Dunlop JD-F2 Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face

Very easy. 2 external control knobs (volume and fuzz), input/output jacks and on/off switch There are also 2 internal trim pots that can be accessed wafter removing the bottom plate. These 2 internal trim pots can change the general character of this pedal big time.
Its logical that these 2 are inside of the box, since in case You don't know what You are doing.. You can pretty much mess the sound of the effect.
The 1st one is for fine biasing the transistors - mine was factory set at 11 o'clock and I find it correct for my taste.
The 2nd one acts like fuzz/attack/clean setter and can make the overall fuzz character from fuzzy,.. through warm to aggressive with sharp attack. Pretty useful if You are in studio or just want to dial in drastically different character.
On my pedal, its factory set to that classic early Hendrix 1966/1967 fat, violin-like voice (when the pedal's pots and guitar volume pot are on max).
The rubber tube around this pedal 2 knobs makes it easy to dial in with your foot..hahaha , yeah thats right.
However those rubber tubes can be easily pulled out just with Your fingers without any instrument needed.
I will rate it overall at 10 since it really delivers what it advertise.. and gives as a bonus those 2 internal pots for advanced seekers.

My Guitar: hard tail right hand Strat with reverse headstock 1pc Maple neck, Seymour Duncan Vintage SSL 3 single coil staggered Alnico 5 pickups the middle one is revers stager/wind etc.
My Strings: 9 to 42;
My Amp: Fender Harvard 6G10 class A (1 vol, 1 tone), through cabinets - 1 or 4 12's
preamp tube 12AX7;
I switch power stage tubes between 6V6's, 6L6's, EL34's for different amp voice.
Thou, to my ear the fuzz face sounds best with EL34.
This fuzz face is pretty silent, below normal hiss even when the fuzz knob is cranked to the max.
With single coils and pedal volume set to 12 o'clock and fuzz knob rotated to 0 there is only a bit of fuzz, thou the overall sound is fat and warm.
Sounds full bodied at 12 0'clcock - fat with that tube fuzz definition and You can clean it up when rotate back the guitar's volume at 7.
When volume knob set to 12 o'clock and fuzz knob cranked to the max the sound is BIG, playing chords on the bridge pickup gives some high harmonics along with the fatness. Playing leads on the bridge pickup with guitar's volume to the max sounds well rounded with long sustain for single coil yet You can get some high harmonics nuances depending on picking technique (kind reminds of Jimi's Are U exp Foxy lady studio album solo). As for playing on the neck pickup, with same settings its really warm fat with defined mids and loads of sustain.
Roll down the guitar's volume to 9 and You get more into "classic" overdrive but yet fat, the pick definition starts to show up.
When set the guitar volume at 8 or below.. then, You can play that classic 67 Hendrix riffs..and rotating the guitar volume below 7 it really starts to cleans up the fuzz and the aggressive bite mode turns on.. thats stand out the most if You plug into above 10 o'clock cranked all-tube Marshall. With my class A amp its not that aggressive but I ran that fuzz face through my guitar buddies class AB tube amps VOX, Marshall, Laneys etc. etc. so You got it.
I have tried that fuzz face along with other pedals in the chain and its true that it really matters where it stays along the path.
That fuzz face gave frequency "juice" galore when placed after MXR d+ like overdrive. I use that fuzz face in conjunction with Wah-Wah as the Wah set as filter. I am Pretty satisfied with the results.
In most of the tried combinations I got fat sound with definition.
At least For me, 99% of the "overdrive" pedals deliver definition without enough volume and I aways felt my guitar sound skinny through them especially in-band situation.
You might find this fuzz face useful if You want to stand out and sound original and different from the "modern" guitar player.. and of course if You want to playing with the notes instead of playing the notes.

I can depend on it. Its stable externally and internally.
The switch is pretty stable
The pots are massive and can handle aggressive stage use.
The jacks are pretty tight so during earthquakes gig's are not to worry about : ))
The part's board reminds military specs double layered coper board including coppered holes.. so that capacitors, resistors and transistors legs are wired pretty tight and overall with the board coated like that there's good shielding against frequency, noise etc. etc. Thats improved when comparing this fuzz pedal with older ones or the original design.

Never needed so, really can't say anything.

I play mostly my own music so this pedal helps me express the idea without restricting my way of doing things.
I play electric guitar for over 16 years, a flute for over 7 years.
I use variety of tunings from standard to slack-key and mid east stuff..
I grew up listening everything from Buck Owens, Buddy Guy through Hendrix, Mike Oldfield, YES(Trevor Rabin era) to some of the 80's/90's metal head shredders and loads of Native music . either mid east, oriental, Native American.
I have had most of the guitarists toys, either Boss pedals, processors various amps and so on. I still keep some of them but overall don't use them as often and I don't consume that all-digital/analog craziness. For me , the electric guitar is the ultimate instrument.

2 knobs - Fuzz and Volume, very easy to use

Well, I was a bit disappointed after plugging it in my amp.. It did not sound like a real Fuzz Face. The problem is with all the parts inside. All new and two NKT275 transistors did not make their job. I measured them and one was currently too leaky (520mA). That is far too much. For a good sound you need germanium transistors below 300mA of current leak between collector and emitor. And you should use AC128 transistors. I was lucky to collect a few of these and some more czechoslovakian GC507 transistors. I found one GC507 and one AC128 which work together absolutely perfect. The sound is very creamy full of mids, not bassy at all.. like I always wanted :)

The stompbox is very strong.. good quality. Just the battery change takes a longer time..

no opinion

I always wanted a fuzz pedal in my setup.. This one makes me sound very vintage.. I am using it mostly with delay for that "space-rock".. I like Dave Gilmour sound from the 1968-1971 era.. Great pedal when sounds like it should

2 knobs volume and fuzz

I give this a 5 because although it doesn't sound anything like it should it does produce sound, I tried modding it with different components which only slightly made the sound better but this thing has a dual pcb with way more components that were on the original so I etched the original pcb from mid 60's and placed all original parts there, and there you go sounds just like the original 100% better hendrix cream and trower tones just pour out of it now, just read about a new reissue fuzz from dunlop and he finally did it although r.mayer did the axis fuzz which is the same silicon fuzz

not as stock

I use a 68 reissue strat with maple neck with a modded vox v847(not dunlop) my arbiter fuzz face(dunlop fuzz box with my dallas arbiter pcb and pots vol and fuzz) into a 100w marshall half stack.

I know what your thinking it's expensive to make the original dallas arbiter fuzz face but it's really cheap, if you want to know how to do it e-mail me.

u'll need to go to a neurologist is if u cant figure how to work this pedal...2 knobs...fuzz and volume..

my chain goes...

yamah pacifica with p-90s -> sovetek big muff -> proco rat -> JD fuzz face -> mxr blue box -> danelectro cool cat chorus -> mxr flager -> line 6 echo park -> boss dd-3 delay -> zoom ultra fuzz -> digitech digiverb -> danelectro fab echo -> fender twin reverb amp / bassman / peavey bandit 112..

i play in an experimental / instrumental / shoegaze / noise band...
like what everyone said..the placement of this pedal really affects the tone...when i placed it before the Muff, it sounded terrible, buzzsaw and muffled..it was soo bad it even affected the sound of the Muff..

overall i love this pedal...perfect for shoegaze and droney fuzz (especially with analouge delays and reverb)...somehow like every fuzz pedal i've used, i has somesort of built in gate in it where it cuts of the sustain at times...very stattaco like..

however dont expect it to sound like a big muff (super thick n saturated)...it's two different beast altogether..

i can kill a mutt with this pedal...

nil...

suits my style of playing...which consists of droney riffs, sudden burst of fuzz and feedbacks...clean and distorted dynamic riffs...

Easy...2 knobs... BUT BEWARE WHERE YOU PLACE IT IN YOUR CHAIN!

Welp... 1st I place this pedal 1st in my chain BEFORE all other pedals including 2 Keeley modded TS-9's...THE SOUND SUCKED!!!
Then I placed it AFTER the Tube Screamers and WOW!!!!... what a difference.
Like I said above, where you place this pedal affects its sound VERY VERY MUCH!
Also, when used WITH my Tube screamers the sound is incredible! By itself the sound is excellent, but when you add the TS-9 BEFORE the Fuzz Face it REALLY comes to life.
EXCELLENT!---Release the Hounds!

NOt enough time behind the wheel...

...

Excellent Pedal...but beware where you place it in your chain!!!
Like i said above, when it was early in my effecxts chain the TONE SUCKED...but when moved to close to the end of the chain (just before Dealy at the end of the chain) it really kicked ass!

This is very simple to use. Two knobs only: level and fuzz. To obtain various sounds, the guitar volume control can be used too.

My setup is Fender Strato >> Jim Dunlop Cry'Baby Wah > hand-made MG Music Monovibe > Boss Super Overdrive > Fuzz Face > Big Muff > Danelectro Tremolo > Boss Digital Delay >> Amp Fender Blues Deluxe and Marshall Artist 30 - both tube amps. The sound of this pedal is great.

This pedal use only a 9V battery. I think this is a very good detail.

The manual is not explicative.

2 knobs, one button, and one big smiley face. Pretty easy to use, but it's VERY touchy with the controls. This is one of the Dunlop "Dallas-Arbiter England" reissues that were made from the leftover parts of the very first reissues after a lawsuit.

It's warm, it's muddy, it's fuzzy. It's a very good contrasting sound to a tubescreamer type setup. You can get wild feedback, yet the effect is very quiet. Perfect for Hendrix or Santana.

I hope I can rely on it.

The guy I bought it from was a douche.

If you see one the fuzzfaces with a smile you should probably pick it up. This is the only one I've ever seen and it's brand new, sounds great, and was pretty fairly priced.

Easy - Plug in guitar / play. Foot knobs are good idea. Changing battery could be easier.

With a Ross Vintage 10 band EQ ( and Duracell Battery) the Dunlop Arbiter England Fuzz sounds very close to my Analogman Sun Fuzz Face: the Dunlop has a bright punchy rock fuzz and the Analogman Sunface is a bit more rounded. Together they are amazing.

NOTE: Take away the EQ and the Dunlop Fuzz sounds very muddy and almost a different pedal.

I'll find out.

Bought it used on Ebay.

Again one needs to use an EQ pedal after the Fuzz / before the amp to get great sound. My setup: Fender Tele w/Emg pickups; Dunlop Fuzz; Ross Vintage 10 Band EQ; Vox Cambridge 15 amp w/ german valvo ecc83 tube vol up and solid state gain off.

For the record mine is an early Dunlop one with "Dallas Arbiter - England" on it. Where do you start with this one? Remember this circuit uses 2 transistors and very little else. It fuzzes up the tone but there is no EQ whatsoever, either in the circuit or by controls. Its this simplicity that makes it so good since you can control the effect from the guitars volume. However as an effect into a clean channel it is almost useless since you have to turn bass up high to make it sound balanced, then when you switch it off your guitars goes flabby. I use it in a Hendrix style set up and that is where it should be.

For a Hendrix tone set up is critical. For a start you need a Wah in front that doesn't have true bypass. Either get a vintage wah or if you have a Teese RMC3 short the 2 green contacts on the footswitch (I soldered a switch onto the switch). Behind it I have a real Univibe with the electronics on all of the time. The clean sound of this set up can't do Mark Knofler but does sound sweet and still very Straty - to the extent that if you do a true bypass on the wah it suddenly sounds too bright. Thats all it takes. Volume nearly up full, fuzz around half way or more for the crazy live stuff, good helpings of feedback, dirty amp and then its up to your fingers and volume control. Of course you only mix wah and fuzz if you really want even more crazy sounds. I had an original Germanium version and it didn't sound any better to me. I still have a Silicon original and that just sounds different, e.g. 1970 live tone, suffers from RF and probably doesn't clean up quite as sweetly.

Yes the battery flops around so you need to wrap it up for gigging but thats how most of the originals were - although my Silicon original has a battery clip.

I needed another pair of transistors and Dunlop were very helpful indeed.

In short you have to think of this as a component. If you want a one box solution that sounds like recorder 60's fuzz something like a Boss FZ3 is better (but you cannot clean your sound up on that - or any Boss distortion unit for that matter). This pedal is truly a one trick pony. I love mine but out of context it will sound absolutely like crap. Be warned.

Pretty simple to use. You've got an on/off switch and volume/fuzz knobs. However, when it comes to changing the batteries, pack a lunch. You've got to unscrew the bottom, which isn't a biggie, but there is no clip or anything to secure the battery in place, only a cast platform and some foam to hold it. Shaky as that is, Jim Dunlop opted for a pretty brittle wiring system for the battery as well, so if the battery isn't perfectly seated and secure, you run the risk of the battery dinking and smashing about on the inside of the pedal, and potentially breaking the frail wiring. Not the best idea, by any stretch. And, to make matters worse, the ENTIRE bottom of this 6.5" pedal has to be screwed perfectly into place with ONE screw, which is pretty f'in long. So you have to play balancing act with the battery, be precise with your placement of the bottom lid, and meticulously tighten the single screw that threads very awkwardly, just to change the battery.

I got pissed and just left it to bash about on the inside, because I wasn't too worried about this pedal not working... I just didn't view it as a valuable commodity.

Anyway, as far as actual use, it's a cinch, but have fun changing the battery. Have fun, indeed.

Well, the workers for the original Arbiter company in the 60's must be either shaking their heads or rolling in their graves, because this feeble, insensitive pedal is about as far from the original as east is from west. There is no margin of expression with this device, and (as previously stated) the knobs are virtually useless until they're to about 2 or 3 o'clock. Then, once you get past that, the sound itself is terrible. It's static; there's not a single dynamic element to this effect other than the on/off switch. It's sterile, cold, and dishearteningly digital sounding. Having heard an actual Arbiter fuzz, I know they were dynamic units that provided much more than muddy, lo-fi fuzz.

To their credit, Dunlop makes a pretty reliable pedal. Aside from the battery issue, I could see this effect working for years.

Dunlop's been pretty cool to me.

I ripped myself off with this one; I bought it from Musician's Friend, and it turned out to be a sonic disaster. I hate coming on to Harmony-Central and reading bitter, scathing reviews, so I am sorry for all the bitching. Let me redeem myself by wrapping this up a bit:

This pedal has taught me the value of the term "try before you buy". I didn't, and I bought a pedal that provided a useless sound for my rig. Fortunately, through the graces of eBay, I was able to sell it for a reasonable price. Anyway, this pedal may be right up your alley; if you're looking for a big, fat, muddy, lo-fi sound, this would be the pedal for you. However, when someone says the word "fuzz" to me, I think of a pedal that could conjure anything from Taxman to Purple Haze to You Really Got Me. In this sense, the Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face has failed miserably. It wasn't bright, it wasn't expressive, and it wasn't articulate. For the sound, the price should have been half of what I paid.

I've spent a lot of time looking for the "holy grail" of off-the-shelf fuzz, everything short of going to a boutique. This was the first of many that I've searched through that ended up being a let-down. For the classic fuzz of yesteryear, you can get a lot more for $100.

I finally found the Grail... There's currently a Maestro Fuzztone reissue pedal for sale at musiciansfriend.com, a $100 pedal that I would have easily paid $200 for. It's articulate, beautiful, gritty, and smooth all at the same time. If you're interested in a good vintage fuzz, go with it over the Fuzz Face, or at least consider it. Also, you may want to check out the Big Muff.