Fender Contour Fuzz-Wah

On the one hand, this is a very easy to use pedal because simply stomping on either switch gets you unique & awesome tones right away.

BUT, on the other hand, it is a bit of a beast, with two oddly-situated stomp switches, three dials, & no LEDs....

The switches are located on the bottom of the pedal, which looks like an overlong, overwide wah, on either side of the wah footpad. FUZZ is on the left, WAH is on the right. Because of their placement, it's a little cumbersome to get your foot right on the wah to start flapping, either after switching one of the functions on or if it's already on.

The dials are FUZZ, WAH, & BLEND/FUZZ, which basically dials in the amount of fuzz that will be heard within the wah setting. A bit confusing, but fun to tool around with!

There is nothing I have heard that sounds like this pedal! It is silicon-based fuzz at it's nastiest. With the fuzz & wah both high, you get a spitting, splitting si-fuzz sound. With the fuzz down & the wah up, it's a subtler sound that cuts pretty well on solos. With fuzz up & wah down, it's got a wider fuzz sound, but the fuzziness of the overdrive/distortion is less pronounced.

As my friend described it, "this is the sound of every private press psych record from the last 40 years"... meaning: you can get some crazy wild tones out of this that range from the garage to grunge. It DEFINITELY takes time to find something that will work for you, but for recording, this thing has a ton of uses.

The wah function on its own is somewhat disappointing, it's got a wide sweep & I don't really use wah anyway, but I would imagine that true fans of wah-wah wouldn't ever use this as even a back-up. The wah function with the fuzz can give you passable "Sunshine Of Your Love"-type moves but I find that the best sounds I get come from a pre-set position of the wah pedal to acentuate the awesomeness of the fuzz tone.

Using just the fuzz function, the wah pedal becomes more of a volume control for the fuzz, though the fuzz & blend intensity dials still control the harshness of the tone. I have found that this pedal actually does NOT clean up too well with the guitar's volume. It's such a beast that most other pedals, including clean/treble boosts & compressors, are lost within it. I use a strat, and the difference in sound between the 5 pick-up positions varies only minimally, except for the 5th/bridge position, since I have it vintage-style wired to be a direct-from-the-bridge pick-up with no connection to the tone knobs.

Despite it's non-functionality as a wah (& maybe it would be ok, but I just don't care to mess around with that aspect of it enough), I am in love with this pedal! It's not true bypass, but doesn't suck any tone when it's all the way off. I am giving it a 10 simply because I don't know that there's anything else that sounds like it. I've never heard a Univox SuperFuzz but I imagine it's in the same class as that, probably modelled on it or something like it (same era, I'd say, early 70s). I bought it 4 or 5 years ago (2002 or so) on a lark off of eBay, and since then I have NEVER seen another one. When I type "Fender Contour" into Google I get guitar results, not pedals. Weird!

The thing looks solidly built but is really light & the casing feels almost like sturdy aluminum. It's heavy, but mostly because it's so clunky, not because it's a tank (though it could pass for one!)

So far, the only issues I've had have been from a crappy 9V lead that I've had to replace, other than that, it sounds consistent from use to use. Really drains the life from a battery, though!

I don't use it onstage because:
a) it's too damn cumbersome
b) it's a bit of a challenge to engage & use it on the fly
c) i still haven't found a good place for it in any chain
d) i would be mortified if i lost it or something else bad happened to it

but, considering the thing is 35 years or so old, it does the job a-ok by me

Considering even Fender has no record of this product existing, I can't say I'd expect much in the way of assistance from them. . . though at this point in time, anything out of warranty is probably out of bounds

I mostly record hevy psych stuff, & this fits my needs to a tee. I own some other overdrive & distortion boxes, though I've never owned any tonebender/fuzz face type pedals, & i'm still looking into some for stage use, but I find I can get good fuzzy tones on stage with a treble booster & od-802.

If it were stolen or lost, I would be despondent. I would try & get a Univox to replicate the monstroush over-the-top fuzziness of it

I wish it had LEDs for the separate functions, but again, this is pre-LED era so it's a bit unfair to complain about that. I DO wish it had the switches below or both to the side of the pedal so you could get your foot onto the wah faster & easier. As it is, if you're wearing sneakers chances are your foot will only JUST fit between the two switches.

It TOTALLY helps me make my music. If I tried to use it live, it would be 100% in the way, but as it is, it is an amazing tool for recording & giving both solos & power chords their own sound, which is like little else I've heard!!!!

If you're interested in this pedal, I'm happy to email you photos. I think the H-C database is so useful and helpful, I'm more than willing to give back! Write me at poldibloom@yahoo.com.