I have quite a number of Super Fuzzes in the collection by now - and this Lastgasp Art Laboratories variant is another wonderful take on that format - with some quite distinct circuit differences - but most importantly it has all the flavour - and those fantastic blooming and percolating waves of harmonic fuzz.
The circuit topology is somewhat different to the norm - being composed of a mix of C1815 Transistors and JRC4558DD opamp. I’m not particularly familiar with the C1815’s, but ...
In my recent review of the Kernom Moho Magmatic Fuzz - I already lauded it to the high rafters as the greatest Multi-Fuzz pedal ever created. It’s the perfect tool for proper fuzz fans - and in particular for those who have fully mastered the relatively tricky Zvex Fuzz Factory and similar - all those should get along with the Moho fabulously. Newbie fuzz fans may find the device a little tricky to dial in - as every knob impacts the texture and tonality of the output - so pretty much all 6 ...
Danelectro owner Steve Ridinger was quite the Fuzz pioneer back in the 60’s - where two of the fuzzes featured here were his own original designs - the Liverpool Fuzz-Tone from back in 1966 (his very first pedal design), and and then the Foxx Tone Machine in 1972.
Danelectro released its first relic’d Vintage Style Fuzz - the Eisenhower back in 2019, then came the sort of Foxx Tone Machine reissue in similar compact enclosure - and now we have the earliest origin pedal in that trilogy - the...
The final arrangement for the year - all the pedals that impressed the most!
So we featured 120 pedals across the 5 Genre categories this year - as you’ve witnessed over the last 5 days, and those have been whittled and distilled down to these 27 Magnificent and Exceedingly Flavoursome candidates.
Picking out the very best of those is obviously a slightly subjective exercise while based on a series of exacting criteria - including innovation, versatility, practicality, variability, playability, quality of manufacture, quality of output and sheer enjoyment.
Here ...
And so to what is often my favourite category - the many wonderful flavours of fuzz - and we have some hugely innovative pedals in the selection this year - one of these may even be my pedal of the year!
So there are 24 in this year’s selection - where I’m just missing the Collision Devices TARS, Fender Shields Blender, JAM Pedals Octaurus, KMA Machines Mandrake, Reeves Electro Facet IZ, and Unsound Circuitry Kato Glitch Fuzz - where I will attempt to add most of those to the reference ...
I’ve had the Moho on my board for an entire wonderful week so far - and it’s been nothing but delightful from the very first encounter. I occasionally use the phrase ’a joy to deploy’ and that’s never been more apt than in these circumstances.
It’s not just that the Moho delivers high fidelity - it truly sounds magnificent every which way you point those dials - with all the verve, ebb and flow, fuzzy feel and full flavour you could ever desire. It has some degree of guitar volume gain ...
Another busy month - doubly busy as I was working on the new website and commercial plans for the most part on top of the normal hectic schedule. Inevitably there are a few pedals that get moved into October - as I just ran out of time - still plenty of coverage. October is going to be incredibly hectic as I’m expecting a lot of incoming pedals - so a lot of review work to complete and a couple more sizeable projects.
I feel the website launch went mostly very well and was universally well ...
I’m already a huge fan of the Univox Super Fuzz sound and have several of that variety in my extensive fuzz collection. While this one from Totally Wycked Audio is really rather special.
It’s actually 3 pedals in one - the Super Fuzz at its core - via Combustion (Fuzz / Gain), and Substrate (Level) controls - and the original’s Mode toggle switch is rendered by the left-hand footswitch - which allows you to flip between Full Fat and Scooped EQ Output Modes.
You then have the Parametric ...
A reader asked me to pick out some of my all-time favourite fuzzes - which are legion actually - just far too many to include in a single rundown. So we settled on doing somewhat less well known favourite fuzzes - under the guise of ’Secret Weapon Fuzzes’. These are mostly somewhat under the radar classics - several of which are discontinued, but all of which deliver distinct superior tones.
Beyond these being Secret Weapon Fuzzes there was no other specific theme - so we get a variety of ...