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.

two controls - couldn't be easier.

my set up is a tele with a stacked bridge 'bucker into a marshall 50 watt tube head - all cranked. this pedal makes a bit of noise, but nothing major. sounds best with the tubes screamin' - i think this may be where other players run into problems, 'cause this baby needs tubes. i can get great gov't mule type heavy blues, and even dave gilmour type sloooow solo sustain. i don't use other effects so i can't comment there.

hell yeah. few chips aside this thing can't die!!

dunno.

this is bad ass fuzz, and a damn sight more reliable than my old dallas fuzz. doesn't pick up the radio neither!!! i like that it's red, so as i can't lose it onstage. i used some other fuzz in my time, and this is as good as any. rock'n'roll!

Many of the infinite number of sounds that can come out of the Fuzz Face sound great, others sound absolutely awful. Getting a good sound out of it takes a couple minutes of tweaking the controls on your guitar, amp, and the unit itself. Getting the EXACT sound you want is almost impossible unless you know a whole lot about guitar effects and amplifiers, like a guitar tech.

One thing that bothered me a lot is that (if you have the older style that uses germanium transistors) you can't put a wah pedal before it. I read somewhere that you can take it to a repair shop to get a simple fix for the problem but it's still rather annoying.

After spending all afternoon finding the right sound, it sounds awesome. I play through a Carvin 100w tube combo amp with a Fender Stratocaster. I always use the overdrive channel when using the Fuzz Face otherwise it's way to choppy sounding and the tone of the guitar is absolutely destroyed. The reason it gets a nine rather than ten is because it is very noisy when it's the only effect or the last effect in the chain. I find that an easy solution to this problem is to turn the fuzz knob down just a touch. It eliminates most of the hum and doesn't take away much tone at all.

I'd definitely depend on it for a gig, that may just be because my amp's overdrive channel is good enough for me if the unit malfunctions. I have, thankfully, not had any problems so far.

I've never dealt with them, and judging by the other reviews here I never will want to.

I play a lot of Hendrix and Cream style music and find this is better than using the overdrive of my amp, which is saying something because i love my amp. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to add some serious tone on top of their overdrive or to get the infamous Hendrix light crunch sound (Wind Cries Mary, Hey Joe, Bold as Love, etc.). It's very versatile, and (if you're willing to spend some time with it) very easy to use.

the pedal only has two knobs - volume and fuzz. that helps, but the pedal does need to be plugged in at the volume you are going to play at, as i found the sound changes with volume (especially with tube amps). that said, it's very simple to use, and i found the sound i wanted within five minutes. as easy as any pedal i have used.

i play a gordon smith custom sg (equipped with an emg humbucker) through this pedal into a marshall superlead mk2 100 watt tube head. i bought this pedal because i like fuzz, and because fu manchu used to use them. i'm not after a jimi hendrix sound at all, so i'm not sure whether this pedal nails that or not. itdoes, however, do stoner rock extremely well!! it's not noisy, although it is very loud when engaged. it gives a thick, saturated heavy sounding fuzz. sounds great with chords, and even better on solos or single note stuff. sustains really well too. with the emg in my sg i can even get a good chug which is not common in fuzz. that said it definately is a fuzz pedal, not distortion. it sounds cool with either delay or phase. i'd say it is a very bassy thick fuzz as opposed to a shrill thin fuzz. paired up with my marshall it rules.

oh yes. super heavy duty casing. no obvious areas of weakness.

before buying this pedal i read quite a lot of mixed reviews but went ahead and bought it because i figured i could mod it if it sucked. mine is an absolutely bog standard re-issue, and it is fantastic. i have owned and used a big muff (very similar, but the fuzz face cuts through with my band a bit more), zvex woolly mammoth, boss fz3, analog man fuzz sunface, boss hyperfuzz and ibanez fuzz, so i know a good fuzz pedal when i stand on one - and this is (along with the muff) the best i have used. it provides just the thickest sabbathy sounding fuzz imaginable. for stoner/ classicrock it is just perfect. i love the simplicity too - i don't miss the tone knob - it just makes me fine tune my amp more which is a good thing. i find it a very inspirational pedal, just banging away on the low strings sounds so great!if you are considering this pedal don't be put off by bad reviews, this is a really great pedal. for lovers of big muff type fuzz, this offers a very cool variation on the theme. it's different enough to warrant buying along with the muff. and if you like fu manchu....look no further!!

There's one for Volume, one for Fuzz, sounds simple to me.

Good tone. It can get that classic retro psychedelic tone. Ex. Jimi Hendrix, Cream, the list continues. It can be tamed though, to a more calmer fuzz, that can drive pretty well. It takes a while to learn good combinations. Definitely not weak, you can go insane with this thing. Sounds best through a tube amp, I've used a Marshall with it, and unfortunately that amp's clean tones don't quite agree with fuzz. With overdrive in an amp, plus fuzz, you can get some wild stuff. Overall, the sound is great, but the player determines a lot.

This is built rugged. Though. the knob/pot connection has a few times been known to let's say (I turn the knob to about 10, and the knowb and pot spin far past it.) this caused some trouble when playing, because it went a little to rowdy sounding, and I'm still working on that problem. Other than that, solid.

Not Available

Great fuzz. The greats used this fuzz, and though some new ones may be for other people, this is a good box. Very retro, takes you to the sixties and back. It doesn't, however get the smoothness of say, a tube screamer, but that's not it's function. This is the fuzz for fuzz only. It is just awesome. Works best on tube amps, or clean amps. If you're not digging the Buzzy like fuzz tones, this is not for you, but like I said, the player shapes the sound.

Phrase of the day here is 'no nonsense' and it is particularly useful in describing this product. It is very easy to get a good sound ad not at all complicated to used in anyway.

Again... there's no messin with this baby, just out and out distortion. I was surprised and very pleased when I realised how quiet the pedal is.. not in a bad way, I mean it doesn't pick up much static even at high volumes. If you are using a wah pedal, I suggest you use it after the fuzz unit as the fuzz face doesn't seem to take a blind bit or notice what tone wah is putting in and give gives out whatever the hell it wants. No nonsense.

Rugged construction; will take a fair bit of kicking. No battery indicator... unfortunate as the unit is battery only, unless you have one of those jump adapters.

I'm not sure as I've had no trouble with it.... I bought it used and there was no manual, but thats no big deal. Its Dunlop so I would think the CS would be good.

I play brit pop and classic rock mostly along with some other stuff, its perfect to get that crunchy tone.

Its a big smiley face with two huge rubber knobs (not those kind of knobs perv) for eyes and the switch for a nose. Its a no brainer.

Setup can vary, though I usually work my 68 Gibson SG through a Marshall 80 W amp with a crybaby wah either ahead or behind the fuzz face.
I think the pedal sounds great, and for those of you who were looking for a Hendrix type sound and felt disappointed, you just didn't try hard enough. By just playing with your amp gain/volume/tone, the pedal order, guitar volume/tone,pickup selector, and finally the actual fuzz face control knobs you can get an infinite number of sounds. If you want a raw hendrix fuzz of the early years (purple haze esque) the pedal can be fine on its own. If you are looking for a later hendrix sound around Woodstock up to Isle of Wight, try hooking it up with a crybaby or other wah set close to full treble. You can wail your solos, and drop low bombs a la Spanish Castle Magic. You just have to play around. The easiest hendrix tone to replicate with fuzz - wah combo is the rare hendrix tune "Midnight" or "Peace in Mississipi". This is the sound you are looking for! For the sharpest fuzz and more wah effect, putting the fuzz face first in the chain is better. Just play around and experient nuff said.

So far so good. I found it in pawn shop about 8 years ago. Who knows how long it was played before that, I'm guessing not very much. It is definately a Dunlop re-issue, however it has Germainium transisters which have been replaced in newer JD issues in favour of Silicone. I believe that the silicon trans contribute to the unfavourable results experienced by some buyers. More duds. The Germainium transisters in earlier models are also finicky. I honestly believe that I got a very nice fuzz face, but I know people that have crap ones, its just luck.

When I got it however, the rubber stoppers on the bottom were sheared off, I don't know whether from rough use, or nervous hands. I'll never know.

Never had to try, don't know

I play a lot of classic rock hendrix/sabbath type stuff. I used to play a lot of metal, and this is not the pedal for it as there is no palm mute crunch capability, however you shouldn't be using that much fuzz for that anyway. Classic Sabbath tones can be found, and if you use a Wah to modify the tone, you can achieve a Fu Manchu type sound if you like that.

I've never had another fuzz pedal to compare this with, so I can't rate it to any competition. I'm happy with the sound, and many of my friends have commented that it sounds pretty sweet. If it was stolen, I'd probably sample some new stuff on the market for comparision, and buy the fuzz face again if other brands couldn't hold up.

The thing I love the most about the pedal is its simplicity, sometimes the simple effects are the ones that allow us to find the most creative sounds, rather than some board that can synth 10000 different effects, and has like 10 knobs to adjust speeds and tones and other crap like that.

Wish it had an AC adapter capability, and the battery compartment sucks.

like the other people have said: 2 knobs, and they turn.

this is a very touchy area as you CAN get sounds that are good, but it takes some work. as most people say that the only setting worth anything is rolling the fuzz all the way up which is just not true. i put the fuzz at about 10 o'clock and the volume at about 2 o'clock and got soem great sounds. now, mind you, this pedal does NOT make you sound like jimi hendrix, or eric clapton. neither does getting the stuff they use(d). that calls for a little something called "style" and "technique"(novices look into these things). however, seeing as hendrix was my main influence i can get some very hendrixy sounding things, but not exactly. also, all you guitarists obsessing over sounding like other guitarists should note that its about 10 times easier and 1,000 times more gratifying to find your OWN sound. whoever your trying to emulate has already done what your attempting, maybe you should try something new(thats my little soap box speech for the day).

TERRIBLE. the only way you can guaruntee that the unit will work after five months is to never open the box. and then again, if you never did open the box you wouldnt know if it worked in the first place
(which IS possible). im not joking. i bought mine brand new about a year ago and it worked fine. then about two weeks later all of a sudden, it crapped out on me. for example, the only time you could get the unit to start being fuzzy would be to crank the "fuzz" knob like some previous people said(which makes me believe they had a defective unit right from the start). So after it crapped out on me i sent it in to dunlop to get it repaired(ill go into more detail on that later). when i got it back(sort of, again ill explain later) it was working. until i dropped it, not two times, not three times, but ONCE. thats right, all you people saying that its as sturdy as a rock obviously just use it for the garden. i drop the thing once(and not even really hard) and again, its crapped out.

okay, now here is where i explain what i said i would previously. as i stated before, i sent the unit into dunlop to have it repaired. well, after about 6 months-thats right, i said 6 MONTHS. nothing had happened. i stayed in contact with my friend who works at the store where i got the unit who would try to contact them(dunlop) to no avail. finally when he got through, he convinced them to just give me a new pedal because i had waited so long. so they did(which is why i said they "sort of" got my pedal back). terrible service. HORRIBLE. im not even going to contact them to TRY to get my pedal fixed after this recent crapping out. i might just trash it and say "oh well, that didnt work out too well" and consider my money wasted. which believe me is much better than having my TIME wasted by the dunlop company.

i mean, considering that any venture with a new effect can have an impact on playing style and may potentially be something that you decide to stick with, this pedal has done a good job of that. but NOT for over a hundred dollars and NOT when it craps out twice and NOT when the company is so terrible to work with. this is the only "fuzz" unit ive tried, and although it does a pretty good job at what its supposed to, im more willing to try ANYTHING else to not have to deal with all the problems ive had with it. any other grievances i have are mentioned above.

Two knobs. No rocket science here. All you need to do is spend some time tweaking the knobs, and it is not hard to find a good sound.

I use an epiphone les paul or fender hwy1 strat through the Fuzzface, an ibanez Tubescreamer, a dunlop Univibe, and a boss DD-3 Delay into a fender princeton chorus amp. By using the fuzzface at the beginning of the effects chain, it is not as noisy as it would be used alone. I can get a lot of different sounds, Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and SRV with this pedal.

I would never gig with any pedal without a backup. I am paranoid.

Never had to deal with them.

Despite a lot of poor reviews from other users, I opted to buy this pedal with the idea that if I didn't like it, I could sell it on e-bay. Not happening here! This one pedal has replaced both the boss distortions that I used. I can get a variety of styles out of it. All it takes is tweaking the volume and fuzz on the pedal to find your sound, raising the volume on the amp and slightly lowering the volume on the guitar. You can't turn all the knobs to 10 and expect to sound good. It takes a little work. I don't know what these other reviewers were expecting or even if they know what they are doing, but this is a good pedal for the money and made by a good company. The only complaint is there is no battery compartment. You have to take the bottom of the pedal off, therefore, exposing all of the electronics and having potential for tearing something up. Other than that, if you are considering this pedal, buy it, spend some time tooling with it, I think you'll be very pleased. Otherwise, if your not, you can sell it on e-bay!

Two knobs and a switch (the right way, with no tone
control.) Certainly stays where you put it. I'd give
it a "10" for ease of use, but since "ease of use"
includes changing batteries (which is a royal pain in
the booty) I'll dock it down to 7. We'll get to the
"changing the battery" issue later...

FYI: This is the re-issue, not the original.
I play Strats, through Fender and Carvin tube amps. I like
minimal effects, and prefer to use playing dynamics and
amp distortion instead of boxes in most cases.

So I'm not a huge fuzz fan. That having been said, a lot
of pro players I like swore by the original version of this
thing, so when it was re-issued, I decided I had to try
it for myself. I had a Big Muff way back when (the real
one, with the tone bypass) and I was hoping for something
similar to that.

Well? I was pretty unimpressed. I couldn't even hear the
thing without both the gain and fuzz knobs being maxed
(or nearly so.) The pots were non-linear, meaning that
up to 7 or 8 you couldn't hear anything. Then beyond
that setting, the effect became too extreme and uncontrollable.

Impression: One sound fits all. Mooshy, non-dynamic fuzz, with
no bite -- sounds almost like there's a compressor built in.
If that works for you, then knock yourself out. I was looking
for something a little less obvious-sounding, especially
given the relatively high price for an "off-the-shelf" (non-
boutique) unit.

Can you depend on it? Probably not, unless you're both
very careful and very lucky. Here's why:

Open it up. Check out how the battery just leans against
the inside of the unit (there's a little bump cast into
the housing, which is supposed to hold it still while you
try to screw the bottom plate back on.)

Consult the drawing of the inside of the unit. It's a
thoughtful touch, but the orientation of the parts is not
the same as that on the unit. Thanks for the time wasted
hoping that would help...

Admire the flimsy leads going to the battery. Remember to
hold the device firmly in place, 'coz if it falls while
there's a battery mounted, that cheapo set of wires is gonna
break. Remember the $90 dollars you spent, and wonder how much
of that was pure profit because all of the research and development
was done 35 years ago, and because the components were selected
based on low cost instead of high quality...

Now, try screwing the thing back together, without the
battery moving. That long screw in the center is a little
tricky to thread through the bottom plate so it seats and
threads properly into the underside of the unit's top, huh?

Perversely, the super light wires are so long that when
you get the battery oriented correctly, they end up looping
around in such a manner as to not only stress them needlessly,
but also to cause them to behave like a spring. The spring
wants to kick the battery out of position (remember,
it's just leaning against a small bump on the inside of a
rounded inner surface.) So you gently finesse the battery
into place, then try to hold the unit perfectly still while
you drop the bottom plate back on, and reach for the screws,
and... Oops -- try again. Oops -- and again... @*#! try again...
OK, let's see... I'll just tilt the unit a little, and wiggle
the screw around blindly so I can feel the hole... DOH! The
whole poorly-designed mess just fell, the battery harness broke
like a twig, and I'm off to find my soldering iron.

Seriously: I understand that this is a reproduction of
a "vintage" piece, and that the Dallas Arbiter company was
probably nothing much more than one or two stoned guys
in a garage somewhere 1966, and that it would be asking
too much for Jim Dunlop Inc to modify the heavy pot-metal
casting so that the battery would seat, etc. But
geez, the retarded drawing (obviously not checked) and the
really cheezy wiring (inside of a not-inexpensive unit)
makes me question how much thought and care goes into the
rest of the unit. I've concluded that the answer is "none"
and that the annoyance factor far outweighs any sonic
benefit likely to be derived from what is essentially a
one trick pony -- its one trick just isn't that earth-shattering.

I no longer have the unit, but as I recall, there's no
provision for a "battery eliminator" either. And the
description above is not as exaggerated or as satirical as
you'd think; it's actually a pretty accurate run-through
of the replacement procedure. Me, I'd rather change a diaper.
On the plus side, the housing itself sure is sturdy.
Perhaps in five years I will start collecting Fuzz Faces
which no longer work electronically, but which nonetheless
make wonderful (if ugly) paperweights.

No idea. Hopefully the guy who made the blueprint which doesn't
match the unit isn't the same guy who answers the phone.

I bitched enough above. The Fuzz Face isn't awful -- just
disappointing.

Basically, I wasn't so blown away by the sound of the
Fuzz Face to make it worth keeping. For $90, I guess
I expected more, especially design-wise. Ease of maintenance,
as well as of operation, is a big deal to me; it's lacking here.

I didn't care for the way the pots didn't do anything
at low settings, or that the sound was too extreme at high
settings, or that the sound lacked dynamics.

Then again, that's me, not you. It might be just what
you're looking for; if you're an aficianado of fuzzes,
it's certainly one of the classics, and worth a look.

I continue to search for one or two boxes to serve my
admittedly limited need for "fuzz."

Just don't say I didn't warn you (at embarrassingly great
length) about the battery changing procedure.

It's easy. 2 knobs (volume and fuzz) both of which turn most of the 360 degrees and there is a decernable difference in the sound as you turn them. not a lot of control here but this is pretty much a one dimensional effect anyway.

the "manual" is kinda funny actually. it's actually a little piece of paper about the size of two credit cards. is tells how to change the battery and how to plug in the pedal to the guitar and the amp. wow!! good to know stuff!!

i really haven't tried this out in a bunch of different configs (i've had it for only a few days). i mainly put it after my bad horsie wah and before my boss sd1. i plan to shuffle this up a bit as time goes on but i like the way it sounds in this config.

my amp is tube and my pickups are humbuckers if that matters to you. i find that by itself, this pedal gives a good soft fuzz at low volumes and that really scratchy but not noisy fuzz at higher volumes. one interesting feature is that the harder you play, the more fuzz/effect the pedal puts out. it's very noticable, as in there's almost no effect when i play softly and huge fuzz when i thrash away. i'm not sure if this is good or bad yet.

i bought this fuzz looking for sort of a 60's or 70's hard rock sound (maybe even clapton's sound on crossroads) but i haven't gotten it yet although i'm hopeful. i won't be disappointed if i don't as i'm ultimately looking for my own sound anyway.

one last note on sound: it is absolutley quiet turned off. it might have true bypass but i'm not sure. check the dulop site.

looks pretty tough to me. the button is tough and the knobs are covered in rubber. i don't abuse my gear so it should last np.

if their manual is any indication of what their customer support is like, then you might as well consult your nearest wall or cat.

i won't pass judgement on them for not being wordy though...

i play mostly hard/blues rock. this pedal definately fits into my mix. i tried out a big muff (too noisy) and a mini dano fuzz/octave (it was on sale) in the store but i ended up taking the fuzz face due to its being smoother. the big muff definately had more sustain which i might miss with the fuzz face but i probably won't miss the screeching of the big muff.

as some one else has mentioned, this pedal doesn't seem to have a an ac adapter (although their website has a dead link to one). that's a pain as i hate f*cking around with batteries. also, worse than that is the fact that this doesn't have an LED to tell me whether or not i'm draining the battery (boss has spoiled me maybe).

overall, i think i'll be quite happy with this pedal once i get accustomed to using it with my setup.

oh, and my wife likes the pretty red color. ;-)

well its pretty easy, volume and fuzz. There is no manual, you dont need one, just a sheet explaining how to put a 9v battery in. Id say its pretty easy to get a good sound out of it, on lead work anyway.

Im a MAJOR Jimi Hendrix freak, hes my all time fav, but being a 17 year old kid and all, I sure as hell cant afford a Jimi Hendrix Strat (not the voodoo, the one with the actual backwards body) cause theyre about I dunno 1,200 ahah. so I did the same thing with a squier, just got a lefty and turned it around and flipped the nut, reversed the strings etc. etc. the other part of my setup is a Marshall MG30RCD<Jimmy Dunlop univibe re issue<Fuzz Face<and Jimmy Dunlop Jimi Hendrix wah. I wish I wouldve gotten the Vox V847 but oh well it works for me. When I turn on the Fuzz Face, there is quite a bit of hiss not to bad, but I dont really care about that, just letting you know if you do. The effect of the fuzz doesnt really come into play until the fuzz is basically turned all the way up,the fuzz knob seems kind of useless in a way. heres the the thing I dont like about this fuzz face. you cant play rythm at all, no matter how low the fuzz is, its just all muddy. Id like to see what the roger mayer mod would do, or try the axis fuzz. I think you can get the Hendrix/Clapton sound out of it alright, but I think most of that depends on the skill of the player.

Id say I could depend on it, looks like its built pretty well, I mean its a big steel shell ahah, not some tiny boss pedal. The fact is, I have to use ALL my pedals without a back-up cause I just dont have the money. Just make sure you keep some extra 9 volts around for this thing.

never dealt with Jimmy Dunlop. I hope I dont have to cause Ive heard they can be assholes.

I dunno If I got this pedal when it first came out or something, cause I paid 150 bucks for it, and this thing is NOT worth that much. now I see them around for like 90 bucks or so. this may sound picky, but Ive always wondered why it doesnt come with the dallas-arbiter England smile, I mean if its gonna cost that much make it look like the original! its wierd Ive seen ads for it when it does have the smile, so I dunno. mine doesnt. Ive been playing for 3 and a half years now, and all the other gear I have I mentioned. Id say Im okay. If this got stolen, Id try to find the arbiter re issue, or just buy an axis fuzz

FUZZ and VOLUME knobs...enough said.

Wow...these new Fuzz Faces really don't sound ANYTHING like the old silver ones. The JD-F2 Fuzz Face is quite terrible...they sound mushy, no articulation, no mids, no highs. Must be all the cheap parts they decided to use in an attempt to cash in on the "Fuzz Face" name. Shame on you Jimmy D!

Basically you could re-create the sound of this big red eyesore by distorting a 4-track mixer channel, b/c thats what it sounds like:P
It's fuzz thats totally unmusical, unusable, unversatile.

If you want a raw sounding fuzz for punk and some rock tunes...then I guess this thing wouldn't be too bad...but WHY would you want to pay almost $100 for this one when there are so many other better fuzz boxes out there for $50 and less!!!!

It's probably because you want to look cool (but not sound cool):)

N/A

n/a

My friend left this thing at my house a couple years ago and ended up abandoning it here when he left for college. I've actually messed around with it alot in an attempt to get a nice sound out of it...but to no avail. It may look cool, but it's expensive, sounds bad, and has no range to its fuzz. Like I said before, there are so many other fuzzes that are much more musical than this one out there for MUCH cheaper.

Go to your favorite search engine and type: "Fuzz Face mods"...wanna know why so many pages pop up dealing with modifying the JD-F2 FuzzFace? BECAUSE IT STINKS!

very easy, two knobs, you heard it before right? i got it used, so no manual, but it sounds really fine just searching around the settings.

i use a epiphone SG special, fender squier strat and a jackson performer through a combo marshall avt100 or a maniac amp (cheap and bad sounding). my surprise was that the fuzz face worked fine with both, guitars and amps no matter the setup. it sounds exactly the way i wanted, a vintage fuzz sound, warm and with a good sustain, but i only tried it direct into the amp, with no other effect in the chain. you sound exactly like hendrix in radio one, you know, thing that i was really looking for. for chords it really doesn't do a good work, it sounds a little too weak. but for solos it kicks ass for the tone wich is really nice. rolling the guitar volume down really cleans up the distortion, thing that i could never do in a nice way with another pedal. again, i give it a 10 cos it was exactly what i was looking for, a hendrix tone, but if youre into sumthing else, you might be dissapointed. palm mute does not sound good with this pedal.

it's a full-metal box, it looks like ya could run with your car over it and it would still work fine.

never dealt with it i bought it used.

i play lots of things, from classics like beatles to ska, punk rocks and hardcore kinda sound. i am a fuzz fan, i own a XXL tech21 and a Zvex fuzz factory. i cant compare the three, cos they're different stuff if u know what i mean. i can produce hundreds of different tones from then, thing that i cant do with the fuzz face. it actually does only one type of sound, that is the old vintage fuzz. if u want versatility, search for another one effect.
the thing i really HATE on it is that it doesnt have an AC/input jack. so, you'll have to buy batteries for the rest of your life, it really sucks also, to open it and plug it in, cos for that, ya have to remove the botton plate and screw. in a live performance ya would be very angry for that.

i actually was robbed, Brazil sucks dudes, dont walk around with your gear around here. well, but i want to buy another one, if the price is good right? things here just cost too much, a new one costs around U$200, i cant afford it.

DEUS ABENCOE O BRASIL!

very easy to use. large rubber knobds make it possible to adjust volume or fuzz with your foot (i usualy only try this when ive decided i want the volume all the way up and i just kick it) i hated the battery going dead but that was easily solved with an adapter that came with my powersupply (switchmode)

i play a few different guitars (strats, a mustang RI, epi LP special and gibby LP studio) all of which have a humbucker in the bridge and get played through the clean channel of a fender blues deluxe. all dist is outboard. i would NOT recomend this pedal for a rythm guitarist, youll never get the sound you want, but it has a hell of a volume boots and a smooth overdriven sound that i absolutely love. the tone cuts through everything and this is the best lead guitar pedal ever! dont even bother trying to play a chordf through it by itself though, the distortion is just too warm and too saturated to suit any modern day rythm guitarists expectations of a dist pedal

built like a tank. i dont have a back up, ive never needed one

na

i play punk and alt rock mostly, blues when im by myself. i use a boss DS-1 as my main dist pedal and the fuzz face when as my soloing pedal. also i use only the fuzz face when i use my vox wah, the ds-1 sounds like crap in conjunction with a wah.

Well, 2 knobs, Volume and Fuzz. very simple

Well!!! Depends on what Yr looking for. Definitely not an instant Jimi in a box. Not too much sustain, and not too much fuzz...only when its almost all turned up to the right does the Fuzz Knob really make an impression. But thats all I need. I wasn't looking for a versatile fuzz, but for a dirty ugly fucker, an dwhen this thing is turned to the max, or near it, its cool as fuck. I use a Es-335 liek geetar, Oscar Schdmit OE-20, pretty good. Ilike Sonic Youth, if i put my ts-7 before this thing, it gets noisy as hell, but good too. There might be better fuzz pedals out there, but this one does all i need

its a tank.

never needed, hope i never will.

I play so-called alternative. Sonic Youth, Nirvana Punk etc. Been playing for just over a year but messed around with lots of gear, iknow whats good or not, methinks...well, i only bought a fuzz face cos my fave geetarist, John Squire (out of teh Stone Roses) had one, not cos of Jimi. Though if i had the money I'd buy a Colorsond Tonebender.
I only decided to buy tis one after playing it a lot at the store, coming back some other day and plkaying more, til l i wa ssure it was good..now iloveit.