u/SwanDesigner

This pedal has been around for years, but it’s new to me and I’m having way too much fun with it.

The octave is always on, which is exactly why I wanted it. What surprised me was how far the 7-band EQ can push that one basic voice. Fat and woolly, dry and rude, broken-speaker sputter, laser-beam buzz, giant low-end sludge. Same octave fuzz, completely different flavors of trouble.

I had ChatGPT cook up a dozen EQ profiles just to see what would happen. I expected random slider shapes. Instead, I lost an evening trying every single one. The second pic is the resulting cheat sheet.

I know this one has been around for a while and has probably shown up here plenty of times, but I finally got my hands on a Dunlop BFG07 Siete Santos Octavio Fuzz and had to post it. I expected it to be good, but I didn’t expect to like it this much.

I assumed it would basically be an Octavio with a graphic EQ stuck on top. That’s technically what it is, but the EQ does a lot more than I expected. The octave fuzz character is always there, but the seven sliders can take it from thick and woolly to dry garage trash, broken-radio sputter, nasty synth buzz, or a huge bass-heavy wall of noise. It still sounds like the same pedal, but the feel and response can change pretty dramatically.

Just for fun, I asked ChatGPT to come up with some settings to try. I figured a few might be useful and the rest would be nonsense, but quite a few of them actually sounded great. Some changed the pedal way more than I expected. The second pic has all the settings if anyone wants to mess around with them.

So yeah, I’m very late to this particular NPD, but I’m seriously impressed. It has way more range than I expected from an octave fuzz with the octave permanently on.

Anyone else still using one of these? If you have a favorite setting, post it below. I’m absolutely stealing it.

I came across this unusual handmade pedal on a classifieds site and thought its construction might interest people here.

The pedal is called ROCK BRISTLES. Its builder used the metal chassis of an old CD-ROM drive and added an embroidered fabric control panel. According to the listing, it offers:

• Distortion level and tone controls
• Adjustable self-oscillation
• Toggle switches for different sound variations
• Power from a 9V battery or an external adapter
• Center-positive DC input

The battery is accessed through the original disc-drive opening, and the underside has wooden feet. It’s a genuinely inventive use of repurposed computer hardware.

The listing also includes a demo. The builder notes that it was recorded with a camera from a computer speaker, so the recording setup should be kept in mind when judging the sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAiiJa4e8rU

This isn’t my pedal, and I’m not affiliated with the builder — I simply found the design interesting.

Has anyone seen another guitar pedal built into repurposed computer hardware? And what do you think of adjustable self-oscillation as a distortion control?

I didn’t build this myself, so no stolen valor here. I commissioned it from a local builder and thought this sub might appreciate the build.

It’s based on the JHS Japan Fuzz, essentially a stripped-down Fuzz Face variant, but I had this one built as a hybrid NPN version using germanium and silicon rather than an all-Ge or all-Si pair.

No external fuzz control, just volume. The circuit is handwired point-to-point style, which is half the reason I wanted to post the gut shot here.

The hybrid setup turned out more interesting than I expected. It has a lot of low end, sounds noticeably rougher and dirtier than the more conventional Fuzz Faces I’ve played, and every now and then there’s a hint of sub-octave poking through. It also reacts extremely well to the guitar volume, so in practice I don’t really miss having a fuzz knob.

I’m curious about the circuit side of it though. Has anyone here built the Japan Fuzz with a Ge/Si pair? How much difference did transistor order and bias make compared with an all-germanium or all-silicon version?

I had a local builder make this for me as a custom clone of the JHS Japan pedal, basically a Fuzz Face-style circuit with a slightly different personality.

This particular version is a hybrid NPN build, germanium + silicon. There’s only one knob for volume, no fuzz control at all, which sounds limiting until you actually play it.

Compared to a more typical Fuzz Face, this one has noticeably more low end and a dirtier, rougher character. There’s also this strange hint of sub-octave that occasionally pokes through, especially when you dig in. It’s not an octave fuzz, it just has that slightly unstable, broken edge to the note that I really like.

The best part is how much it reacts to the guitar volume. Roll the volume back and it cleans up dramatically, so after a while you don’t really miss having a fuzz knob on the pedal. The guitar basically becomes the fuzz control.

Very simple circuit, very simple controls, but it has much more personality than I expected. And I really like how old-school and primitive the point-to-point build looks inside.

Anyone else here into these minimal one-knob Fuzz Face variations?

In front of the amp:
TC Electronic PolyTune 3 Noir → Aclam The Mocker → SoundLad Scran V2 → SoloDallas Schaffer Replica → Aclam Dr. Robert V3.

In the effects loop:
UA Galaxy ’74 → Boss RV-6.

(Sometimes I swap the RV-6 for an EarthQuaker Devices Dispatch Master V3 just to change things up and suppress the GAS).

A few words about the build:

• The core of this board is built around 60s and 90s British rock tones (mostly Beatles and Oasis).
• The Aclam pedals (The Mocker and Dr. Robert) do an incredible job recreating that specific Vox UL-series vibe.
• The Strymon Ojai is currently sitting on top, serving as the ultimate shield against GAS. The Death tarot card is there to guard the spot, but who knows, one day it might fall and make way for the Aclam Go Rocky Go or a Rush Pepbox 2.0.

In front of the amp:
TC Electronic PolyTune 3 Noir → Aclam The Mocker → SoundLad Scran V2 → SoloDallas Schaffer Replica → Aclam Dr. Robert V3.

In the effects loop:
UA Galaxy ’74 → Boss RV-6.

(Sometimes I swap the RV-6 for a Dispatch Master V3 just to scratch the GAS itch).