Great Eastern FX significantly extends and evolves its original Hybrid Focus Fuzz, now a Deluxe Model with added Overtone Octave, and 3 super handy gain Modes

My good friend David already did a brilliant job on the original Hybrid / Ge Focus Fuzz - which I cited at the time as ’David Reinvents the Classic Fuzz’. He only had parts enough for 250 units back then with the MP38A particularly hard to get hold of. So alas there were several interested parties left out in the cold, and a couple of years of customer petitioning has resulted in the return of that grand pedal.

While David, ever the original, refuses to do things by half - and was determined to make his flagship Focus Fuzz even more potent and versatile. And hence it appears here as a golden wonder Focus Fuzz Deluxe!

The original had a really unique interplay between those 3 knobs as were then. With each of those kind of acting like a separate gain stage - even the Level control had a little gain in the mix - and you could wholly turn down any 2 of the then 3 dials - and still get a useful signal / sound.

Both the Focus and Fuzz controls impacted on several things at the same time - the Focus being a combination of Gain Boost, and Frequency Push - so the profile gets brighter and more searing as you turn that dial up. For the Fuzz control - you’re impacting Bias, Gain, and Compression simultaneously - so rotating that dial gives you several interesting outputs.

It’s the only fuzz I have - where you can turn down any two knobs out of the 3 and still get interesting outputs. You can then combine just 2 of those controls - or all 3 together.

At the heart of the circuit you have a very classy hybrid 2-Transistor Fuzz Face -like Fuzz, while everything else operates really uniquely - and you can deploy this pedal in all manner of guises. It’s such a poised and controlled, beautifully balanced circuit with incredibly low noise floor, and some exceptional and unique dynamics. It does pretty much everything you would except a Fuzz Face to do, but in a better behaved and more consistent way - with additional degrees of granularity in playback.

This new version retains all the core essentials of the original design, and adds new featured into the mix.

So you now have separate circuits for Boost, Overdrive, and Fuzz. Boost and Overdrive share the same transistor - with the Overdrive side adding 2 Red LEDs and some further components into the mix. And the Fuzz circuit is nigh identical to the original Focus Fuzz 2 x Hybrid Transistor Core.

This pedal has enough dynamics about it to serve hardcore fuzz enthusiasts and fledgling newbies alike. It’s incredibly easy to dial in - although there are some very interesting combinations to be achieved with those dials - particularly for the Fuzz Mode - where you have the Fuzz control also in the mix. For Boost and Overdrive you’re restricted to Focus and Level controls - while even just for Level - you have a slightly subtle grit in the mix - and then can use the Focus knob to drive up the grit, brightness, and overall gain.

Advanced pedal operators could do much of this with the original Focus Fuzz - but this gives you far more control and granularity over those aspects of the device. The Boost generally has a beautiful subtle grit to it - so it’s adjacent to a Dirty Boost really, and the Overdrive takes you well into Fuzzy-Drive territory but can also be very classically overdrive-y, and the Fuzz od course delivers a full Fuzz Face sear - beautifully textured, but also immaculately behaved and expansively tweakable - always yielding super musical output with the absolute minimum of noise floor.

Some customers were also clamouring for an Octave Fuzz - so David built that into this new device too. It combines BC107B and BC177B Transistors for uniquely warm and musical harmonic octave overtones - and that separate 2-Transistor circuit is then blended into the core signal. It’s a beautifully voiced Octave, to match the exceptional core texture and musicality of this circuit! The Octave / Overtone works beautifully with the Boost and Overdrive Modes too - adding in further interesting but always musical textures. The Octave is uniquely warm sounding!