GUITAR PEDALS | Jacques – The Wercer / Mercer Box GERMANIUM FUZZ
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted on: September 11, 2009
Posted in: Custom Electric Guitar, Custom Guitar Pedals, Custom Guitar Video, Featured
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Very detailed review of the discontinued extremely rare handmade Custom Guitar Effect Pedal THE WERCER BOX from JACQUES, France. High-gain, NOS Germanium Valvo OC76 transistors, true by-pass. Played with FENDER Custom Shop Relic Telecaster, 1982 Custom San Dimas CHARVEL guitar, DIVIDED by 13 Custom amplifier and a 65Amps 2×12 Cabinet.
When I started using Jacques’ The Wercer Box for the very first time, it was a little revelation. I thought it was a high-gain fuzz pedal, but it turned out to be an addictive allround sound-machine. It has one of the best clean sounds I have heard from a stompbox so far, it offers a wide range of very tasteful distortion and crunch sounds and, of course, it has the classic fuzz face on plexi sounds and they are probably some of the best you find on the market today. What struck me most was the way The Wercer Box let me control the amount of distortion with my guitar volume control! The sound changed between 5 and 10 on my volume pot from sparkling clean, to sweet Stratocaster “in-between bridge pickup” crunch, to singing lead, to fuzzzzzzzz…. Wow! I guess, I never had so much control before. I do understand why Steve Morse loves this pedal. Unfortunately Jacques line of handmade pedals is discontinued, if you happen to find The Mercer Box (NOS European AC128 germanium transistors) or The Wercer Box (NOS Valvo OC76 transistors) – buy it!
In my little video demonstration I focused on two features: the spectacular clean sound and the wide range of “in-guitar” volume control over the pedal distortion. You will get a good impression what you DON’T expect from a traditional “fuzz-face” clone. When I shot the video clip I had so much outtakes, different sound samples and useful information which would not fit into 10 minutes, that I considered cutting a “The Wercer Box – Revisited” clip. Stay tuned!
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I used my trusted Divided by 13 JRT 9-15 amp in the Lo-Input and dialed in a tasteful clean sound to let The Wercer Box do the job. The guitars of choice were two of my most recorded studio tools, a 1997 Fender Custom Shop Relic Telecaster (made by John Cruz) Platinum Dealer Lim.Ed. and my 1982 San Dimas-made Charvel Strat.
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- 1982 San Dimas Charvel Strat
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- 1982 San Dimas Charvel Strat
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- Denny Dent – Rock’n Roll painter
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- Denny Dent – Two Fisted Art Attack
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- 1982 San Dimas Charvel Strat – Headstock
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- 1982 San Dimas Charvel Strat – Close Up
I purchased this guitar brand new in early march 1982 at the Hollywood Guitar Center. It underwent some customizing over the 27 years of teaching, touring and studio work, though. But I still have all the original parts and I made sure nothing got messed up, so the guitar could get reversed to original condition any time.
As usual the guitar sounds got recorded with a vintage Neuman KM 54 and a Manley SLAM preamp-limiter straight through my Apogee converters into Logic. There is no EQ applied in the software. If you would add a whole backing band playback, the guitar would sit perfectly in the mix!
