r/FuzzFiends

Started this project on 8/26/2024. Sputter like butter, sustains for days.

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.

Gonna share our next informal release(proud parent). This circuit is madness.

Added controls for bias and tone (high pass filter). Lots of smooth sustain at standard settings. Some dark glitchy fuzz at extreme settings.

Straight from the awesome John-Anthony DeMaio at Voltic: the very newest version of the DTF (with new “trim” knob that changes the bias of the last transistor), along with the Stache op-amp fuzz.

Both sound and feel great, but I can’t really play well today because I had a minor surgical procedure on my neck this morning. Hopefully tomorrow, I’ll be less stiff, and then I can put them through their paces more.

Probably not the best match for my current projects, but I decided to pull the trigger on this one after having it in my wishlist since it was released, just for the sake of hoarding fuzzes.

First impressions:

It doesn't really sound like anything that I've used before so, while I love some of the sounds I'm getting with it, I'm still assessing its useability in my rig.

It's pretty easy to get that "broken console" kind of drive and sputtery/gated fuzz with it in drive and fuzz modes respectively.

The controls have wide ranges, and are very interactive with each other. I wouldn't say it's a pedal that sounds good, or feels like it's doing something audible in all the positions. Despite this, it's quite easy to find the sweet spots while turning the knobs, just listening to the background noise (and is not especially noisy btw).

It probably won't stay for long on my board, just because it's not the kind of sound that I will use often in my current projects, but It's a nice interesting fuzz/fuzzy drive all in all.

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?

This mod is based on the Fuzz Face circuit. Josh built it during his trip to Japan and posted the schematic on the JHS YouTube channel. I really liked the sound of his modification, but I wanted to experiment with it a bit. I ended up creating my own hybrid version using silicon and germanium transistors.

To make the experiment more authentic, I selected the components by ear, so the schematic shows the variations in component selection.

I was also inspired by the work of Marcus Reeves from Reeves Electro and his legendary point-to-poiunt builds

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?

I don’t like calling this one rare because they’re still in production haha. But I don’t see these in discussion or in the wild all that often when they should be. This is a really smart 3 transistor design that’s very adjustable. The best to describe the controls is a level, fuzz, base, transistor gain and mid range control. This allows you to go from Hendrix and Gilmour soaring leads to classic rock crunch tones. It’s cover enough ground when I feel I have to put this in a Fuzz-stortion range of pedals. With that being said, this is a killer classic rock box these deserves a lot of love!