Guitar Effect Pedals

Fuzz Face Stompbox

The Dallas Arbiter Company first issued the Fuzz Face in 1966, although the first fuzz faces were simply made by “Arbiter”, the second batch then introduced the “Dallas” arbiter addition. There is also a rather large and serious debate amongst Fuzz Face geeks as to which were the first transistors to be used in the unit. Most people generally agree that the AC128 transistor was the first, a few say that the NKT275 was the first and still others claim that the “Arbiter” Fuzz Face , (the first run of the unit) had SF363 transistors in it.

However, although this rather interesting debate rages, there is generally unanimous agreement as to which transistor sounds the best (the NKT275), made by the British company Newmarket. However to be fair, it seems that this is primarily because of the high quality consistency of this particular transistor, whereas other types had larger flucuations in consistency. The electronics are contained in a round, red, landmine-shaped metal housing. The pedal uses two knobs, one for volume, and one for the amount of “fuzz” the pedal produces. The distinctive sound of the Dallas Arbiter version of the Fuzz Face is said to come from the germanium transistors used in its manufacture.

The Fuzz Face is also notable among modern effects pedals for its lack of an input for a 9 volt power adapter; some have modified their Fuzz Face to accept adapters, or use adaptors that connect to the leads for the 9v battery. Many copies and reissues have been introduced and had little success due to different materials used in their electronic components. Jim Dunlop Manufacturing currently makes the pedal, but schematics and DIY plans to build your own Fuzz Face clone are abundant on the Internet; its simplicity lends itself to experimentation with different compenents to alter the sound.

Such guitarists as Jimi Hendrix (one of the best known Fuzz Face users), Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and others have used the pedal to make their legendary sounds. The Fuzz Face is sometimes confused with the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi fuzzbox due to the resemblance of their sounds on recordings; Jack White and Mudhoney (who named an album Superfuzz Bigmuff) have erroneously been said to use the Fuzz Face instead of the Big Muff Pi.

The Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive delivers classic Ibanez TS-808 style distortion and features an independent Clean control that lets you blend in a boosted direct signal to enhance clarity and preserve note attack. The Sparkle Drive utilizes the same concept as layering two amps, one clean and the other saturated. With the Clean control turned down, you get a classic overdrive tone. Turn it all the way up and you get a super transparent, 100% clean boost.

Other Sparkle Drive features include gain, tone and volume controls, true-bypass switching, a status LED, sturdy metal enclosure, and a 9-volt DC input jack. It also comes with the amazing Voodoo Labs 5-year warranty even covers the switch if it should short out.

I’ve owned a load of overdrive pedals including some really nice Fulltone FullDrives, but the Sparkle Drive is the one I keep coming back to. I recently A/B’d it to a reissue Ibanez TS-808 and it was neck-in-neck in terms of tone and had just a touch more bottom end. My favorite feature is the Clean control - I’m have no idea why other manufactures haven’t jumped on this great idea.

My current rig is ultra simple. Just my Jeff Beck Signature Stratocaster, a Fender Deluxe Reissue and the Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive - occasionally I bring out the Voodoo Labs Analog Chorus if I want a Fender Vibrophone effect. This is my simplest rig ever, but the tone is so sweet it’s hard not to think about…

The Ibanez Tube Screamer is a distortion effects pedal produced by Ibanez. It is one of the most famous overdrive pedals, and is named for the fact that its light distortion is similar to the sound given by overdriven tube amps. The pedal can be used on a solid-state amp to try to mimic the sound of a vintage tube amp, although many guitarists prefer to use it to push a tube amp’s preamp tubes into an overdriven state. The classic Tube Screamer sound includes a “mid-hump,” which means that the circuit accentuates freqencies between the bass and treble ranges (mid-frequencies). Many guitarists prefer this sort of equalization, as it helps to keep their sound from getting lost in the overall mix of the band.

The pedal was produced with many variants. The early incarnations of the TS-808 and TS-9 are the most sought after by collectors, due in part to the fact that Stevie Ray Vaughan is known to have used them as part of his signature sound. Other variants, including the TS-10, TS-7, and TS-5 are less collectible, but contain a nearly identical underlying circuit.

The TS-9 and TS-808 pedals have been reissued, but not all of these reissues are using the same parts (chips) that helped to shape the famous tubescreamer sound. Some musicians are having a technician perform modifications to the circuit to improve the sound. In addition, a number of other effects manufacturers make versions of the Tube Screamer circuit, including Maxon (who produced the original Tubescreamer pedals for the Ibanez brand in the seventies and early eighties). In addition, many of the most highly-regarded overdrive pedals, both mass-manufactured and boutique, owe their heritage to the Tube Screamer circuit.

The Tube Screamer has a drive knob, a tone knob, and a level knob. The drive knob controls distortion, the tone knob adjusts the amount of treble in the sound, and the level knob controls the output volume of the pedal.