Blackbox Ultraviolet 2

Its fairly easy to get a good sound, but its a little more difficult to really dial in the killer tone sound that you know this pedal is capable of producing because the knobs are very responsive and interact with each other.
The Ultraviolet2 fuzz pedal splits your input signal into four channels, fuzzes them, then runs three of the channels through tone filters; the 4th channel remains unaltered, then the four channels are mixed back together as your output signal. Six knobs control the sound:
Volume
Fuzz
Mix- adds the 4th unfiltered signal back into the mix.
Low
Mid
Hi

I like the sounds this pedal puts out very much- its thick and heavy, clear, not too noisy, very 1970's hard rock to my ears. Its sound is a little like that of 1) a vintage fuzz face and 2) a thick sounding MXR Distortion + tone, both rolled into one pedal, but with almost unlimited tonal flexibility. I am currently using a Gibson Les Paul Standard into a Marshall 50 watt AVT amp.
If you just bought this pedal then one way to start out is as follows:
Volume at 9:00, Mix half-way, Fuzz half-way, then turn all three tone filters fully clockwise, and then begin to slowly turn each of the 3 filters counter-clockwise, very slowly, while strumming an open G or E chord lets say, until you lock in a tone that appeals to you.
The filters work differently then you might think. Ordinarily if you want more bass you would turn the bass knob clockwise. Not with the Ultraviolet2. Instead, turning the bass knob clockwise engages the filter, and at a certain sweep point on the knob will actually begin to thin out the sound of the bass by raising the frequencies.
If you want to scoop the mids turn the mid knob fully clockwise, then adjust the other two filters to taste. Once you understand how each knob functions this pedal becomes alot of fun! Well worth the money in my opinion. Its a blast.

Not sure about the switch, whether its one of the best available, but it is true-bypass.

Excellent. Blackbox responds to your questions within a day or so at the latest. Their web-site is very good, and lists all their dealers both here in the U.S. and internationally. The Blackbox products are enjoying fairly good distribution- that in itself may be an indication of their quality.

Been playing 20 years- I play blues and rock mostly, I own a dozen boutique fuzz pedals and I plan on keeping this one. It sounds pretty good once you figure out how to carefully dial in some wicked sounds.
This pedal can sound aggressive if you want (its what I want!) and is flexible but may not be for everybody. I myself am a 2 or 3 knob kind of guy when it comes to fuzzes, but I made an acception with the Ultraviolet2 because the 6 knobs are self-explanatory, though a little confusing at first. Its a keeper! Only thing is I would like to see Blackbox sell alot more units so that they could lower the retail price to an even $200. That would be a good bargain.

A bit confusing at first. Works as a straight fuzz with the mix knob set fully counterclockwise, sounds good this way. Crank the mix knob the other way and you get 3 lowpass (wah like) filters set up with fairly high resonance (again, like a wah). Each controls one band of frequencies-low, mid and high. You can dial in heavy, thudding bass, screaming treble, honky mids, or some combination of the three.

I've used this with a moderately clean fender amp and a couple of guitars (humbuckers and singles). It won't clean up completely as a fuzz when you turn the volume down (too much gain) but has a good variety of high sustain, fuzz face tones. When you bring in the low pass filters, you can create all sorts of sonic mayhem-very cool possibilities. This is one of those specialty pedals like the Fuzz Factory that you can't use for every song, but it'll make a very cool riff or bridge change.

Hand done, good components, should be fine.

No idea, bought it used.

Cool, unusual, try it!

It's got six knobs, which is a little daunting at first, but once you suss everything out using it is a piece of cake.

Great sound quality. It's got three frequency knobs, low, mid, high and one called mix, which is the entire signal. You can tweak all four of these knobs to get the sound you want. Basically it's four fuzz boxes running in parallel to one another. I use it with a Chapman Stick and my fretless bass. The range on this box is enormous. Unlike other fuzz boxes, that give a pretty good imitation of a mosquito at some frequencies, this unit delivers the goods from high to low.

This baby is built to last. I'd gig without backup with confidence.

Customer support is awsome. Lorren answers your emails within hours of you sending them. The only reason the rating isn't higher is that they only go up to ten. I bought this thing at my local music store here in Sapporo, Japan and it didn't come with a manual. I emailed Lorren a couple of questions about the box and got a very clear, detailed answer wiithin about four hours. I don't know of too many other companies that would do that.

I play mostly hard rock/jam band stuff in a covers band. This pedal fits my style to a T. I can use it both with my bass and with the Stick by making only a few minor tweaks on the frequency knobs. I get great fuzz sounds and some really insane tone-shaping with no problems. If this pedal were lost or stolen I would track the perp to the ends of the Earth and murder him very slowly. Failing that I would definatly get another one. This pedal is great for guitar, bass and especially any instrument with a bigger frequency range than normal. I've tried a lot of other fuzz pedals with the Stick and I just couldn't get anything that handles the entire spectrum of frequencies well. I'd either end up with mud on the bottom or a mosquito tone on the top. This box goes the entire range with no problem.