MJM Guitar Effects China Fuzz

Thought about giving it a 7, so call this a 6.5.

This pedal has a lot of the same drawbacks as other fuzz pedals:

It is a little finicky with placement - I have a Teese wah with the Foxrox fuzz friendly mod and this pedal still hisses like mad with a wah running before it.

The pedal has two knobs. Expand is the left knob and seems to control the overtones more than the gain. You can not clean this pedal up with the gain knob (use your volume to do that). The volume knob is self-explanatory. The pedal has a decent amount of boost available, although I wouldn't use it to boost a signal as it is pretty noisy.

It also has a trimmer on the inside that controls the sustain and octave effect (its regulates voltage going to the distortion circuit I believe). I find myself opening the pedal too often to tinker with this and am thinking of drilling a hole in the back and installing an extended trimmer knob a la Analogman.

Other than the above, it pretty moron proof. Press button, fuzz is on. It controls well with your guitar knob and the two channels are easy enough to dial in. I own the newer version - it looks cooler than the older ones, but does not have a footswitch to change between the two fuzz tones (uses a longish toggle switch). I don't use one of the channels, so I appreciate the smaller one button enclosure.

I went into the store looking to play one of MJM's Brit Benders. Plugged that pedal in, played it a little, got bored and noticed the China Fuzz that someone else had left on the floor after their own demo session.

Luckily I plugged the China Fuzz in and from the first note I was sold. Everyone in the store had to turn and figure out what pedal was creating the gigantic exploding noise that this pedal puts out.

Most players will be very familiar with the sound comming out of this pedal even if they have never heard of a Superfuzz. This is the tone used in a lot of rock music including Live at Leads, a dozen or so Pumkins songs, some Hendrix, etc.

Used with your guitar's volume backed off, it is a mid-scooped and roomy fuzz (almost sounds like reverb is on) with subtle octave. Crank your volume and a power chord sounds like 5 guitars at once - huge overtones, lots of octave, and general wall of sound (I instantly thought of the heavy section in Smashing Pumpkin's Silverf**k).

The pedal has a bit of hiss when you are not playing, but this can be expected of a fuzz. I also have to say that I only use the "Leads" section of the pedal. As I mentioned, the new Chinafuzz replaced a button with a toggle that allows you to switch between "Leads" (as in Live at Leads) and "Loose". The "Loose" side sounds like a Superfuzz into a transistor radio. Kinda cool at lower gain levels, but really only usable as a gimmicky sound imho.

I run the pedal with a Dr. Z Route 66 (kinda like a Bluesbreaker); it also sounded great when I played in the store on a hot-roded Fender Princeton with 6L6s. The pedal modifies your tone so much that it seems pretty amplifier agnostic (as long as your not playing a metal-head solid state rig).

Can't comment on this yet, but it seems well built. The builder did use some dabs of epoxy to hold the board in and secure a few of the solder points (one solder point that had three resistors used a dab of black epoxy) - so I wish he would have used a clear marine glue or something easier to pop off, rather than industrial grade epoxy.

No comment.

The China Fuzz is an awesome Superfuzz clone. It is a little difficult to dial-in (with the trim pot), but when you settle on the amount of sustain/octaving the rest easy. This pedal is not a "go-to" fuzz like a Fuzz Face or Soul Bender, it is a monster and will scare small children (in a good way). I haven't seen to much hype on this pedal, but if you are looking for something over the top and already have your basic tones satisfied the China Fuzz is a great addition to a board.

Two knobs: Level and Expand, one for the volume and one for the fuzz

One switch for the selection of the mode, choice of two.

This pedal is a custom order, and it is based on the univox super fuzz also named shasterbury duo fuzz. Mine isn't like the other guy one, it has only one led and one footswitch.

Exactly what I was looking for. A fuzz with an octave feel in it. It is not a subtle effect, the fuzz is huge. I bought it to do some genesis covers, and it nails them, Nursery crime, and foxtrot album, like musical box, fontain of salmacis and supper's ready.

If you're looking for a univox super fuzz, this is what you want

Have been using it for two months and I'm sure it will last all my life, it's build like a tank

Perfect, a wrote to michael a couple of time and he anwered really quickly. This is a custom pedal so you have to dealt with him, which is not a problem.

I play prog and classic rock, this fuzz is perfect for that. From genesis to the who to my songs, it is perfect. I really like fuzzes and this one is really different than usual big muff and fuzz faces. This pedal will blow you ears. You won't believe it. If you like big fuzzes, this one is for you

Pretty easy to use. The box has 2 knobs: Level and Expand. Level obviously controls the output, and Expand, the amount of fuzz you can get.

The particular pedal was made as a special order for me. I requested to have an extra footswitch to flip through the 2 modes of fuzz.

This pedal is essentialy a high quality clone of the Univox Superfuzz, so it features 2 fuzz modes (just like the original)...one is trebly, and the other one is mids-scooped.

It also features true bypass (2 footswithes), 3 LEDs (one for on/off effect, and 2 different colour ones for the 2 different modes). It also has a standard Boss style AC jack.....and it also looks cool as hell! ;)

See a pic of my pedal here: http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-6/241759/china_fuzz_1.jpg

I use the pedal with my 2 vintage Fender Jazzmasters (a '64 and a '67) through a 70s silverface Fender tube amp.

The effect is not noisy when on....extreme fuzz settings do have a slight hiss...but hey, it's a fuzz!!

The two modes are very cool to use. The first one, is like I mentioned before, really trebly...it's very 60s sounding...it's got that Japanese square wave breakup quality to it that I love. The second setting sounds exactly like Mudhoney's "Touch Me I'm Sick". No lie....that's the best way of describing it...drop D riffs sounds pretty huge too!

The pedal has a prominent octave sound to it round the 12th fret. In extreme fuzz settings chords break up to a million pieces. This is more of a soaring leads pedal to be honest.

Thankfuly, it has a trimpot where you can adjust the octave prominence in your sound.

I wanted to be able to play some chords through it, so I dialled the octave out as much as posible, so first position chords where possible even with loads of fuzz on...mind you, string to string clarity is not what this pedal is about!!

It's mean and raw, and my god, it sounds amazing!...but, not amazing enough to kick my Fuzz Factory off my board.

They are different animals though, so it's not particularly fair to compare them head to head.

It looks like you could run it over with a tank and it would still keep going!

the fuzz knob/pot has gone slightly loose though...but it's not a big deal.

I'd gig without a backup.

Michael is a true gent. He listened to exactly what I wanted and built me a keeper pedal. He even tried to get the exact green paint that I wanted and built and posted the pedal in about 7-10 days or so.

(this pedal is a special order, email Michael at MJM for more info)

I play alternative, punk and whatever else I feel like at the moment of playing. This pedal is great for Jesus and Mary Chain type sounds. That is a great thing, as I absolutely love the band!

I have been playing for 12-13 years now, and if it was lost, I'd definetely get another one. It's a great sound that everyone should have.

I love the looks and the sound...I would of liked more control over the octave sound...it's the nature of the pedal though, so I shouldn't complain.

It would also have been great if it had a tone knob I guess...you could dial in so many more sounds...but as it is, it's pretty much what I expected it to be, mean and fat!