Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
I managed to land a Shift Line MKII Termofuzz from a private seller in Australia - almost one year after its launch
I’ve been on friendly terms with Oleg from Russia’s Shift Line electronics for a number of years now - mostly on account of his killer original Termofuzz - first released in 2011. I’ve championed that super versatile fuzz for years, and long advocated for a reissue - which finally happened around the middle of last year. Obviously there is understandably no way to get products out of Russia to the UK these days - I’ve no idea how the Australian I bought this off managed to get one - possibly there are less sanctions in Australia. In any case I’ve been trying to get my hands on one for months - and it’s finally happened. The original is one of my all-time favourite fuzzes.
The original Termofuzz is somewhat unruly and can get very drony and noisy at times - where you can all too easily get constant noise output that you cannot palm-mute or dial out. You need to set the controls very carefully for optimal output - otherwise you might need to assign some sort of noise gate / filter - which in fact Oleg has done on the later MKII release.
Original Termofuzz Controls - Level, Dirt, Gain, Harmonics : Most / Moderate / Minimal, Mode.
Note that for the Dirt knob — you turn this knob to get self-oscillation, random octaves, 8-bit sounds and drone noises - it can get very unruly past noon!
For the original I tend to mostly set the Level, Dirt, and Gain to around Noon for each of them, and then I’m mostly just adjusting the Middle and Up Settings of the Harmonics switch - as I sweep through the various Mode options - which deliver all manner of Fuzz Sounds - Gated, Octave, 8-Bit, Oscillating, Harmonic and evolve through different stages of gain / distortion. Yes that pedal is unruly - but it’s relatively easy to master / temper and I have become quite adept at dialling it in - particularly for those killer searing Fuzz sounds - which sound so incredible. You need to apply some care in how you use the Dirt knob - but generally you get used to it all pretty quickly - and all the different sounds it is capable of.
The original Termofuzz is a total original - nothing quite like it that I’ve come across - and it sets a very high bar indeed!
The Termofuzz MKII is seemingly a wholly different beast - with a markedly different set of controls - and with seemingly different tapers to each of those dials - it is even more unruly - and more prone to noise overspill - and seemingly much more tricky to tame. You can get similar sounds out of the MKII version - but it's more complicated - and takes longer to dial in overall - you also typically get more unwanted noise and semi unusable tones. The fully variable Harmonics control has a very odd taper - where it jumps into action in leaps and bounds - but then fades out in-between somehow. 2 o'c seems to be decent for that - but you can get unwanted noise at several of those intervals.
The MKII seems overall far noisier by default - and hence we have 2 x 3-way Low and High Pass Filter switches - which for me cut either too much or not enough - so I mostly just leave those in the middle - and live with the additional noise. I would have made the Harmonics a 3-way switch as before - as that worked so well for the original - and I would deploy mini fully variable pots for the LPF and HPF to make those fully accurately and practically usable for me.
MKII Controls - Level, Wet-Dry Blend (with centre detent), Gain, Harmonics, 3-way Low Pass Filter, Mode Sweep, 3-way High Pass Filter.
The pedal kind of works well with the Blend in the middle - and most everything else at 2 o'c, and filters neutral. But even then you can get some build up of unwanted noise at times - where the palm-muting of strings though mostly works for those settings. There are far more settings on the MKII where the noise just sort of drones on - and can't be cleaned up by palm-muting or attenuating the guitar controls.
As I mentioned - you can for sure get sort of similar sounds across both models - but it's a much trickier process on the MKII variety. I often have the Blend @ c. 10 o'c, but mostly in the middle. While the Level and Gain seemingly have totally different tapers than before - and the level needs to be higher typically on the MKII than the MKI. I would say that the controls used to be far more even and predictable - but now seemingly behave a little more unevenly / randomly - in particular the Harmonics.
I also prefer having a chicken-head knob on the main Mode Sweep - that makes more sense to me. And the documentation doesn't seem to be quite as clear as it was previously on where exactly all the different varieties of fuzz live along the Mode Sweep - but it does offer quite a few more presets and sounds samples.
Generally for me - the original 2011 model is the superior one - it's better behaved and more easy to dial in. Both versions of the fuzz are unruly - while the MKI is really just a little mischievous - but the new one is more awkward and obstinate and generally just far more difficult to bend to your will.
It's slightly odd that with more controls you seemingly get less refinement. And those changes don't really result in any meaningful improvements to the actual output of the circuit for me. The original is the better version for me for sure.
The Blend kind of opens you up to some new possibilities - while that's mostly a concession to Bass players - where it really adds nothing meaningful for me.
The original version was nigh perfect as it was - and is still the more fun pedal to explore and deploy. Yes - all those controls are incredibly interactive - and you need to adjust several in tandem - just as you would need to do with a Fuzz Factory. But the original is so much easier to operate and more fun to deploy!
I'm not saying that the new one is necessarily bad - it's just that the original one is objectively better in every department for me.
I've had both the original Termofuzz and MKII on the board at the same time - and I've decided to give the original one another outing - the new one just can't fully compete with it - the original Termofuzz is still the best of that kind!
Bass players may get some more joy with the new MKII - but for everyone else - I advise you to hunt down the original!
You can read up more about the Termofuzz MKII on the Shift Line website.
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