Product: Build Your Own Clone Leeds Fuzz
Price Paid: USD 75
Submitted
02/16/2009
at
10:57pm
by
hulakatt
Email: hulakatt at gmail<dot>com
Ease of Use
:
8
ease of use:
No manual necessary! 2 knobs for volume and fuzz shape/intensity and a toggle to switch between a flat eq and a scooped eq.
Ease of assembly:
One or two items in the order of construction could be ordered better so read completely through first but other than that a very easy build. It took me about 3 hours without interruptions to put it together from opening the parcel to plugging in and playing. The easiest parts to solder were the first with some of the more difficult soldering coming in at the end.
Sound Quality
:
9
I am running this with a Silverface Vibrolux reverb or a 5e3 deluxe with either a les paul, strat or airline 2pup dlx. It is as noisy as and other fuzz I've used but nothing that is out of the ordinary, it is noisier than my fuzz face for example but nowhere near as noisy as my fuzz factory.
Warning: this is not a subtle effect!
it is loud and obnoxious but is more usable than most octave fuzzes I have used or owned. It also seems much more familiar too. An overt octave fuzz like the octavia always felt like a 1 trick pony to me [but it does that 1 trick really well!] but this lands somewhere between an octavia and a really good big muff.
This is a terribly wonderful pedal. It just makes me smile
Reliability
:
10
The parts from BYOC are top notch as is the circuit board. If you make solid and strong solder joints, it should last through anything! I gig weekly with no back up and no fear of my Leeds fuzz letting me down. I only make sure I keep a spare 9volt [just in case, duh!]
Customer Support
:
10
BYOC was very smooth to deal with but I can only rate them based on the transaction. I had no problems at any stage and the were friendly and communicative.
p.s.
I live in PA and the pedal took a long time to arrive at my door, not BYOC's fault but UPS's slow ground delivery. Next time I will be glad to pay for air shipping.
Overall Rating
:
10
Some of my guitar playing friends who are not gearheads have already tried to pry it off my pedalboard. It looks like I'm gonna have to build a few more! Building my own fuzz was a great experience and it is something that I can have some pride in every time I look at my pedalboard. As a tool it also challenges me to be a better guitar player, to play in a different style and to bring my chops up to my tone. And all for less than the cost of any boutique pedal I have found! Isn't that what we should always want from our gear?
