Kid Congo Powers have been using Reuss pedals through many years, being an early adopter to the Goo Goo Fuzz, which is a clone of the vintage Superfuzz pedal he used with The Cramps. When I launched the Backslide Overdrive in 2020, it found it's way to Kid's pedal board too, being a clone of the Tokai Overdrive he used with The Gun Club. Both Reuss pedals have toured heavily with Kid Congo in his current band The Pink Monkey Birds, and both are all over the new album, That Delicious Vice.
So, the idea of combining the two into one artist signature pedal was obvious, and when Kid Congo Power approached me with it, we went straight to work. The artwork of The Tingler comes from the hand of Kid's partner, artist Ryan Hill, who also designs the record sleeves for Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds.
The overdrive part of The Tingler is 1:1 identical to the Backslide Overdrive, and the fuzz parts is identical to Kid Congo Power's first version Goo Goo Fuzz, featuring six vintage new old stock Panasonic 2SC828 transistors. We did one mod to the fuzz in The Tingler, giving it an internal trimmer for dialing off some treble. This gives it a warmer, more vintage sounding character to the sound.
Like with the Backslide version, the overdrive of The Tingler features internal switches for asymmetrical/summetrical clipping and for extended bass response, one octave down. Asymmetrical clipping is default for the original Tokai pedal, and setting The Tingle to symmetrical clipping gives it a softer, less edgy character,, more like a tube screamer pedal. We ship the pedals preset to the extended bass response because we think it sounds best this way.
Like all Reuss pedals, The Tingler is handcrafted in the European Union. It is a numbered limited edition of 100 pedals.
Kid Congo Powers demoing The Tingler
(Directed, recorded and edited by Christopher Carlone)