PRODUCT REVIEW
MKiii
sKinPiMP
BY JoRdAn WAGnER
Hailing from the great state of Texas, Ryan
Kirkland is a newcomer to the pedal building
scene. His company, Skinpimp Hand Crafted,
has produced some of the most fantastic
reproduction pedals in recent memory, while
utilizing his skills as a tattoo artist to design
elaborate enclosure artwork. The MKIII is one
of Kirkland’s faithful tributes to the celebrated
Vox Tonebender, various versions of which
were used heavily by such greats as Paul
McCartney and Mick Ronson (MKI), Jeff Beck
(MKII) and Jimmy Page (MKIII).
I decided to demo the MKIII with a 2007
Fender American Telecaster and my trusty
1978 Ibanez Iceman, a set-neck model. While
I love the sound of a good fuzz tone com-
bined with a snappy single-coil pickup, I’m a
total sucker for the wall of sound that a great
humbucker setup can produce. That’s why
I grabbed the Iceman first and connected
it inline with the MKIII and a 1973 Marshall
Super Bass head. In addition to the MKIII’s
layout of a Volume, Tone and Gain control, a
three-way toggle switch on the backside of the
unit controls different frequency responses.
The gamut ranges from thin and reedy to stan-
dard fuzz thickness all the way to monstrous
low end with aggressive midrange response.
I set it to the left position (standard fuzz), and
