Serious About Spaceman
Disaster almost struck when my local Post Office lost a couple of Spaceman pedals on the way from Portland to Powell. But as you can see, they're safe and sound with their brethren. I have 12 Spaceman pedals in total, but I only have eight of the nine different circuit boards that Spaceman's produced. I have two Sputniks, two WOW Signals, and four Saturn Vs, one of which was the "Secret Mission" pre-launch version. I'm also one of just four people who actually went through with the "Sonic Void" April Fools joke. With the Sonic Void, the switch just activates the light --- it's a plain bypass. It was obvious from the description that Spaceman put up on April 1 of last year what it was going to be, but I also figured, correctly, that it would wind up being the rarest Spaceman of all.
I don't have a Rumblefuzz, and I missed the last Rumblefuzz auction on eBay (the f**king thing went up going for only $294!!) so I'll have to wait on that.
There are at least three reasons to collect and play Spaceman pedals. The first one is the rare/cool factor. They're all limited editions of 120 or fewer, with some being limited to 35 or 20. They're built to exacting tolerances and are as attractive with the back off as they are with it in place. Everybody wants them, but they still have "cred". I don't know --- let's just say they're the BMW 1M of effects pedals, minus the inevitable mechanical failure.
Which brings us to customer service. I (probably, as far as I can guess) fried my Aphelion by letting a guest plug my Moog 18v power supply into it, and Zak fixed it for free. The rest of the pedals have been flawless.
Last but not least, they sound brilliant. The WOW Signal is the least usable for what I do, and the Aphelion is the one I use most often, but they all have a great, unique, complex sound. (With the exception, naturally, of the Sonic Void!) You could play the Gemini III your entire life and not figure out all the things it can do.
My wish list for Spaceman is pretty short:
Copper variants of the Gemini III and Mercury III
A Rumblefuzz, preferably with the blue case
Whatever's coming next
There's a bit of Gabriel Hounds to the whole Spaceman mythos, but I invite anyone to stop by and find out what I already know: the products themselves are real, and spectacular.