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24 of the Best Compact Fuzz Pedals - 2018 Expanded Edition!

Basic AudioBig Muff Style FuzzBossCatalinbreadChase Bliss AudioCrazy Tube CircuitsDr ScientistFoxpedalFuzzFuzz Face Style FuzzFuzz-Drive and FuzzstortionGated and Velcro FuzzGermanium FuzzJHS PedalsMaestro Style FuzzMagnetic EffectsMatthews EffectsModulated FuzzMonsterpieceOctave FuzzOddball FuzzOld Blood Noise EndeavorsOscillating FuzzProAnalog DevicesRat Style FuzzSide EffectsSilicon FuzzSkreddy PedalsSolidGoldFXSpaceman EffectsSubdecay EffectsSuper-Fuzz StyleThorpyFXTone Bender Style FuzzVFE PedalsZvex+-
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The more I get into Fuzz, it seems the more I have still to learn. There are so many different flavours even within the familiar individual fuzz families and tropes - you have at least vintage, modern and hybrid variations, but also more overdrive-style and smoothed-out and tamed-down fuzzes, as well as supercharged high-gain versions too. So each category can have so many different alternatives that you can quickly get overwhelmed by option paralysis. Yet I have persevered to carefully curate an all-round suitable selection of most of the main types. I felt that my last overview of 20 was not quite representative enough so I have extended the main selection to 24 - to include more varieties and make amends for the obvious omission of a Gibson Maestro Fuzz Tone type - the daddy and origin of all fuzzes.

 

I’ve stated several times that I really like the sound of Analog.Man fuzzes - in point of fact vintage reproductions really using the rarest of vintage transistors. The downside of those vintage-type pedals is that they are not always particularly practical and would not necessarily fit in well with my system or arrangement of pedal-chain. Vintage pedals can have odd power requirements, high noise floors, variable tones down to changes in temperature, incredibly randomised behaviour and an ill-tolerance for pedals either side in the chain. Hence I’ve tried to suggest more modern alternatives in the main - which deliver the same kind of tones, but iron out some of the less reliable and more annoying features.

 

As ever, this is a curated effort - where these are pedals I like for myself and either have or intend to have for my pedal-chain at some stage - albeit shifting priorities can override choices and change emphasis. The more and more I learn though, the more likely I am to chop and change my point of view. For vintage pedals there is a limited supply of available components so those are always on the point of discontinuation - yet there are still the occasional examples which hit the second-hand market every now and again - so everything is still possible and potential - yet not always at a price point you might tolerate - cv Spaceman Effects Gemini III.

 

These 24 pedals are highly selective, and some fit more loosely within categories than others, but I feel all are appropriate to their general classification. It is highly unlikely I will acquire all of these - and even for the particular options I have chosen there still remain mostly several suitable alternatives. To date I have acquired 17 of the above - and I still want the 7 remaining ones - although I may never acquire them all. Within this selection there are some pretty hard to get hold of ones - 3 of these are discontinued - the Boss FZ-2, VFE Alpha Dog and Spaceman Gemini III. Ironically those are listed in order of general availability. They will all be second hand - it’s just a matter of getting the pedal as near-mint as possibly and at the right price. Several of these pedals are much in demand and get snapped up pretty quickly so you need to be almost instant on Reverb.com or the opportunity will pass you buy for another 3 or 6 or 12 months.

 

The most recently released here is the Vertical Fuzz Factory, while the Crazy Tube Circuits Constellation is due to launch in April. Since I started writing this piece I was able to get hold of a decent Boss FZ-2 and pristine VFE Alpha Dog - meaning my top wishlist choices are really the forthcoming CTC Constellation, then the Fallout Cloud and Monsterpiece MKI. I have sort of given up hope for a while of getting a Spaceman Gemini III at any sort of reasonable price.

 

Pedals are listed by Fuzz Type / Family in a loosely chronological order:


The Modern Maestro - Matthews Effects The Whaler Fuzz - £159

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Matthews Effects The Whaler (demo)

Even though this is an original fuzz circuit and not modelled on any specific fuzz flavour, this does though give you rather satisfactory Rolling Stones 'Satisfaction' tones. It of course has a great deal more to offer besides - and if you really want to capture the very earliest fuzz tones (Gibson Maestro Fuzz Tone territory) and benefit from modern pedalboard-friendliness and versatility - then this is an excellent all-rounder. Its tone profile is of a slightly tighter sounding fuzz and overall more modern in tone versus the more open and saturated / searing / syrupy tones of many of the best-loved vintage fuzzes.


The Versatile Fuzz Face - Skreddy Pedals BC109 Fuzz - £199

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Skreddy BC109 (Echoes)

Made with BC109 Silicon transistors for a more consistent fuzz tone, this nevertheless can deliver both Silicon and Germanium style Fuzz Face Flavours. I had considered including the equally glorious sounding Analog.Man Sun Face NKT275 pedal in this slot - but that is notoriously temperamental and very fussy about pedalboard placement order. By contrast - the Skreddy has an HB / SC toggle (humbucker / singlecut) for guitar adjustment, as well as an additional Voicing dial over the AM's Volume | Fuzz | Bias options. The amount of gain on tap is also slightly higher than usual on the BC109 - meaning you get one of the best behaved and most versatile Fuzz Faces currently on offer.


The Modern Yet Vintage Fuzz Face - ProAnalog Devices MKIV Fuzz - £250+ (Reverb)

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ProAnalog Devices MK IV Vintage Model Fuzz-Drive Quick Listen Video Demo by Shawn Tubbs

ProAnalog Devices are very much Boutique territory and in very scarce distribution. Scotty Smith is trying to increase his distribution network while he needs to simultaneously ramp up his output. I was very fortunate to come across one of these blue version ones on Reverb.com. It's not per say exactly modelled on a Fuzz Face (nor the Tone Bender IV that the name hints at), but it's actually very much a 1960's style vintage sounding fuzz which generates its tones from a hybrid mix of Germanium and Silicon transistors. When I did my Fuzz Face style overview this was my favourite sounding pedal - the above demo video gives you an excellent reference for what it is capable of - glorious searing and sustaining syrupy tones.


The Smooth Muff - ThorpyFX Fallout Cloud - £185

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ThorpyFX Fallout Cloud with Mike Hermans

I initially did not like Thorpy's slightly oversized enclosures, but have warmed to them of late. In particular for this magnificent Big Muff Triangle - style pedal. Essentially a very smooth over-drive sounding muff really for those who don't particularly like fuzz pedals. I was initially put out a touch by the fact that it didn't really sound like a Muff, but the tones it generate are wonderfully fluid, rich and harmonic - and surprisingly smooth. Probably Thorpy's most popular pedal.


The Boosted Muff - Foxpedal Defector - £188

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Foxpedal Defector Fuzz

This is my mainstay regular fuzz - being based on the Green Russian Big Muff - with extra silicon and LED diode clipping. It also has a useful Mids dial to scoop or boost the mids - and a Pre-boost function which can be applied independently. Finally, its bypass switch doubles us as a momentary fuzz feedback loop trigger. So an extended range of tones in a very useful and compact pedal - and it sounds great.


The Tone Bender - Monsterpiece MKI Fuzz [Direct] - $200

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Monsterpiece MKI Fuzz

I wasn't particularly familiar with Tone Benders before I carried out by recent fuzz research, and now I find I rather quite like them in pretty much all their varieties. Of all the ones I screened, this one sounded the best to me - searing, dynamic and vibrant. It also has an additional Attack dial to the original source - which gives you a few more tone-shaping capabilities.


The Modern Tone Bender - Basic Audio Scarab Deluxe - £199

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Basic Audio Scarab Deluxe Fuzz

The Scarab Deluxe is engineered to be particularly pedalboard friendly and gives you 2 additional tone-shaping dials over the originals. This is an evolution of a MKIII/IV Tone Bender with some modern concessions towards playability and enhanced circuit components to handle both single coil and humbucker pickups. The added Bias and Fat dials allow you to tune the fuzz voicing and enhance the lower-end frequencies. This pedal is in somewhat limited distribution as of the moment, but is well worth seeking out.


The Fuzzrite - Catalinbread Moseley Fuzzrite - £125

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Catalinbread Fuzzrite

Another recent discovery and acquisition is this Catalinbread collaboration and recreation of the Moseley original - still with the two volume and depth dials, but in a much reduced enclosure and all-round more pedalboard friendly. Another slightly different voice of fuzz, and well worth it for proper fuzz fans. Before doing my fuzz research, I was more familiar with Catalinbread for its delays and foundation drive pedals - yet I've since discovered that it does excellent fuzz pedals too - leading to me acquiring 3 of theirs - all in this listing, and all quite different.


The Superfuzz - Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz - discontinued - c£150 (Reverb.com)

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Boss Hyper Fuzz FZ-2 Pedal

I actually feature 2 Univox Superfuzz clones and both are a little out of the ordinary. The Boss is closer to the original, but has a 3-way voicing dial - Fuzz I, Fuzz II and Gain Boost, as well as separate Treble and Bass controls on dual concentric dials. This is an really fuzzy distorted octave fuzz which is pretty unusual for Boss, and which has very much come back into favour of late and is many player's favourite fuzz now. There were a couple on Reverb before Christmas, but both have since disappeared - one I believe was sold and the other removed from sale. The best quality versions of these go for £150-£200 and are much in demand. I've seen a few shoddy battered versions on Ebay, so I'll hold out until I find one of suitable quality. In the meantime I hope that Boss is clever enough to re-release it - there certainly seems to be demand. Update! - found a decent one on Ebay for £120 in excellent condition - very good value everything considered.


The Octave Fuzz - SolidGoldFX 76 Fuzz - £150+ (Reverb.com)

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SolidGoldFX 76 Fuzz Custom Aged Copper

SolidGoldFX have their own store on Reverb.com - making it relatively easy to acquire one of these as I did. Much like the Thorpy Fallout Cloud is a smoother version of a Big Muff Triangle, the 76 Fuzz is a very refined version of the Super Fuzz - and one which I really love the sound of.


The Smooth Rat - VFE Alpha Dog V2 - discontinued - $179 new (Reverb.com)

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VFE Pedals Alpha Dog V2

When I first heard the Alpha Dog, I was disappointed that it did not sound as much like a ProCo Rat as I expected - in fact it's capable of some pretty gnarly rat sounds if you tune it just right, but even though it uses the same core LM308N OpAmp its main tone profile as such is tuned more towards overdrive than fuzz. Even that is a simplistic overstatement as there are 3 critical small dials whose interplay sets the tone - the 'Fat' Gain EQ, the 'Hard' (T)win to (V)intage Silicon diode mix and the 'Soft' (G)ermanium to (M)osfet diode mix. This pedal has an incredible range of tones and is supremely tweakable, it's one of the most versatile fuzz/overdrive pedals on the market, and is understandably VFE's best selling pedal ever - sadly now discontinued. I've been trying to acquire one of these - they were on final offer back in November so it may prove tricky to acquire one now - but I shall persevere! Update! - and persevere I did - checking twice a day on Reverb.com has yielded a mint version - funnily enough in a mint / seafoam green colourway - you've got to snap them up when you see them!


The Hybrid Rat - Catalinbread Katzenkonig - £137

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Catalinbread Katzenkönig Fuzz / Distortion

This second of my Catalinbread fuzzes is an interesting blend of Tone Bender MKII and Rat - the sum of the two producing something sort of greater than each of them. The pedal features a smart 4-dial configuration with Volume and Gain fully self-explanatory, while Input acclimatises the pedal to its upstream input i.e. adjusts the signal from other pedals in the chain - and Filter alters the tone from Bright through to Dark and Creamy. So if you're not sure whether to get a Tone Bender or Rat, why not go for a little of both!


The Supercharged Rat - Dr Scientist Frazz Dazzler - £229

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Dr. Scientist - Frazz Dazzler

This is one of the pretty much permanent fuzz pedals in my chain - not exactly a Rat clone as such but more like an evolved and improved version of one. I describe it as an electrical storm in a pedal - it has wonderfully complex electric interference fuzz combined with a separate gain footswitch and level. The pedal has a full 3-band EQ, Dry Mix, Volts control dial - a sort of bias, and a Volume dial. This is a whole next level version of a Rat as far as I'm concerned and the best of its kind. On further reflection the best way to describe this is as a supercharged Rat - as amended in the title.


The Modern + Spattery Fuzz - Magnetic Effects White Atom - £109

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Magnetic Effects White Atom Fuzz

This fuzz pedal has a distinctly modern voicing, yet is highly versatile within itself. It has a tighter fuzz profile compared to the more open and syrupy vintage fuzzes of yore. It has a broad range of tones and significant depth in saturation with all the modern engineering advances which give it ultimate pedalboard-friendliness - meaning low noise floor and anywhere placement. This is certainly not quite as rich and rounded as some of the more vintage-voiced pedals - but offers up a very useful pallet of fuzz tones at a very reasonable price point - highly recommended.


The Gated Fuzz - Old Blood Noise Endeavours Haunt - £179

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Old Blood Noise Endeavors Haunt Fuzz Demo - BestGuitarEffects.com

This cool gated fuzz has been on my wishlist for a while now - other things seem to have pipped it in the pecking order - so I'm still to acquire one. As I've declared this the Year of Fuzz - I will most likely have one by year end as this is another really great sounding fuzz pedal. It has 5 self-explanatory dials - Volume | Fuzz | Gate | Mix | Tone and two voicing toggles - Mode and Low. The former allows you to toggle between two different combinations of Silicon transistors, while 'Low' adds in more bass or a low end boost.


The Oscillated Fuzz - Subdecay Harmonic Antagonizer - £169

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Subdecay - Harmonic Antagonizer

This is my most recently acquired fuzz pedal - as the user guide states - Fuzz | Oscillation | Chaos Synthesizer. It's been on my wishlist of quite the while - and another of my recent acquisitions from 'Joe's Pedals' - the UK's leading purveyor of boutique pedals - with an incredible near 70 brands stocked. There are a few Trem-Fuzzes or Oscillo-Fuzzes out there, but this is the coolest at this form factor. 5 dials control the action - Frequency (Oscillation) | Sense (Envelope Control Level) | Volume | Blend (Square Wave to Oscillation mix) | Sustain (Input Gain). Has a plethora of tones and weird moments on hotspots along the Frequency, Blend and Sustain dials. This a real fun pedal to use.


The Velcro Fuzz - Zvex Fuzz Factory Vertical - £180

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ZVEX Vertical Vexter Fuzz Factory

The 5 dial Zvex Fuzz Factory is a legendary pedal which I always loved the sound of but disliked its elongated horizontal form factor. The introduction of a a new vertical version meant that I snapped one up pretty quick. This Germanium-loaded fuzz can sound like a Fuzz Face if you wish, but is much better known for its more gated and velcro-style tones. You need to be careful with it as it can yield all manner of weirdness depending how you set its dials. I'm a big fan of St Vincent and she uses these particularly well.


The Woolly Fuzz - Side Effects Woolly Mammoth 7 Clone - £145

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Woolly Mammoth 7 "clone"

Aside from the Fuzz Factory and Fuzz Factory 7, Zvex is almost equally well known for the very aptly described Woolly Mammoth 7. While scanning Reverb.com I came across this wonderful Mammoth 7 clone from Greek boutique pedal maker Side Effects. Side Effects manages to squeeze everything into a compact enclosure and add an Oscillation toggle to give you even more texture. So I have a great cross section of 'Zvex' type fuzzes - to which I will soon add the Fuzzolo. I hear rumours that more of its classic will soon be released in compact form factor - so there may be a couple more I snap up there.


The Experimental Fuzz - Catalinbread Antichthon - £135

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Catalinbread Antichthon Fuzz Tremolo

The Antichthon is probably the weirdest fuzz you don't yet know. It has 4 control dials - Gravity | Time | Volume | Space - which all react wonderfully to your guitar volume - both individually and all together. At its core it is another Tremolo Fuzz, but it's quite a different beast really. It is recommended you start with just the Volume and Time dials active - the latter sort of sets the Tremolo rate - which you can then vary with your guitar volume control. Gravity is the crazy WTF sort of voicing dial which delivers all manner of weird tones from synthy sweeps to squelchy and chirpy sort of dolphin sounds. Finally the Space dial is sort of 'Depth' control but gives you some odd warps within its sweep. The tiniest movement of the Gravity and Space dials can yield something uniquely weird and wonderful - there are all manner of 'hot spots' along the dial sweeps which produce interesting sounds. This is definitely an acquired-taste experimental pedal - for the studio really rather than playing live. Presets might have been useful on this pedal as you may struggle to recreate found sounds the second time around. For me - this pedal is just for inspiration and texture really - it's not a regular playing fuzz at all more for the studio.


The Fuzz-Mixer- Spaceman Effects Gemini III - discontinued - c$1,000 ($349-$389 new)

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Spaceman Gemini III: Boutique Dual Fuzz Effects Pedal

The 'Dual Fuzz Generator' was originally released in 2012 in Black (50), Blue (15), Copper (20), Silver (90), and White (40) - a total of 215 pedals with the silver version the lowest cost at $349 and the Copper version the dearest at $20. Unlike Analog.Man Mike Piera who regularly makes ongoing limited release pedals like the King of Tone - which anyone can still get by going on the waiting list - which may be a year long! Spaceman Effects' Zak Marting though has a different approach where the pedals are discontinued once produced in limited pedals. This means that a lot of Spaceman users are collectors rather than players - and many of these pedals sit permanently on the shelf somewhere. My first introduction to Spaceman was by way of its Orion spring tank. I was obviously way too late for the Gemini III which is now 5 years old. There was a black version on sale on Reverb just before Christmas for nearly $1,000 - although that seems to have been removed from sale eventually. What makes the Gemini III so great is that it has 2 separate Germanium and Silicon circuits that you can control via a mixer dial - taking you from all Germanium to all Silicon and everything in between. Each circuit also has a 3-way gain switch to you can mix together gain and degree of each circuit. Hopefully Zak can introduce a Gemini IV - where he replaces the 3-way toggles with gain and tone dials for each side - for the ultimate fuzz pedal! Currently - unless I win the lottery I am kind of unlikely to acquire a second-hand one - they rarely come up for sale. So the nearest alternatives for me are the JDM Pedals Union Fuzz, Amptweaker Tight Fuzz Jr or Monsterpiece PNP DLX - each of which mixes up Germanium and Silicon transistors in their own way. I had initially thought I might go for an Amptweaker Tight Fuzz Jr or the JDM Union Fuzz, but am currently leaning more towards the Monsterpiece PNP DLX.


The Fuzz-Modulator - Dr Scientist BitQuest - £229

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Dr. Scientist - BitQuest

I funnily acquired this pedal initially as a Bitcrusher, and then secondarily as a multi-modulation fx pedal as it features - Flanger | Envelope Filter | Bitcrusher | Reverb | Notch Filter | Ring Modulation | Pitch Shifter | Particle Delay. However this pedal was initially conceived as a Fuzz Modulaiton pedal - where you can select to assign Clean or Fuzzed up signal to each of those effects. And this is a pretty decent sounding fuzz pedal with lots of tonal variations through all the modulation effects. This is one of the most versatile and clever pedals you can acquire in this form factor. Its slot in my pedal chain is currently occupied by a synth pedal - namely the DigiTech Dirty Robot - but both of these get swapped around quite a lot.


The Dual Fuzz - Chase Bliss Analog Brothers - £349

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Chase Bliss - Brothers

This is another one of my 2 permanent Fuzz pedals - along with the Frazz Dazzler - regularly the BitQuest is in the chain too - so I end up with 4 fuzz pedals in the chain. The 4th fuzz slot is where most of the swapping occurs - with the Foxpedal Defector getting the most days in that slot, but numerous other pedals getting playback time there too. As for the Chase Bliss Brothers pedal - this is functionally very similar to the Strymon Riverside, but where one of the 3 flavours on each channel is a Fuzz. So I almost entirely use the Brothers as a Fuzz pedal - mostly with its 2 fuzz voicings, but mixing those up also with the drive and boost voicings - lots of fuzz toneage on tap therefore.


The Multi-Bender - Crazy Tube Circuits Constellation Fuzz - €267

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Crazy Tube Circuits - Contstellation (NAMM 2018 Pedal Demo Marathon: more at Delicious-Pedals.com)

This is the one pedal not released yet - announced at Winter NAMM 2018 this is a Germanium Muffuletta-style pedal with 6 different voicings - Fuzz Face | Vox Tone Bender | Tone Bender MK1.5 | Tone Bender MKII | Dallas Range Master | Range Master > Fuzz Face. Not a lot of demos on this one yet, but what I've heard sound pretty good - in understand this one is out in April/May - and Crazy Tube Circuits have a great track record with fuzzes - to this should be gold - definitely planning to add this then.


The Multi-Muff - JHS Muffuletta - £209

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JHS Muffuletta Distortion / Fuzz

This was the first of the 'Heritage' pedals as I call them - now followed by the JHS Bonsai and above Constellation Fuzz. Josh Scott pioneered this category by 'curating' 6 classic Big Muff circuits within a single pedal - namely : the Civil War | Green Russian | Pi | Triangle | Ram's Head | JHS. All decent and workable flavours and all of which I use pretty regularly - with possibly the original Pi and Ram's Head getting the least use. If you're into Big Muff -style fuzzes then there's no excuse for not getting this - all the voicings are pretty spot-on and you get a lot of variety here. I'm sure we'll see a few more of these 'Heritage' pedals in forthcoming years.


Honourable Mentions

The above listing is my sort of top 24 desirable fuzz pedals - which cover as wide a range of key types as possible - with a few quirky ones thrown in too for good measure. As with all effects pedals there is never just a single solution - there are always alternatives - which is why I always state 'among the best' rather than 'the best'. In compiling the various recent fuzz pedal articles I must have scanned though a few hundred pedals - no doubt I've overlooked a few other worthy ones.

 

And while the above are my top 24, there are always more to be considered and so many fuzz specialist around now. I should do more too to support UK pedal makers like Magnetic Effects who do stellar pedalboard-friendly fuzzes at really reasonable prices - like the Solar Bender and White Atom. We also cannot overlook Analog.Man Mike Piera who is a renowned master of Fuzz - I just don't particularly like the waiting lists. I ordered my first waiting list pedal in January - The Ethos TWE-1 from Custom Tones - due for completion / dispatch in March or April - which for me is a long way away - although not nearly as much as some of these other made-to-order pedals. So that is the main thing that puts me off Analog.Man - actually same goes for Monsterpiece Fuzz I believe, although those are more stock items so possibly there is less of a wait.

 

So here are my next 10 (alphabetical):

  • Amptweaker TightFuzz Jr - £169 - Hybrid Separate Germanium and Silicon Circuits
  • Analog.Man Sun Face NKT275 Red Dot - $260 - Fuzz Face Style : Rare Germanium Circuit
  • Blackout Effectors Fubar - £189 - Tone Bender Style : Experimental Tone Bender Circuit with Oscillation
  • EarthQuaker Devices Erupter - £155 - Super Simple Single-Dial Silicon Circuit
  • EarthQuaker Devices Park/Colby Fuzz - £185 - Recent-ish renewal of old Jim Marshall Park Fuzz (Tone Bender Circuit)
  • Foxpedal WRatH V2 - Foxpedal's Rat-alike has superb 4-dial controllability plus harder voicing toggle
  • JDM Pedals Union Fuzz - $139 - Separate Germanium and Silicon Circuits
  • Magnetic Effects Solar Bender - £109 - Tone Bender Style : Germanium + Silicon Mix
  • Monsterpiece PNP DLX - $185 - Fuzz Face Style : Hybrid Germanium + Silicon Mix
  • Wampler Velvet Fuzz - $189 - Modern Smooth 2-way clipping circuit

Final Thoughts

Who would have thought Fuzz was such a broad field - these are usually such simple circuits - but changing out different transistors, resistors and capacitors can yield hugely variable results. I never realised that there were quite so many boutique fuzz specialist out there! There are lots of different kinds of boutique builders - of course hand-wired vs PCB and various routes to speeding up the build process.

 

I have so many different pedals on my wishlist that in most circumstances I can't be bothered to wait around. Rarely is there a pedal with no direct alternatives - yet there are a number in the above listing. As reported previously my pedal preferences are a mix of tone, versatility, practicality, build quality, form-factor and of course pricing and availability. My favourite form factor would have to be the compact pedal size in a Chase-Bliss style arrangement - 2 banks of 3 dials with multiple toggles and dip-switches, and dual footswitches for tap-tempo, individual channel selection etc.

 

I try not do be disparaging about any particular pedal - as most of them are capable of achieving decent tones, albeit not always in isolation. For instance my Boss GE-7 EQ pedal just happens to be a big part of my tone. Switch it off or take it out of the circuit / chain and you loose some of the vibrancy I have become accustomed to.

 

In the pedal world there will always be one or two discontinued or hard-to-obtain models which you might struggle to get for several months. So you quickly adjust your approach to the next best thing - which could even be better for you than what you perceived to be your original and first best thing. You often find the most inconsequential purchases cam still yield something of high worth, and sometimes you will prefer an instantly available pedal over something you have to wait and indeterminable period for.

 

I will remind you that I'm forever going through an exploratory phase (as part of the ongoing Tone Quest) - sampling all those different flavours, seeing what sticks and what inspires me. Hopefully there will be some useful overlap between my interests and others who are looking into the same subject areas. I just want to help them broaden their horizons and then be able to saliently narrow their choices. There are other sites that list out every type of Klon etc. ever available - yet for me there will be a sub-set of only 10 or 12 or so that will be of interest to me. So this is a learning curve as well as an exercise in curation - and I don't expect anyone to like all my choices - just to be aware of what the options are - so they can add further choices or otherwise opt out.

 

Now that I have 18 compact fuzzes to my name - with 3 of those in the chain, I can afford to slow down a touch. I for sure want the CTC Constellation when that materialises in April, otherwise there is nothing I'm really actively chasing - I do want a Fallout Cloud and Monsterpiece MK 1, but there's really no hurry - none of those are on the endangered lists and there seem to be plenty in circulation...

Stefan Karlsson
Posted by Stefan Karlsson
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