IndyGuitarist Blue Fuzz

This is a continuation of my dad's review below

I hooked it up and used it to drive my SD-1
The settings were gain1 12 o clock, gain 2 3 0 clock, volume 10 o clock, tone 12 o clock
SD-1 setting everthing 12 o clock.
The sound (although it defeats the purpose of the pedal) is like an SD-1 that has had extra gain stages added and thickened up with out going muddy it has a crushing thick fluid sustaining distortion sound good for both power chords and soloing (loved playing ziggy stardust on it).
This set up gives me 3 different drive sounds.
Although i want to try the pinnacle 2

GREAT!!!

Took a while to find my sound but easy to get a good sound. Slight changes in setting make a drastic change which makes it very versatile.

My setup is various Rickenbacker into a VOX AC30.
With the tone at about 9:00 a nice creamy driving fuzz sound that im really happy with.

It is great for lead guitar in various 60's/70's style genres. The Blue LED is a nice touch for stage use. The only problem is that the knobs turn too easily and cause a dramatic change in sound.

This fuzz/distortion unit has two gain knobs in addition to the volume and tone control, so it took at least an extra 30 seconds to determine what they do.

Other than that, dialing in some wonderful sounds was pretty quick. I've never worked with a pedal that was so definitive with each adjustment of the knobs. Finding what you're looking for is quick, although finding more than you could ever imagine is where the fun is with this.

I'm using this as a boost for my Mesa amps. I've got all the knobs at 10:30.

First, the sound out of this pedal makes everything thick. Fat is an overused term. From clear to creamy, the signal just gets fatter. It makes all my other gain pedals thin and whiney. I'm talking Keeley, not junk. And I never thought I'd be putting them back in the drawer.

The tone knob is very different from any tone knob I've turned before. It seems to melt the difference between bass and treble, rather than just cut the treble like most others. Strange but beautiful. I hope someone else can describe this better than me, Brian calls it more of a 'presence' knob, but it's much more than that.

The first gain knob is more of a 'presence' knob between 10 and 2, very similar to the presence knobs on my Mesa's. Soft to hard, with distortion on the knob dimed. And a beautiful distortion it is, better than any other pedal I've ever heard, it's musical and sings more like an expensive amp.

The second gain knob between 10 and 2 goes from clear to creamy OD, with all out raunchy, speaker blown fuzz dimed. Perfect for the Tea Tree, Rythmeen sound (I always wanted that sound, but didn't want to spend $$$ on a pedal I'd only use on a few songs).

The sensitivity to clean up with the guitar's volume knob is better than any other pedal I've ever used, period. From a little aliveness on my clean, to the sound of electricity flying from my fingers, on clean through searing lead gain, this pedal does more than I could ever imagine any pedal doing. Other than very, very slightly light clean, it's never off.

No bass loss, no mid hump, it's just a musical pump.

Does everything you could want except metal. But I've got a metal amp, and with this in front, you've never heard anything like it. Even Mesa's need a little boost now and then.

There isn't a tube amp made that this won't make sound 10x more expensive.

This is a completely new circuit that no one has ever done before. Brian equates it with a germanium fuzz, but it's sounds and does so much more than that. It uses an op-amp instead of transistors, so there's no concern regarding the weather/radio stations/transistor life. Inside is clean and well soldered, fairly simple circuit, cable ties and silicon goop to keep things sturdy. As with his Pinnacle circuit, this unit would drain a battery too fast, so it's 9v adaptor only. Doesn't bother me, this is my Holy Grail pedal.

Also, it doesn't load up my Bud Wah like my other fuzz.

I don't need a backup with this, but I would like a spare. One to treasure, the other to trash :-).

And I have no concern that Brian wouldn't do whatever it took to fix something if anything went wrong.

Brian seems fairly friendly, did a quick turnaround on a Boss mod (that is also in a drawer after getting this :-(. As good as the other ESTABLISHED mod and pedal builders.

This new circuit does it all - OD, distortion and fuzz. This is the kind of pedal that players will be talking about for years, like the old Fuzz Face and the TS808.

This is my desert island pedal. It turns my Mesa amps into the most toneful machines ever heard (not always a term used with Mesa Marks and Rectifiers, we buy these for a different reason). I was getting ready to purchase a new amp, something more colorful at lower volumes. No need to now, I can drip tone with the best of 'em. (Actually, Mesa just lost a Lonestar Special sale). Notice - Before you replace your pickups or amp looking for a better tone, try one of these first. You will not regret it, and will probably save yourself a ton of cash.

Don't waste your money buying a pedal to have modded, either, in fact don't get anything modded, just get one of these. Modding won't get rid of the tone suck (well, Brian's Metal Zone mod does, but that's kind of strange, too, and for a different sound).

I'm going to pick up one of Brian's Pinnacle pedals. I don't need it at all after the Blue Fuzz, but I can't assume that it won't offer me an even greater assortment of tones that I've never even dreamed up yet. These new circuits are the shizznit. Someday every studio on the planet will have one of these Blue Fuzz pedals on the shelf.