Vemuram Butter Machine | Michael Landau Signature Distortion Pedal

The story behind the Butter Machine by Michael Landau

“I’ve been using Vemuram pedals for over 10 years starting with the Jan Ray Overdrive.

And over the years, Daiya and Shingo have become good friends during my many tours in Japan.
The Vemuram pedals have always been in a class of their own in my opinion. All of their pedals have that big, bold Vemuram sound. And the company has the highest level of integrity regarding the way the pedals are designed and built.

In the past I’ve used an Ibanez SD9 as my high gain pedal, it was my main distortion pedal for many years, but I’ve always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with the pedal. It can be shrill and overly compressed if it’s not dialled in just right…
So a couple of years ago I asked Daiya if he could design a distortion pedal that had the positive sonic qualities of the SD9, but without the overly compressed, high-end harshness. Daiya and I have spent many months listening to several prototypes that he designed, experimenting with them and making improvements.

We used the SD9 as a starting point but of course this new Vemuram distortion pedal is a higher grade unit with many improvements. Besides the Gain, Volume and Tone knobs, there are two trim pots that let you fine tune this pedal in a unique way. The “Sparkle” trim pot is a ‘Peaking’ type of boost centred around 6K that allows you to dial in the ‘Crunch’ of the high end. The “Low-Mid” trim pot allows you to add the perfect amount of bottom end. I used one of the prototypes on tour in 2022 and 2023, and also in the studio many times over the last year. In other words, this pedal has definitely been real time tested.

The final version of this new Vemuram distortion pedal has a perfectly open, natural feeling overdrive. It has gain and sustain for days… yet it stays clear, punchy and solid when you roll the volume back on your guitar. It’s very easy to dial in the perfect amount of overdrive with this pedal while keeping all of the musicality intact.

Vemuram has designed the best distortion pedal that I have ever played through. We named it the “Butter Machine”, and if you play through one you’ll know why. It’s a very satisfying sonic experience.

Cheers to Vemuram, and to all of the guitar rulers of the universe!”

– Michael