different 741 op amp, as used in the original early units.
The artwork from the album was sent over and Tone laid out the pedal artwork and we sent it back for approval. The only suggestion Bob had was a blue LED, which looks clear before you turn it on, and it looks great.
The rest of the circuit is the same and built on my PCB's and fitted into my custom made stainless steel enclosures.
This pedal is ONLY available in the US through Bob's online store and I will not have any for sale through Tym guitars. This is the first time I have ever done this but it does give my US friends a chance to grab one of my pedals without the shipping costs all the way from Aus.
There's an article about the pedal on Guitar World HERE
Huge thanks to Bob and management for letting me be involved in this little project.
You can buy them from Bob's webstore HERE