Barber Electronics Trifecta Fuzz

Fairly typical knob layout, with the 'sludge' knob being the only one that isn't immediately obvious as to what it does (it adjusts bass before fuzz is added). I was not able to dial in a setting that sounded like crap, so the thing is easy to use, though some people may prefer the option of nigh-useless settings.

The sludge knob can help adjust bass response to tailor the pedal for single coild or humbuckers. This is the only setting that can be hard to figure out, as the difference is sometimes subtle.

There are 2 trim pots inside the pedal which are accessible only by unscrewing the bottom. Pain in the butt, but consider it as 2 free knobs you can fiddle with.

I play either a les paul or strat through a fender blues jr. I've been looking for a versatile fuzz that won't overload my LP, and this pedal does the trick. I am aiming for a more vintage sound, so while this pedal may be a bit tame for others, it works nearly perfectly for me. I can pretty accurately dial in sounds ranging from a big muff pi to a fuzz face. I usually keep the tone knob pulled out so I have flat instead of scooped mids. You can get a decent fuzzy overdrive by backing way off on the fuzz, or a tooth-rattling smashing pumpkins sound by cranking it. It has near endless sustain with the fuzz up, which is always fun for leads. And it's true bypass, so unlike my old russian big muff, the trifecta does not suck out all the tone when turned off.

My only gripe is that the settings on the 3 way toggle switch sound awful damn similar to my ear. Someone could flip the toggle when I wasn't looking and I'd be none the wiser. Barber does mention the circuitry involved in the 3 pedals (pi/jumbo bender/suppa bender) is very similar, but I expected a bit more variation there.

This is my second Barber pedal. While I haven't either for long to enough to really guage reliability, Barber's got a great reputation, and the pedals are exceptionally well built. I don't forsee a problem.

I emailed Barber once with a quick question, got a reply a few days later. Pretty good in my book.

I'm a fuzz junky - always looking for the perfect pedal. I have 6 or so fuzzes. I can't say yet if this is the one, but it's staying on my board for a quite a while.

Four knobs and a foot switch. It also has a mini toggle that is supposed to change it from three different types of fuzz. I have spent a decent amount of time tweaking with the settings, and though you can get alot of different tones out of it I have found the mini toggle to do hardly anything.

I am running a Gibson Les Paul studio(with 57 classics)or a vintage arbor strat knockoff => Vox Big Bad WAh => Trifecta => EH LPB-1 => Malekko Dark 600 delay => Boss Tuner => Silvertone 1485 or Vox ac-50cph head => Marshall 2x12(celestions G12-75's)& Marshall 1960 vintage cabs.

I have the trifecta cranked so naturally there is a bit of noise coming from it but that is the point of fuzz anyway. It has an awesome tonal quality to it and very versital. It responds well to tweaking and you can really fine tune it to your liking.

I would say the only down fall to it is it seems to be somewhat tame compared to other fuzzes. Doesn't seem to have enough volume to it for me. I know the silicon fuzzes are supposed to be more tame than the germanium fuzzes but there are a lot of options out there. My style is kind of over the top so, me saying its tame might be a good thing for you.

If you want a good warm and deep tone out of a fuzz this great as long as you don't need a huge boost in volume. Over all it's great just too quiet for me and the mini toggle is a joke.

Awesome build quality! Never had an issue

see above

I play a sludgy stoner rock with a blues twist. So tonally yes it is awesome sounding for my style, I just wish it had more volume to it. I would probably replace it with a death by audio fuzz war or something of that caliber if stolen or lost tough.

Gravy to use. Plug in, find your sound, experiment with placement, though. You might find this fuzz likes to be before a Vibe.

This is a extremely quiet pedal! Sure, you'llget some noise at the higher settings, but even ata max fuzz setting, I've experienced much worse. You can get this pedal to sound good with just about any combination of guitar and amp. Also, this is called a "Fuzz", but you can coax some good chewy overdrive/distortion out of it as well!

As with all Barber stuff, this is built like a tank!

I've not had to deal with the company.

I'm an old rock and blues guy. Been playing for over 34 years. It's always a joy to find a pedal that's quiet, and gives a little more than you'd expect for the price. This is my second Barber product and thier pedals usually earn an instant spot on my pedal board. Believe me, thats a tough place to qualify for!! You will be happy with this pedal, as well as other products the folks at Barber put out. They seem to understand the importance of quality at a musician frendly price point.

nice pull-up tone pot for lead work!
very musical
fuzz is retro styled classic hard rock overdrive
definitely not for metal genre

Thick mids
3 clipping modes varies the mid hump from scooped to fat mids
fuzz is actually based on overdrive
this pedal is made specially for lead work
sludge trim pot makes this pedal covers a wide color of fuzz drive

can handle most lead work
on the other hand rythm can result to classic rock style

this pedal will best suit if you are an overdrive lover like me

this is like a boosted tubescreamer in my opinion

Very easy to get a few great sounds out of the Trifecta. Easy to tweak and get thick lead tones, thinner tones that highlight pick attack, and everything in between.

No manual for this pedal as it doesn't need one. Just a sheet of paper explaining where to start with the controls and what each does.

I play a Strat with Vintage Noiseless pups into a Hot Rod Deluxe. I've only used the Trifecta alone or with a Visual Sound H2O for some echo or chorus (simulating a rotovibe). Nice Hendrix tones and searing Eric Johnson and SRV lead tones are easy to duplicate. A slight hiss is audible but its a fuzz so that's to be expected.

Reliable so far as it is very solidly built with great components.

NA

I'll be honest about the three position toggle: it's more like two positions. But they're damn good positions and I doubt there is a fuzz tone that you can't get from this pedal.

I'm having a lot of fun jamming with this one. Lots of great sustain and can get really nasty on the bar chords too. I considered getting a Red Witch Fuzz God 2 but it was more expensive and was probably a little too wild and wooly for what I want, which is vintage fuzz sounds.

I'm not crazy about the color of the pedal but I'm really nitpicking here. It's really a great sounding fuzz and looks don't detract from that.

Easy to use!

Good sounds across many, many settings using the tone knob, sludge control and different levels of volume and fuzz.

I'm giving this an 8 because the variation in sound between modes is almost nonexistent.

Sounds amazing for a Triangle Era Big Muff. The mids control in the push/pull tone pot is very useful too.

The Sludge control allows you to thicken up a Strat or Tele, and it works quite well actually.

Not noisy at all.

Again, an 8 because there is really only one discernable mode on this pedal (to my ears).

Built DAMN well! Very reliable I'd say.

David Barber is an awesome guy. I spoke to him directly, and he's all class.

Great pedal, but the 3 modes are really just 1 mode to my ears. I used different guitars, and different amps. Same result. :(