The R2R Electric x Waterslide Guitars Time-O-Lite Fuzz Collaboration is a really striking take on the Arbiter Fuzz Face

These are all long since sold, some even re-sold again. They were assembled in 2 batches of circa 25 pedals each (first batch happened last year I believe!) - these were priced at $550, and I’ve seen that at least one of the 2nd batch was later sold on for nigh $850 on Reverb.com.

R2R and Waterslide have essentially managed to get their hands on a consignment of old Industrial Timers Time-O-Lite Master Dark Room Exposure Timers - originally used for Black & White film processing timings. Those devices were made from the 1930’s into the 1970’s when the company was sold to the Singer Corporation.

Most of the devices used for this project date from the 40’s - the one pictured is a M-49 Model from circa 1942. Most of them are pretty battered - rusted, scratched, scuffed and patinated, with some of those examples in what I would determine to be a pretty poor state / condition. But some of you seem to like battered relics! I’ve tidied up my own image above significantly - reduced some of the scuffs, scratches and rust - just to make the picture look a little more appealing - and the Time-O-Lite a little closer to its original glory - but I’ve left some rust on the longer lever!

Interestingly the original Arbiter Fuzz Face dimensions were 184 x 203 x 83mm, and the Time-O-Lite is very similar at 203 x 203 x 76mm - at least for that M-49 Model.

The Fuzz Face Pedal is a very simple circuit - where the original had only 11 components, including 2 Germanium Transistors - very originally AC125’s, but then cheaper knock-off Newmarket NKT275 Transistors - which are the ones best known today. These Time-O-Lite Fuzzes feature killer Mullard / Philips Black Glass Bulb AC107 Germanium Transistors onboard - which are of course super rare and sound great!

For this Time-O-Lite Fuzz - R2R have fully adapted that original enclosure - so the 2 timing controls - become controls for Volume and Fuzz. The former left-hand toggle has been replace by a faceted Crystal LED, while the right-hand switch was already originally a stompbox style / push switch in any case - but probably replaced with a newer variant as part of this rollout.

This is quite evidently a very cool looking pedal - and if I were ever to get one - I would try to secure my own M-49 Model first - and get someone to restore that, before the conversion, as I’m not at all a fan of relic’d / weathered / battered devices.

It’s a little oversized for my own preferences in any case, and as far as I’m concerned all Germanium Fuzzes need an external bias control - so that counts against it too. If I were ever to hunt down one of those enclosures - I would likely ask my friend Joe Halliday at Hello Sailor Effects to do his Abbey Road Fuzz Magic on that! I would request an external bias too. Or I might just take it to a metal fabricator and see if the enclosure could be cut down to something even smaller - while still retaining that cool central dial and controls! It’s great to innovate!

Props to R2R and Waterslide in any case for a brilliant execution - and congratulations to everyone who managed to snag one - a really cool project for sure!

The only Time-O-Lites currently on Reverb.com are the T-Shirts - in just plain black and white. Relic-style t-shirts would have been cooler!