Jacques Stompboxes Fuseblower II

This box has some great possibilities, but it's not always easy to get what you're looking for. I've owned this pedal for a few years, and have spent some time with it more recently. When I first bought it, I was less than enamored with it's tone, so I loaned it to a friend. I recently got it back, and have spent some time with it. I think the best bet is to tweak the knobs slowly, and keep in mind they are interactive.

This is a very rewarding pedal if you spend some time with it

At first I thought it was just a raspy-sounding distortion, with little tone, but after much tweaking, I have found it to be a very quirky, and toneful distortion and fuzz pedal.

I can get great lead tones from this box. The top three tone controls are difficult to get a hold on at first. I think of them as Bass, High Mids, and Presence, left to right.

I get nice tones by first setting the bottom three controls set at:

Vol - 12 O'clock
Tone - 12 O'clock
Fuzz - 7 - 9 O'clock

Then I move on to the top 3 controls, and a good starting point is:

Bass - 11 O'clock
Mids - 2 - 4 O'clock
Presence - 8 - 10 O'clock

I find that if you start at these settings, you can get a very convincing Fuzz Face sound by turning the Fuzz control to it's minimum, or just a bit higher. Set the Volume so it's a little louder than unity gain. Adjust the tone to taste, I go just below noon usually. This works well into a very clean amp.

I can also get a cool Tone Bender sound by tweaking the Fuzz around 7 - 10 O'clock, and setting the tone around noon. It sounds very Tone Bender through an overdriven amp, or by boosting the input with a Tube Screamer, or similar overdrive.

If you use the above settings, and bring the Fuzz up to noon+, and set your guitar on the rhythm pickup, with the guitar's tone at minimum, a cool upper octave emerges, creating a cool Octavia tone.

Too much Presence makes this box sound ugly.
Too much Fuzz can also make this box sound ugly

This pedal also cleans up very well the guitars volume control, roll it back for a rhythm distortion, and even overdrive. I think one of the Fuse Blower's great strengths is how sensitive it's input is. You can truly go from Overdrive to Fuzz; many pedals claim to be touch and volume sensitive, but few deliver.

Also, it's not very compressed, so as others have stated a Strat still sounds like a Strat, and a SG still sounds like a SG. The low compression also means that this box will not cover up sloppy technique; I think seasoned players will appreciate this box more than novices.

This pedal is not true-bypass, but the buffer is excellent, it has no negative tone-suck at all, and I'm very picky about a pedal's bypassed tone.

It's not perfect, or the end-all tone, but it's a cool pedal.

Mine has not been abused, but it has been gigged. I've had it a few years, and it still works as new. The switch works every time, and none of the pots are scratchy.

I emailed Jacques a few years ago when I forst bought this pedal, and received fast and courteous responses.

It's not the most incredible, to die for effect pedal I've owned, but it weird, and cool.

It is great for people who like to tweek sounds alot. It has 6 knobs 4 of them contribute to the distortion sound (3 blow and distortion). It also has a volume and tone knob. The three blow knobs also contribute to the tone, so finding the right balance between all the knobs can be a bit tricky, but worth it in the end.

Jacques has 4 production distortion boxes. In case you haven't tried them all it goes like this: the tube blower is the least heavy, mercer box is the a bit more heavy, tube blower is very high gain and bat fuzz is the full out high gain.

This box starts out from a pretty high gain sound and the distortion knob gives it even more harmonics and grit. It doesn't seem to actually raise the gain though. It's hard to explain.

The three blow controls can be thought of as volume controls for three parts of the spectrum. The gain level is preset. Think of these as mixing the amounts of low, mid, and high fequency distortion as opposed to changing them. They do not acually change the gain level, just the volume level of their respective bands. If you turn all three blow knobs to zero you will have no sound at all.

It is kind of a multi-band distortion, but I'm not sure if the cross over occurs before the distortion generator or after. I tend to think it goes through one distortion generator and is then crossed over and fed to three volume (blow) controls.

This pedal excels at lead guitar tones but would not be my first choice for chord work. It just has two much gain for most rhythm situations.

The clarity for the amount of gain is pretty impressive, but the fact that you have little control of the gain makes it rather limited. The mercer and tube blower are much more versatile.

I have to point out an error in another review. These are NOT made of plastic. Only the footswitch is plastic the body of the pedal is METAL that is painted the same color as the footswitch. Before I had any jacques pedals I also thought they were plastic but now I have all the distortion units and they all have metal housings.

Good solid feel to the pots and jacks, but the plastic footswitch I don't trust. They have never let me down.

This is a very unique pedal. I will certainly keep this pedal for the times that I want it's sound, but It's not my go to box. I would buy it again.

This is not the easiest dirt box to use, but that's because it's more flexible than most dirt boxes when you're dialing in a sound. 6 knobs, 3 fuse nobs which effect the low, mid, and high, level, tone, and fuzz. Again, super flexible, but not super simple.

This is a VERY dirty box. Even the lowest gain settings were too much for the sound I was looking for. But just cause it didn't fit the sound I was going for does not make this a bad sounding pedal. If you're looking for a very aggressive distortion sound with the flexibility to eq it precisely, you will LOVE this little box. For me, it was a little too over the top.

Yes, Jacques pedals are made out of plastic and not metal like the boss pedals, but this isn't cheap plastic that looks like it could break if you sneezed at it. This is very hard, tough plastic that I think would be able to stand up for a long time. The knobs seem very sturdy and well attatched. I don't think anyone would have reliability problems in normal gigging situations.

This is a VERY flexible, aggressive distortion pedal. If you are looking for something that bites more than your run-of-the-mill dirt box, you should check out. I returned mine because it was a little too aggressive for my tastes, but I was impressed enough with the sound that I'm trying the Jacques tube blower instead.

6 knobs but very intuitive.

I'm playing a Les Paul into a Blackface Fender Twin Reissue. This pedal has a great natural distortion tone. It is unusual in that it has lots of distortion but it really preserves you guitar tone. It's not as smooth as a TS808, but is similar in that you can tell the difference between a Strat and a Les Paul. I had a Fulltone Distortion Pro, but I thought it was terrible for rhytmn but ok for leads. The Fulltone really masks your tone unlike the Fuseblower. I got rid of the Fulltone. I like the Fuseblower much better for lead work also.

Very solid, no problems in a year of gigging.

Unneeded

I've tried tons of boutique distortion boxes and this is the best by a longshot. it has great sustain, and is very tweakable.

A bit trickier than usual, but just read the manual. If you can't understand it, go learn how to read.

I have a Fender mexican standard strat (ick...) and a Gibson explorer 76 reissue. I plug this through....wait for it...... a Mesa boogie dual rectifier 100 watt head and a Marshall 1960A cabinet. First the negatives: 1. Noisy when the gain is all of the way up, this is on the standard strat though. Next...No other company in the world seems to have learned their lessons from Jacque. This thing is amazing. It is completely indescribable. The sound is immaculate. I've tried Ibanez and Maxon TS808's, Fulltone DP-1 and all that stuff. This makes all the other pedals it's bitches. The blow 1,2, and 3 knobs are so different, but once you try them sooooooo necessary. They do different things for the frequencies, but all make sense once you play around. This can go from hard rock to blistering metal. It has more of a marshall sound, but even then, that's making an unfair statement to the Fuseblower. Light blues and jazz players won't like the gain. The minimum setting will be too much. (HINT: go check out the Tubleblower for you blues and jazz players, works great too.) This is probably the best distortion/overdrive pedal out there. It's on the underground.

Can't say. Havent' had problems.

Emailed Jacque about power supply question. Emailed back in less than 24 hours himself.

I've A/B'd this with my mesa/boogie dual rectifier's distortion. This is a great addition because it just adds a different kind of distortion to it. It's definitely tighter than the Mesa's. Worth every single penny. Even all you tone snobs should check it out. The is the first really high gain pedal that nails the sounds. It lets all of the notes in chords come out instead of a Wash. Doesn't change your tone at all. The other drawback is the sustain isn't quite on par, but still manageable.

This unit is a little hard to get to know. But is pretty cool. You tweak knobs to design sounds. Well with this unit you have six knobs. One for fuzz, three blows(EQ), one level and one tone.
Experiment and you will see what is all about.

It sounds pristine clean. The sounds range from a simple Boss Ds-1 to full blown Nine Inch Nails.
My set up is a Gibson Les Paul Classic -> Fuse Blower II -> Digitech Whammy 2 -> Boss V-wah -> Electro Harmonix Small Stone Phaser -> DOD Supersonic Flanger -> Jaques Meistersinger chorus -> Jacques Mercer Box concept distortion -> Jacques Tube Blower overdrive -> Jacques Bat Fuzz metal dist/fuzz -> Digitech X-Series Synth Wah -> Digitech X-Series Digi Delay -> to a Kustom Tuck N' Roll 100w Tube Half Stack.

As with all stompboxes it makes noise but is low compared to the rest of the stompboxes in the market this days.

I have had mine for about a year and a half. It is pretty strong and sturdy. Made Tough. Metal protected with rubber.

Never had dealt with them

It is a fantastic value. It is versatile and well constructed. What else you want?

it's analog with 6 knobs, so it is easy to understand. so far i did not get the point naming the knobs after the electronic innards (blow 1 instead of low boost).
there are some example settings in the manual, but you will not need them.

setup: ibanez telecaster thinline special, custom modified -> fuse blower -> yamaha g50-112II (high gain input, clean channel). the amp is in a transparent setting with treble at full gain and bright knob pulled, mids depressed by parametric equalizer. i tested at living room level. i tested in direct comparison with the marshall drivemaster.
for a three stage distortion box it certainly is not noisy. you get a hiss at high settings (above 12 o'clock) for both tone and fuzz, but what do you expect with my amp setting?
it is very versatile due to its 5 knobs for setting up the sound. It is analog and gives a nice distortion over a whole range of settings, following volume and attack of the guitar quite well. to my taste a little more sustain would be nice. compared to the marshall drivemaster (my favourite overdrive) you can get a little more transparency and a higher gain, but the last one for the price of a little more noise.

i have not used it long enough to give a final evaluation. it is built in a sturdy little metal box and looks quite reliable. the pedal switch is made of some plastic material, but looks tough enough, especially as the switch works quite easy and you certainly don't have to "stomp" on it. i've opened it and found a very neat electronic system, so this should last for some time.
Now here comes one major drawback: it eats batteries at a rate of about 30 mA as compared to my drivemaster at about 4 mA. so you need a 9 V adaptor, and it does not have the standard input jack like all my other boxes, so i just have to look, if i can get an adaptor for this one. Hope it is not a special french product.

have not dealt with them yet

i have been playing blues to hard rock for 30 years. so i do like analog overdrive and distortion boxes. i bought this one from ebay due to enthusiastic reviews in papers and on the net. for my kind of music i can see little advantage over my old drivemaster and i think i'm more or less going to use it as a backup for that, only if i find a 9 V adaptor for it. i like its variety of sounds and its transparency. i don't like its sustain, dropping off the distortion too early for my taste. the non-standard adaptor jack is a real nuisance. i would give it an overall 8, if it weren't for that.

A bit daunting at first since you have 4 distortion circuits + a tone control that's really more like Presence. Once you get used to it no problem

I play a bunch of different guitars into either an old Fender Vibrolux, Ampeg reverb-o-rocket reissue or Boogie MK IIc. Std effects: Chorus, Trem (Voodoo Labs), 2 Delays and TS10 Tube screamer.

Seems really well constructed, nice and small too, which is good as far as pedalboard space goes.

I understand Jacques is great though.

I play punk, alt & psychedelic rock and this box lets me get as massive or as subtle a distorted sound as I want. Also responds beautifully to dynamic playing and cleans up nicely via the guitar volume knob. Dead quiet too. Bravo!

Enough said about this in the other reviews on this page.
The three boostknops on top was a bit confusing at first, but after a while you get the point with them and starts to wonder how you ever got your sound without them. Thank's to these this baby delivers virtually any sound you can think of.
As said before here. This is the real deal. Not some beginners, easy to approach toy.

I play a stock Strat or Tele through a Fender Prosonic With a minimum of pedals and mostly with very little overdrive.
I bought the FB to replace a ts9 which to my taste made too much unwanted changes to the sound delivered by the amplifier.
Compared to the the TS9 the FB delivers much more gain, but it seems to do my overdrive as well. With flying colours.
After getting familiar with it I tried to do the SRV thing.
The two upper mikes on the strat together delivers a wonderful sound in my ears, but easily tends to get a little muddy when overdriven.
So, kicking in the Fuseblower and adding a little topboost (blow 3) for som bite and, voila.
So damn close it almost made me cry.
And that's just one of the possibillities with this thing.
Maybe I will have to invest in a couple more for stage use.
Best pedal I've tried. Worth every penny.

Haven't owned it long enough yet, but it looks and feels really steady in it's metalcasing.

Haven't had any reason to contact Jacques and from the looks of this baby, I probably never will. Except maybe to buy another one of his products which is under serious concideration.

Only one thing to add actually. Go get one.

6 knobs - low, middle and high boost, volume, tone and fuzz. Twiddle with them get the sound you want. It can take a while though. If you go to Jacques web site there are a number of recommmended settings you can try out.

Set up - vintage twin humbucker les paul copy, laney linebacker combo. I bought this pedal for low noise and rich tone overdrive and distortion. It does exactly that. It's got a good range from light overdrive to full on crunch. It is not, however, a metal pedal, for that you need the bat fuzz. I have used boss, danelectro, marshall, korg, dod and snarling dogs overdrive/distortion pedals and this is by far the best out them all.

Built like a brick, will be gigging with it later in the year.

Jacques responds to enquiries within 24 hours and even sent me half a dozen mother of pearl picks.

I've been playing various styles (rock, metal, funk, electro, pop, etc) for 15 years or so and this is the best overdrive pedal i've had. If it got nicked (not likely to break down) i'd get the insurance people to fork out for another. Other gear I own include: whammy pedal, jacques bat fuzz, dunlop crybaby, danelectro back talk, tc electronics m300, behringer t9153 tube ultra gain pre-amp, plus a pile of synths and computer gear. I have no money left and appear to be single handedly keeping the credit card company sector in business.

Well, you certainly have to twaddle around with the knobs a bit to get the sound desired - it won't do it for you. However, it's not a Zoom 505 or Digitech X-Series crap. It is more than worth all the fuss. This is a tool of the trade, not a beginner's stompbox.

Setup: Ibanez 450 RG to a mixer (recorded directly). Virtually no noise. If you have noise, it's probably due to your set-up. The sound is certainly top-notch for a stompbox. Extremely clear and precise sound picture. One perhaps has to turn up the low frequencies to give it a fuller sound. Great stompbox, it can generate an overall good shredding and ripping sound, which is even good for Metal (but more or less technical types of metal - if your guitar playing capabilities are good and you can hop over a few strings whilst shredding, this is the pedal of choice).

Highly reliable. Built like a brick.

No problem. Jacques is friendly, helpful and extremely responsive.

I play Black/ Death Metal, prefer a clear sound picture over heaps of distorted mud etc. It certainly delivers a load. I've been playing guitar for more than fifteen years (on and off). If it were stolen, I'd probably get a new one or try out a Jacques Batfuzz. It may be cheaper than a Boss MT-2 or comparable pedals, but the sound you get here is a lot better - remember, this is a full-blown analogue pedal, no junk! And if you enjoy collecting effects, this is certainly a good bet. Other gear I use is a Digitech XP300 Spacestation and an old Evans MX-99 Mini Echo/ Delay unit. Next thing on my list is a TC Electronics G-Major. And hopefully an endorser contract in the next few months.. ;-))

There are sooooooooo many good tones here, i drive me crazy changing them around...i LOVE this pedal, and i've been through a BUNCH of them

i've never heard ANYTHING like this pedal...its NOT a clean boost at all, it gives me a tone thats OUT OF THIS WORLD....neverending sustain, controllable feedback, like buck dharma....

no problems at all

jacques is the most unique pedalman i've ever met...get to know him.

i'm saving for more of jacques pedals...like i said, i NEVER heard anything like it

Most manufacturers make their pedals idiot-proof by limiting sonic possibilities and appealing to the lowest common denominator. Not so with the FB2. There are six knobs, and they are all important. Three are the usual volume, tone (sweetly voiced) and amount of distortion. The other three are actually volume levels for three discrete distortion engines voiced low, mid and high. (They are NOT simple EQ's.) So what you have is equivalent to three distortion pedals, each handling a different frequency range, running in parallel into a mini-mixer. It took me an hour to familiarize myself with the sheer range of sonic options and find "my" setting; and another couple of hours to fine tune it. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of great sounds; there is so much flexibility, you can even dial in some bad ones (so what?) I'm giving it 9 instead of 10 because it does take a while to sort through the possibilities. I refuse to lower my rating for those few of you out there who are lazy, inexperienced or tone-challenged. The manual is fine, and the sample settings are good starting points.

My rig is a heavily modified dual humbucker solidbody into a vintage Fender combo (to which I've added a line out) into a vintage 140 watt power amp/speaker cab. It can do just about anything, at just about any volume, except channel switching. So I need a couple of pedals, and the FB2 has become one of them. The design of the FB2 creates a harmonically rich and "clear" distortion--each note in a chord is distinct, and "complex" chords don't freak it out. It doesn't squash or shrink your tone. There is also something I'm not sure how to describe: there's a certain presence, clarity, crispiness, sweetness, attack and QUICKNESS that makes the sound very alive. It's a tone-enhancer rather than a tone destroyer. It won't cover up sloppy playing; whatever you play, good or bad, jumps right out (I wouldn't have it any other way!). Extreme settings can, of course, create some noise, but overall it's a quiet unit. If copping other artists' sounds is your thing, this pedal would be very helpful. If you want to find, refine and enhance YOUR sound (and distortion is part of your sound), try the FB2--you just might give it a 10 like I have.

Jacques gives a 3 year, no questions asked warranty. His stuff is road-tested. He responds to emails. What more could you ask for? I'm giving it a 9 for now; in 5 years, if I have no problems, I'll give it a 10.

As mentioned above, he responds to emails, usually within 24 hours. Not only helpful and friendly, but informed, experienced and funny.

We play so many styles, mixes and sub-categories of rock music (except nu-metal), I won't list them. This is without a doubt the best sounding and most versatile distortion pedal I have ever come across, and I've been playing for 30 years. The sound is downright inspiring. I would buy more FB2's for my pedal board (for different presets) rather than any other distortion pedal--in fact I'm thinking about doing just that. The one distortion sound it doesn't do (which is fine with me) is scooped-mid/no tone/all-sounds-the-same nu-metal. The one thing I wish it had is presets, so that at a gig I could access all it has to offer. I will never get rid of it; I consider it a piece of electronic art.

6 knobs - Blow 1, 2 and 3 - kind of like sweeping low mid and highs. Also volume, tone and fuzz.

Easy to get a good sound, none of the sounds are bad. The suggestions which include a Hendrix strat through plexi, Billy Gibbons, Pete Townsend and Steve Vai, provide a decent resemblence to these sounds. Of course depending on your own guitar and amp.

Accepts a nine volt battery (supplied) or adapter.

I wanted a pedal that I could use to provide an overdrive channel to a solid state Roland cube amp. And also could double as a Fuzz/distortion pedal for my Marshall amp. This pedal has fulfilled that.

This pedal is very dynamic, to me this is it's best quality.. It never gets over compressed or too muddy and squashed. Yet sound very full particularly in the bass. It lacks the annoying buzzsaw sound of a lot of fuzz pedals, yet the character of fuzz is there if you want it. Even on the extreme settings, the sounds don't really overlap and go too far out of phase to use.

Through a clean amp, it has enough presence and wallop that it can be used almost as if it were another channel on an amp. It remains interactive with the guitar volume, a fact I really appreciate.

Through an overdrive channel on an amp, the pedal is so dynamic that it is still useful, and doesnt become too unfocussed like other high gain pedals.

I'm rating this a 10 because it's flexible. It does not do the TS 808 thing or clean boost, but seems to cover the higher gain distortion/fuzz spectrum really well. I've rated other pedals other pedals at 9 and this is noticeably better.

Appears to be very well built. Similar to Boss with a little smaller footprint.

I've had or have PE yardbox, Crowther hotcake, Visual Sound Route 66, early Boss overdrive. I've only had this a short time, but I am initially more impressed with this pedal than I was when I first received any of the other pedals that I have or have had.

The only downside I can see is that it can take a while to dial in the exact sound your after, because the 6 controls are very interactive. Sometimes when I get lazy I wish for a little more compression, and then realize more compression would probably come at the expense of the fantastic dynamics of this pedal.

This box is easy to use. 6 knobs (low/mid/high boost) volume, tone, and fuzz. This is the production model of the Fuseblower, but it is 3 fuseblowers in 1.

I play a Strat w/ Rio Grandes A Raven RP350 w/ Duncan Jazz and Rio BBQ bucker. The effect chain goes like this: Fuseblower, Morley Pro series Wah, Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive, Guyatone MD3, Boss CE 2, A/B/Y box to a Tech 21 Trademark and a Crate VC 508 This box rips! It has a wide frequency range, noiseless, true bypass, and endless variations. This box is a shocker!!! I can get vintage overdrive or tapping shred tone. No kidding! OD crunch, grind, and fuzz, mucho boost with tone. Oh yeah, don't worry about your distortion thinning out, this will blow your head off. This is the real deal, folks and a bargain. It deserves an 11

It has a 3 year no questions asked warranty. It is solid metal cased. The switch is not the typical Carling type, kinda Boss-ish.
I believe it will be just fine for a long time

I emailed Jacques about how he made the soundclips on ts808.com. He emailed me back within an hour. Check out his website. He is a real pro who is crazy about making the best.

I have been playing for around 9 years. i have owned a lot of hyped goods, marketing used to work on me. This is great piece of gear that will improve the tone of your amp. This will inspire you to practice more and sound better than your peers. Get one!!!