BIG EAR pedals "SLICE OF PIE" in the new Spinal Tap movie?!?
- Grant Wilson
- Sep 12
- 7 min read
Updated: Sep 19
You read that right! Nigel Tufnel's pizza slice guitar pedal in the new Spinal Tap movie is the BIG EAR pedals SLICE OF PIE!!
It seems that none other than Nigel Tufnel, the legendary Spinal Tap guitarist (and also occasional bassist) has apparently been bitten by the guitar pedal bug. (I hear he has THREE pedalboards now?!) And it seems that he has taken a particular liking to our little pizza shaped guitar pedal (which was initially released and sold out in 2022, but is now available to purchase again here in "cheese" and here in "pepperoni", btw) though I think it’s worth noting that movie-magic can fool you.. and so while I haven’t seen the film myself (Spinal Tap 2, that is) it is my understanding that they have edited the sound that our pedal makes in the movie to sound something more like an Electro Harmonix® Talking Pedal or possibly like the Korg® Miku Stomp. In reality, though, this pedal could be none more fuzz pedal. (Get it? That was a Spinal Tap reference! I sure hope you’ve seen that movie.. or else you’re not going to understand anything we're talking about here!)
For example, Nigel Tufnel is known for his famous Marshall® amps that go to 11. And while this pedal would sound exceptional through a tube amp on 11, it also works just as well on a clean, solid-state amplifier at half volume!
But that said, Nigel’s new amps go to infinity. That’s more than just a number. It’s infinity. So that may be why his pizza pedal sounds like a voice synthesizer, apparently. (I’ve never played through an amp that was infinity loud, though. So I have no idea what it would do to the integrity of a fuzz pedal’s tone... To be honest with you, I've never even played a guitar amp that "goes to 11"!)
Nigel apparently also mentions that he likes to open up his pedals and move things around.. even though he doesn’t know what he’s doing. So ultimately, many of his pedals end up broken. But maybe in this case, he could've gotten lucky and swapped a wire around and accidentally turned our pedal into a vocoder or something! (That’s not really possible, btw.. please do not try this at home.. remember, folks… movie-magic!)
But there is yet another possibility here… I’ve always heard that “tone is in the hands” or “tone is in the fingers” and maybe that’s exactly what is happening with Nigel’s pedal rig in the Spinal Tap sequel. Maybe he is such a gifted guitarist that he’s invented a new guitar playing technique which makes ANY pedal sound like a synthetic voice! He just happens to use our pedal, because he wanted it. Because he loves cheese. But the sound.. that is all in his hands. Or in his fingers. Or whatever.
And if you think about it.. a pizza slice guitar pedal won’t get your fingers greasy like a real pizza slice will. So your guitar gets dirty, but you stay clean. It’s a paradox, really. A pizza pedal paradox.
Coincidentally, on the first run of SLICE OF PIE pedals, out of 500 units, only 50 cheese slices were made (the other 450 were pepperoni slices) so Nigel's cheese pizza pedal is especially rare!!
So now we wait to get a visual or a clip from the movie, which may not happen until it hits streaming services.. but as soon as I get anything I will update the post here!
And for the meantime, you can go see “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues” in select theaters across the US and UK starting, Friday, September 12, 2025. (And if you're reading this later, it will surely be on streaming services as well!) Did I mention it's PIZZA FRIDAY, today, btw? What a great way to celebrate the day! My ridiculous sense of humor, which was absolutely molded by the original Spinal Tap movie, has been validated and has come full circle!
Nigel Tufnel has a BIG EAR pedals SLICE OF PIE fuzz on his pedalboard!!!! Happy Pizza Friday, friends!! 🍕
- Grant
UPDATE #2 (9-19-2025 12:56pm EST) : We've received a few more photos of Nigel Tufnel's pedalboards and now have a different look at what some of his pedals are... I'd say a "clearer" look, but whooaa nelly! These photos have like 4.7 pixels! But at least we can see a few additional pedals that we couldn't see before.. so that means more pedals to identify!!
We also posted the photos from our last update on our Instagram and asked for help identifying those pedals.. and a couple knowledgeable pedal enthusiasts helped us identify some of the ones we hadn't ID'd before! So I just added those pedals to the list from before and have added that below.. But again, if you think we got something wrong or if you can identify something that we missed, please let us know in a comment below! Thank you Thank you Thank you!
Here's an updated rundown of Nigel Tufnel's Spinal Tap pedalboards.....
Center (Main) Board - (From L to R)
Bottom Row:
RJM Music Technology - Mastermind PBC/10
Danelectro - Back Talk Reverse Delay (Reissue)
BIG EAR pedals x The Tone Mob - SLICE OF PIE (Cheese)
Littletone - CLYDE Wah
Middle Row:
Strymon - Cloudburst
TC Electronic - CHOKA
Strymon - Timeline
T-Rex - Replica
Vahlbruch Effects - Chorus
Top Row:
Strymon - Zuma (Power Supply)
Strymon - Ojai (Power Supply, On Top of Zuma)
TC Electronic - Polytune Mini
Vahlbruch Effects - Kaluna II HV Tube Drive
BOSS - BD2 Blues Driver
BOSS - CS-3
Electro Harmonix - Intelligent Harmony Machine
KORG - Miku Stomp (On top of what appears to be an I/O Junction Box of some kind)
Left Board - (From L to R)
Bottom Row:
Oberheim Electronics - VCF-200 Voltage Controlled Filter
MXR - Micro Flanger (Maybe?!)
MXR - Micro Flanger (Maybe?!)
????? - ???????????
????? - ???????????
Sola Sound - BUM Unit Fuzz (I believe this one was built by D*A*M)
Colorsound - Overdriver
Middle Row:
Chase Bliss x Meris - CXM 1978
Critter & Guitarri - Bolsa Bass
Top Row:
????? - ???????????
????? - ??????????? (Possibly a Systech pedal?)
Maestro - MPF-1 Parametric Filter... (But maybe a "Fuzztain" or "Stage Phaser")
T PEDALS - T-FUZZ
Right Board - (From L to R)
Bottom Row:
Gurus - Echosex 2
FOXX - Tone Machine
Lovetone - Brown Source
????? - ???????????
Middle Row:
Flynn Amps - Rory Gallagher "Hawk" Booster
Death By Audio - Fuzz War (OG 2 Knob Version)
Death By Audio - Harmonic Transformer
????? - ???????????
Top Row:
Voodoo Lab - Pedal Power 3 Plus
Roger Mayer - Voodoo Vibe + ????? - ??????????? Possibly a Custom Junction Box from Goodwood Audio?!
That's all for now!
- Grant
UPDATE #1 (9-13-2025 7:22pm EST) : We have received the first still images that show our pedal (along with many other great pedals from industry peers and friends) on Nigel's THREE (count 'em!) aforementioned pedalboards! The SLICE OF PIE fuzz is right up in the front next to the white wah-wah pedal, and it is my understanding that it's one of only TWO pedals that he specifically talks about in the film!
I started making a list of the pedals that can be seen here.. but several of them were stumping me.. so I enlisted the help of my buddies Eric Merrow (who is one of our favorite guitar youtubers) and Matt Hoopes (the guy who makes that 1981 Inventions "DRV" pedal that is most definitely more than just a Proco® Rat Pedal) and we still haven't figured all of them out yet, but we've got a bunch, I think! If you can help us identify any of the other pedals, or if you think we got any of these wrong, please comment on this post below and let us know! And thank you in advance!!
Now here's a rundown of Nigel Tufnel's Spinal Tap pedalboards.....
Center (Main) Board - (From L to R)
Bottom Row:
RJM Music Technology - Mastermind PBC/10
Danelectro - Back Talk Reverse Delay (Reissue)
BIG EAR pedals x The Tone Mob - SLICE OF PIE (Cheese)
Littletone - CLYDE Wah
Middle Row:
Strymon - Cloudburst
TC Electronic - CHOKA
Strymon - Timeline
T-Rex - Replica ????? - ???????????
Top Row:
Strymon - Zuma (Power Supply)
Strymon - Ojai (Power Supply, On Top of Zuma)
TC Electronic - Polytune Mini
Vahlbruch Effects - Kaluna II HV Tube Drive
BOSS - BD2 Blues Driver
BOSS - CS-3
????? - ???????????
KORG - Miku Stomp (On top of what appears to be an I/O Junction Box of some kind)
Left Board - (From L to R)
Bottom Row:
????? - ???????????
????? - ???????????
????? - ???????????
????? - ???????????
????? - ???????????
Sola Sound - BUM Unit Fuzz (I believe this one was built by D*A*M)
Colorsound - Overdriver
Middle Row:
Chase Bliss x Meris - CXM 1978
Critter & Guitarri - Bolsa Bass
Top Row:
????? - ???????????
????? - ??????????? (Possibly a Systech pedal?)
Maestro - Possibly be a "Fuzztain" or "Stage Phaser" ?!
????? - ???????????
Right Board - (From L to R)
Bottom Row:
Gurus - Echosex 2
FOXX - Tone Machine
Lovetone - Brown Source
????? - ???????????
Middle Row:
????? - ???????????
Death By Audio - Fuzz War (OG 2 Knob Version)
????? - ???????????
Top Row:
Voodoo Lab - Pedal Power 3 Plus
Roger Mayer - Voodoo Vibe +
Let me know if you can help us fill in the blanks! 🍕❤️
- Grant
1 Comment