The ever-inventive folks at Dwarfcraft have come up with four new pedals. The most interesting is the Wizard of Pitch.

What started out as a single stage pitch shifter, a la the Pitchgrinder, the Wizard of Pitch ($225 list) became something brand new. The pedal’s resolution has been cranked up to 32 bits from the ’Grinder’s 8, but has the same lo-fi sound. The “speed” control, when set to zero, will behave like a standard pitch shifter, but as you turn up the speed the output crossfades between wet and dry signals, allowing for moving soundscapes, or, at higher rates stimulating modulation.

The Bender toggle engages a Doppler type effect, in which the pitch falls in conjunction with the input signal’s decay until the end of it’s shifting range, where it starts again.

Engaging the Steps toggle snaps to pitches, rather than sliding, to create almost random arpeggios. When the Bender mode is active, the Speed knob will control the rate of the pitch changes, rather than a cross fade.

The Silver Rose v2 ($350 list) combines a version of the classic Superfuzz circuit with a Dwarfcraft Eau Claire Thunder, along side an EQ with +/- 10db of treble and bass. On one side you get old school Superfuzz tones, from raspy classic rock to a mid-scooped doomy fuzz, while the ECT side is at the other end of the spectrum—warm and wooly, with plenty of aggressive distortion. The mixing of three distinct signals allows for brand new sounds as well as familiar combinations that used to require a separate mixer. For bass, Dwarfcraft added a clean blend with discrete volume control and an auxiliary clean output for signal splitting.

The Paraloop ($150 list) features two effects loops. Each of them is “normally closed,” meaning a buffered clean signal comes through.  A send level knob allows you a boost into     both loops or, if they are empty, overall volume boost or attenuation. This little box features parallel effects loops, clean blend, clean volume boost, the ability to mix two instruments without a full mixer, or to split the signal to two amplifiers.

The Minivan Echo ($175 list) is Dwarfcraft’s first foray in to delay territory. It can get traditional, dark echo sounds, but also get into slow and mangled territory if you crank up it up and run away self-oscillation. For those inclined to experiment with their signal chain, they added an insert loop. Plug in an expression pedal to control the feedback amount or use a stereo ¼” to dual mono ¼” cable to insert effects into the delay line of the Minivan.  For example, putting a pitch shifter in the loop will shift each repeated signal up as it passes through.

Zealously commanded by Ben and Louise Hinz, Dwarfcraft Devices has been fighting the good fight since 2007. They are on an endless quest for new sounds, good beer, and hugs.