Euthymia ICBM Fuzz

WOW 3 knobs just like the classic BIG MUFF , Babies could dial in your ICBM FUZZ and run away..... and I promise you that you will LOVE the sound!! One of my good friends who is has just graduated from Drexel University in Philadelphia for music recording, said once that the best pedals are those that have the least knobs. And he is right, I have an ibanez fl-303 flanger , a skreddy echo, a brown rabbit , an ICBM fUZZ!!! from Euthymia, and a boost r.v.b. from sansamp, and all have 3 knobs except for the reverb. I have done extensive pedal searching for the past for 3 years. I'm done now.

SUPER SUPER SUPER GREAT SOUND QUALITY. If you like the white stripes , and that dead leaves and the dirty ground sound he gets, you will have it exactly and almost only with this pedal. (I love that dang song), Hey! do you like the smashing pumpkins?? THEN GO RIGHT NOW AND BUY THIS PEDAL!!! I just got one back from EriK , coz I blew it up with an AC adapter , and all I want to do is play, because- THE ICBM FUZZ -will make you want to play ALL day! O no I could be a ICBM fuzz addict!!??
(Sound is that of an very old million dollar BIG MUFF pi)

Great , super solid box I would not worry about jumping all over.
Built like an American tank!!!! plug it into a tube or solid state amp, coz both will sound sweet!

Erik fixed my pedal for free!!! shipped it back for free!!! and took the time to personally answer all my questions!!! , which even went on to guitar necks and tube amps. Erik Miller is one of the sweetest guys you will ever have the pleasure of talking to, It blows my mind how incredibly kind and helpful he is. ORDER an ICBM fuzz today. (510)-337-9240

A W S O M E - I play heavy emotional music, blues, I like to shoegaze , I have been playing for 10 years, and I had a 2001 big muff pi which sounded crappy , but this one is just simply out of this world!!!!!!!!!!
E X E L L E N T - I highly recommend this ICBM fuzz to any one who plays any type of music at all, because it will work for you. I love the violin like sustain . O yeah and don't forget this pedal goes to eleven!!!! A dream come true
This is my first user review ever on any product, so I guess I can say that if your looking for some inspiration musically get an ICBM fuzz.
A BIG thank you to Erik Miller.

3 knobs: volume, tone, and sustain just like a Big Muff. The only way it could be any simpler is if the tone knob(which I keep at 12:00) wasn't there.

I use it like this: Sg>Dunlop crybaby>Mutron Phasor>ICBM>Boss FZ 2 Hyper Fuzz(set to the boost channel)>Hiwatt DR-103. Amazingly crushing sound! I can really get a nice heavy Melvinsy Sabbathy kind of tone, as well as the sweet sweet violin-like sustain on the high end that Big Muff's are famous for. I've been using Big Muffs for about 9 years. I've tried the black Big Muffs, the green Russian ones, the NY reissue ones. This one sounds better than any of them, and it's better than a vintage one because it makes no noise when it's turned off.

I've been gigging with it for over a year, including a two week tour where we played every night. No problems yet!

Eric's a real nice guy. He lives locally and repairs my amps on a regular basis. I broke the plastic tone knob on the pedal.(I'm pretty punishing to my gear) and he gave me another one for free and told me the pedal had a lifetime guarantee.

I play heavy stoner rock stuff a la Sabbath, Helmet, Melvins, Kyuss, etc... Works perfectly for that. I've been playing guitar for 17 years and like I said I've been using Big Muffs pretty much since I started playing in bands. I also own a Boss FZ 2 Hyper Fuzz and a Univox Super Fuzz. I like the ICBM better than either. If this pedal got lost or stolen, I'd definitely want to replace it.

I've always loved the Big Muff sound, but got tired of having to replace my pedals due to wear almost every year. This one has a better sound than any I've ever had and is built like a tank. It may cost a few bucks more, but it's totally worth it.

Piece of cake! Three knobs; doesn't get any easier than that.

Wow - that is some good fuzz. Watch out though, if it's not fuzz you're looking for, you've come to the wrong place!

No problems yet.

It does exactly what it's supposed to. It sounds wicked on bass, and the thickness of the guitar sounds will likely blow your mind. You'll be hearing harmonics and nice fuzzy frequencies that you couldn't dream of before. I don't have any fuzz pedals to compare this one too, because someone recommended I just skip the big muff trials and go for this first. I'm happy that I did.

my icbm fuzz is one of the newly-available jobbers that comes w/ac adaptor option, so you can use a wall-wart to power it--hurray! three knobs... volume, sustain (fuzz), tone. after a (short) amount o' dickin around, i found the spot i liked the volume best: for my set-up that setting was @ 1:30. to my ear, tone knob was too muddy below 10:30 & too shrill past 1:30, & really sounded best at either 12:00 or 1:30. the sustain (or "fuzz", if you will) sounded good to me everywhere from 10:30 to maxed-out (which on the icbm is around 4:30). that's a lotta use-able sounds! so final verdict is: a little time bent over the unit, but then well-rewarded w/an easy-to-memorize chart of awesome settings.

set-up when posting this review: epiphone les paul standard > euthymia icbm fuzz > tc jauernig luxury drive > isp tech decimator > small transistor amp. what kind of sound am i getting? depending on the sustain & tone settings, you can get boulder crushing lows or paint-peeling highs. this fuzz is not subtle--fuzz face & tonebender fans should definitely look elsewhere. even though i am NOT the kinda guy who purchases guitar gear to emulate the mouldy sounds from the "hallowed" past, i will state that the lead sound from guess who's "american woman" & the "broken" rhythm guitar sound from kiss' "cold gin" are EASILY attainable w/this pedal. but ef-that! as (the supremely lame) elton john once (righteously) stated: GROW SOME FUNK OF YOUR OWN!

yeah. sure. whatever.

uh-huh. yup. totally.

here we go... signal clippers i own besides the icbm: 1) maxon d&s 1 --actually purports to be a big muff clone, albeit a completely different one than the icbm. has a rather "soft" fuzz sound (as opposed to "harsh") that i really like; a highly versatile & wildly under-rated distortion device; 2) maxon sd-9 --"conventional" distortion box from maxon, interacts very well w/other pedals in maxon's "9" series (phaser, chorus, etc); maxon ds-830 --a rather "sophisticated" dist device, dead quiet (no noise!) yet capable of being VERY mean. a lotta people are missing the boat on this one; 4) urso splinter --i know anyone reading this is saying "the WHAT-SO WHAT?" to repeat: urso splinter, supposedly based on the rare-as-hen's-dicks interfax harmonic percolator ("the WHAT?!?"). excellent device for creating really nasty, raunchy, "spitty" variations on the vintage fender amp sounds; 5) homebrew electronics germania --a treble booster that won't bust your wallet & makes ALL the sounds you need from a treb boost (do you really NEED to be able to replicate ritchie blackmore's sound as it varied from night to night on deep purp's "fireball" tour? i didn't think so...). whew! that covers a lotta sonic territory! but there was still a big ol' gap in the category of "heavy, saturated fuzz". not anymore. the icbm's got that covered. good-bye, guyatone hd-2 & tz-2 (which are both actually decent pedals considering their low price-tags), the icbm tackles the spectrum of BOTH o' you guys & does it better. so-long, frantone sweet (a flat-out disappointment to me, but hey, other people seem to like it just fine- more power to 'em). so, over-all rating? y'mean i'm not telegraphing my punches ENOUGH? 10.

The thing is as simple as it gets but don't let the simplicity of the controls confuse anyone as to the complexities of the sounds it can produce.

I use the ICBM with a fender strat and a 65 deluxe reverb ri and the sound from the pedal is absolutely huge. Makes the amp sound just huge. The sustain knob has a hiss at low volumes but when the volume is turned up just a bit disappears and delivers amazing sustain (and very cool controlable feedback if you like) that lasts. Again roll the tone knob down a bit and the sound gets absolutely warm and HUGE. I have been searching for a fuzz that sounded like the one I used to have in the early seventies and this is the one. Roll the tone knob up a bit and get that nasal germanium sounding thing going on if that's your thing. Just an awesome pedal.

Built like a tank.

I phoned about the his and met the pedal's creator. Great guy who got on the phone with his pedal at the other end and walked me through a demo. Very nice guy. Very helpful

I play almost exclusively blues so need this pedal only sparingly, but when you need it you need it. For examples of the type of situations where it can be useful listen to the Crossroads CD. Johnny Lang's tone is a snap with the ICBM and the heavy fuzz tone John Mayer dials up in his jam just before he goes into city love is also a breeze with this pedal. A great pedal all around. Just nothing bad to say about it at all.

volume, tone, sustain (nee fuzz/gain/whathaveyou) and a true-bypass footswitch for getting the fuzz, making it go away. I can figure this out, and you are much smarter than I, so there ya go. There is no LED or AC adapter input, and I like those particular features and wouldn't mind there inclusion on a $165 pedal; hence the 7 rating.

I'm using Telecasters, a Gretsch G3140 and an Agile 12-string Les Paul type thing through a Fender Deluxe Reverb reissue. This is, quite simply, the ideal heavy fuzz for me. Thick and massive, and somehow chewy but tight. It crackles, sizzles, and whallops the skull. It also let's the natural clang of my bridge pickup tone through; you can hear the pick on the string, which I dig. It sounds fantastic with my amp set to squeaky clean, cranked to a mild grind, and with my other dirt pedals (Big Cheese copy fuzz and V-Stack Tweedy overdrive on the board right now). Not the go-to pedal for subtle expression of one's love for the beautiful lily. It's what you step on for instant enormousness.

Tone control is very usable through most of it's range (unlike the tone control on the USA EH reissues, which in my experience goes from thin and harsh to thick, muddy and flabby with no in-between). Volume control gets me to unity gain and quite a bit beyond if I wish. Sustain goes from medium gain to just a hair over too much; plenty on tap for me.

Most Big Muffs I have tried (70s, 80s, EH and Sovtek reissues,silver, black, green. . .) sounded fine, but not amazing. They goop a thick fuzz (or more of a distortion in the case of the cheapo black reissue, which I actually like very much) all over the guitar signal, pretty much body-snatching it and taking over. This is not necessarily a bad thing. This is also not the ICBM.

I have heard some guitarists using vintage Big Muffs that had a different sound, however. Thick, mean, huge, with more clarity then just about any other heavy fuzz I have heard. Not transparent by a long shot, but one could still make out the character of the guitar being played. The sound cut through a band, made sizzling bricks of chords drenched arpeggios in harmonic sustain. Leads were electrified power cables cut from the towers and spewing sparks all over the road. This is the sound I was looking for, and this was the sound I got with the ICBM.

This things seems as solid as any pedal I've ever tried. If I was in a pinch and had only one fuzz pedal to use without a backup, this would be it. I've only had this for a few weeks, so toss that grain of salt over your shoulder.

The builder has responded to my questions quickly and kindly. Very nice fella.

I'm covering quite the sonic range right now, dabbling in hazey, mellow psychelia, heavy-ass rock and points in between. Since most people speak reference, here are some of those for ya: Bowie, Sonic Youth, Flying Saucer Attack, Neil Young, Sly Stone, Dungen, Pink Floyd, Soft Boys, PJ Harvey, Shudder to Think, Mastodon, Flower Travellin' Band, Joy Division, Radiohead. . . This pedal will get tons of use.
I bought the pedal from www.tonefactor.com, whom I recommend highly.

It's a 3-knob job. Vol, Tone, Sustain. oh, and there's a footswitch. don't let that throw you.

Sound Quality of this pedal is God. True bypass. No noise.

For those who don't know, the ICBM is based on the Electro Hoarmonix Big Muff. But not just any Big Muff -- a particularly amazing-sounding Muff that employed op amps, or integrated circuits, instead of transisors. (ICBM = integrated circuit Big Muff, get it?) It uses two Motorola 1458 opamps and six clipping diodes.

The setup i played the ICBM thru was a Saga Tele and an old Kay tube amp (6L6-based, Champish). The ICBM instantly delivered a huge, chewy wall of fuzz like I've never heard before. With the Sustain cranked and Volume low (there's assloads of gain on tap w/ this pedal, kids), I attained instant Stoner Rock nirvava -- with a Saga Telecaster!! That's right -- cheap Chinese single coils sounded like super fat humbuckers. I honestly couldn't believe the sounds coming out of that tiny 8-inch speaker.

The Tone know was also an extremely pleasant surprise in that it actually did something! Unlike many pedals (boutique and mass-prod alike), the tone knob provided a full range of tone, from thin and biting (but not shrill) to fat, fat, fat. I generally like way too much bass (frmr/current bass player here), and this pedal had plenty. As mentioned, I could also back it off and get a more "normal," classic fuzz tone. Because it's so flexible and sounds so goddamn good, I have no choice but to award a 10 in this category. If i could give an 11 I would, but I can't, so I won't.

Build quality is beyond reproach. From the Hammerite paint job to the hand-screened lettering to the PC board to the soldering, this pedal is top-freaking-notch. Gigging w/o a backup would be no problem @ all. 10.

The builder, Erik of Euthymia Electronics, is possibly the most knowledgeable and helpful gentleman I've ever met. I have *no doubt* that in the highly unlikely event of a malfunction, he'd get you sorted out. 10.

This might not be the pedal for the Fuzzface purist (try the Euthymia Crucible Fuzz instead!), it *is* the Fuzz for anyone who loves the Big Muff but wants a better, smaller, more hi-fi Muff. It's got enough gain for anyone, whether you're auditioning for SLUTBANGER or just jamming along with Masters of Reality in your bedroom.

I really want to find something wrong with this pedal (i hate gushing "honeymoon" reviews as much as anyone!), but I honestly can't. Oh, there's no LED! does that count? :-/