Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
Pedal Pawn's Freaky Fuzz is a wonderfully versatile, richly textured 3-transistor Fuzz with a vast range, and it sounds every bit as good as it looks
Normally when you encounter 3-transistor fuzzes you assume Tone Bender territory, but that is not always the case - in the Horrothia Lütz the output profile is mostly classic Fuzz Face, and for this Freaky Fuzz the output has an interesting sort of rasp to its character - it’s more textured than your typical Tone Bender, a little more ragged - but with a similar gain-range. It’s like a slightly unruly / wilder cousin to Tone Bender.
Pedal Pawn described their fuzz perfectly here :
"Powered by a unique three silicon transistor design, the Freaky Fuzz is built for pure psychedelic energy, delivering huge output, aggressive saturation and amp-pushing power while still keeping notes tight, fat and articulate. Chords sound massive, riffs hit hard and lead tones cut through with huge sustain, bite and gnarly character."
Controls - Level, Fuzz, Tone.
The gain range is really extraordinary - if you dial the Fuzz all the way back you end up with a really bright sort of harmonic overdrive, and then as you turn up the heat - the output gets more progressively textured and compressed. The Freaky Fuzz has exceptional guitar volume gain cleanup - I tend to quite like to set all the dials to 3 o’c and then just temper and fine-tune from my guitar volume and tone controls. It goes from super saturated raspy when cranked, down to a really elegant bright clean output - super dynamic.
Actually I’ve decided that the Level should sit at 4 o’c - that imparts more zing to the output and results in more versatility across the gain range. 3 o’c on the Fuzz Dial is perfect for guitar volume cleanup - as you can roll all the way back to crisp and clean. If the Fuzz dial is above 3 o’c you will get something of a noise floor when you dial your volume back (particularly when dimed!) - but on 3 o’c it cleans up perfectly.
There’s always some interplay between A fuzz’s volume and gain controls - and for this Freaky Fuzz - I tend to have the Level fixed at 4 o’c, and Tone @ 3 o’c, and then just play around with the Fuzz control - if that’s not set to 3 o’c. The Freaky Fuzz sounds awesome too fully dimed on Level and Fuzz - but you do get some added noise floor at those values.
I'm so glad Pedal Pawn decided to go with a 3-knob design here - it so helps the versatility of the core fuzz. And you can temper and smooth down its rasp with ease - or accentuate it even.
I don't really buy 2-knob fuzzes any more - I almost always prefer to have a 3rd control - typically external bias or tone.
The Freaky Fuzz sounds fantastic and very much has its own character. And yes Pedal Pawn use unusual transistors for this fuzz (none of the usual suspects!), I wasn't sure they would like me sharing those details and so I've held those details back. Two of the transistors have the same reference, and the 3rd is slightly different. They do sound fantastic in this combination though.
I largely tend to favour Germanium fuzzes because of their additional grit and harmonic textures. While this Freaky Fuzz has enough flavour to stand up against almost any germanium variety. It's a really distinctive full-fat flavourful fuzz - with a rainbow of different tones.
Pedal Pawn push the psychedelic angle quite a bit too - as typified by the excellent colourful pedal artwork too, and for sure those sensibilities are very evident.
It's just a perfect fuzz execution as far as I'm concerned - perfect textures, all the right controls, superb dynamics, and a killer artwork! What's not to like!
The Freaky Fuzz first batch I believe is sold out - but it's well worth waiting for the next batch - preorders are already open on the Pedal Pawn Store - best make sure you're in on the next round!
Demos
