Voodoo Lab Superfuzz

the superfuzz has four knobs. in my experience w/guitar effects pedals, anything over three dials usually means trouble re:finding the sweet spots w/out a couple hours of aggravated knob-twiddling. this was simply not the case w/the superfuzz; i honest-to-christ have yet to find a "bad" sound from this device. all four potentiometers work beautifully w/each other. i've owned a few higher priced, impeccable reputation fuzzboxes (which shall remain nameless) that were a total pain in the arse to find the exact (& i do mean EXACT) locations that the dials had to be in to get one (yes, only ONE!) good sound. the superfuzz is truly the way all signal-clippers should operate. a sheer joy to use.

set-up: gibson s-1 w/lindy fralin p-90s > superfuzz > custom-built 3-watt tube amp. effects powered by voodoo labs pedal power 2, everything connected w/george l's cables. i actually have other pedals in the chain, but they are rather numerous, constantly changing, & not relevant to this review. what IS relevant to this review is the beautiful, beautiful sound coming out of my amplifier whenever the superfuzz is powered up. either i got the best unit to ever leave the doors of voodoo labs, or i just don't know what the hell the other reviewers on this site are looking for in a fuzzbox. some have griped that it doesn't replicate the sound of the original superfuzz; voodoo labs makes no claim that they are even attempting to do so. indeed, right on the box it says that it is a re-creation of the 1968 jordan bosstone. i'm sure a few wise-acres out there are asking "well, does it sound like a 1968 jordan bosstone?" sorry, i don't have one handy for an a/b comparison. here's the thing... i'm not caught up in bowing down to hallowed tones of yesteryear & sticking my fingers in my ears & kicking & screaming if it doesn't sound like jimi or eddie or stevie ray. all i know is that the superfuzz ROCKS. the sounds from this pedal are why i've had a 25+ year romance w/electric guitar. so i guess what it boils down to is this: who ya gonna believe- them or me?

again, i've seen on this page, & reviews of other voodoo labs pedals, that the ratings for VL stuff has taken a beating in this category too. i would have to imagine the guys who've had bad luck w/the quality of VL products aren't making their stories up. & let's face it, paying for something & then having it malfunction sucks. anyway, i own three voodoo labs items. all three get a fairly good amount of use. thus far, nothing has occured w/any of them to make me think i'm gonna be looking over my shoulder to make sure they're still working. so, at the risk of looking like i'm typing up a press kit for voodoo labs, here comes another 10.

i got mine used, so did not deal w/voodoo labs. i used to live near petaluma CA a few years ago. people there are pretty friendly, as i recall. wouldn't be surprised if josh fiden (main man at VL) is too.

i waited a long time after purchasing my superfuzz before writing this review. why? well, for one reason i wanted to avoid the so-called "honeymoon syndrome". but the other reason was cuz i couldn't beliieve that other owners of this pedal could be so un-impressed & i wanted to give the superfuzz every opportunity to fail-- that it would not work well in conjunction w/other pedals (phasers, flangers, delay, etc.). that it would eventually become "old hat". that it would spontaneously combust. well, here we are several months down the road & not one of those things has happened. & my opinion of the superfuzz has changed not one iota. i love it.

due to the extensive permutations of the four knobs (vol/ resonance/ tone/ fuzz) it takes a bit of trial and error. there are a lot of usable sounds, but it's not straightforward like say a boss pedal.

i play - gibson sg> boss tu2 floortuner> proco rat2> (insert fuzz of choice here!)> electro harmonix small stone phaser> boss dd3 delay> marshall superlead mk2> 4x12 cab. this pedal is not noisy at all, and is true bypass. it takes a while to get a good sound with, and to be honest i was extremely disappointed with it when i tried it at home through a wee practice amp. it sounded weak. then i tried it through my marshall - BAM! it obviously needs to be pushing a good tube amp, because with this set up it sounds awesome. really thick heavy fuzz, probably even thicker than my bigmuff, and with more low end than you could imagine possible. single notes absolutely sing out too so it's perfect for solos. great sustain too. i'd say it's darker and more focussed than a big muff, and has a more modern sound than a fuzzface. it sounds like a slightly less fuzzy zvex maybe. i play heavy rock along the lines of sabbath/ melvins/ kyuss and it's perfect for that sound. i'd imagine it nails a good smashing pumpkins and all. very loud pedal - sounds very tasty with delay and phaser.

no worries so far

overall i'll say a nine,(because i am sure there is a ten somewhere out there and i just haven't found it yet) - but i would hasten to add it sounds best through a loud tube amp. i considered selling it initially, but not now. if you want super-bassy fuzz with great clarity this is a good choise.

4 knobs. Resonance is sort of a low bass boost. The Tone knob only starts to have an effect at the extreme positions, which are around 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock. Anything in the middle is really subtle.

If you want a classic '60s fuzz, this isn't what you want. This is a far more refined pedal. There is virtually no sputter, grit, or coarseness. It's all smooth, warm, and almost too fat. I only run the resonance around 11 o'clock, with the tone dialed back around 8 or 9 o'clock, and with the attack around 3 o'clock. It's a very touch-sensitive pedal in terms of tone, but it does have a compressed feel to it. Pretty good sustain, though if you play a lot of bends that take your strings away from your pickups' pole pieces, this pedal is very sensitive to that, and has some drop out. I can get it to sound like Armageddon in a box just using my Mexi Strat with the neck pickup selected and the tone rolled off.

Seems to be well built, no problems yet.

Never had to use customer support.

For what I paid, I'm happy with it. Definitely not what I was looking for in terms of a fuzztone, but it has its own modern, smoooth fuzz character.

Being a fuzz pedal with four knobs you won't get a headache tweaking it.

I bought this for a Princeton Reverb I was supposed to get off eBay but that's another story, stay away from new sellers. I was hoping for a real shitty buzzy sound like those Morricone soundtracks/horror films/Cramps but to my surprise it sounded exactly like the distortion built into my Peavey Bandit 65. Not crappy enough. It didn't seem to have enough of the "what the fuck's wrong with that amp" factor. From reading around I guess I'm looking for a Maestro FZ 1. I wish I could rate this one a zero, then I'd keep it.

Seems sturdy enough. I've read here about switching problems but that wouldn't deter me from buying from them again. If I wanted a chorus pedal, I'd get their Analog Chorus.

Couldn't say.

Had to return it. Didn't make me feel like a Speghetti Western anti-hero. You may want something different for tone and out of life but then you couldn't possibly be as epic as I am. Dulcinea...
Hear it yourself:http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sid=031223205708024165090004989368/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/153510/

Three knobs. All the knob ranges make sense and change the sound. Not like some other "turn to ten" pedals where you can't change the sound. The battery is hidden in the box and must be changed using a screw driver. Maybe a bad thing when changing at the gig opn stage but really: Who is going to a gig with an 2 year old battery? Therefore it will be twice as strong as other boxes!

When I tried it first at home I was impressed what fat tone came out of my 50 watt 1 x 12" all transistor combo (Hughes & Kettner). The amp alone sounds pretty harsh with few bass ()not my sound at all :-(

With the pedal before it turns into a favulous amp. The bottem boost of the pedal does a great job here. I bought this fuzz cause i do not like the classic fuzz too much cause they sound too "crispy" and not powerful enough.

But when I went to my band with a 120 watt Kitty Hawk Junior Top with 4 x 12" Vintage Laney Box the pedal sounded a littlebit too brown, like a compressed "muddy" marshal (hope you understand me?)

Overall a nice pedal but it seems to depend on the amp. Therefore a rating of 8 as I still prefer it over other fuzzes.

Looks unbreakable. Just the knobs could be "kicked off". No problems yet.

Most I play Rock and Punkrock. 1991s Gibson SG. For Punk its not very useful but it could rock for you if it's your choice.

The manual is a folded piece of 8 1/2 x 11 paper with some explanation of the knobs. Perhaps Boss goes too far in providing sample settings, etc... but they can be fun while you're still in honeymoon period with a new piece gear.

That being said, it's a FUZZBOX, stupid. No manual required. Just your ears.

I sat and fiddled with it all night after I bought it. Was getting some boss tones out of it. Went into rehearsal the next day and it performed totally differently. High volumes made totally new sounds out of it. Also, as a fuzz pedal, it compresses your sound a bit. This clamped down my dynamics in soloing. Unlike the night before, where I heard nuanced sounds and bizarre cracklings.

Bottom line, whether you have a manual or not, it's gonna take sometime to get this puppy juuu-u-u-u-st right.

Fender Princeton Chorus (hecho en mexico, solid state), gibson SG (two pickups, circa 1990), dunlop wah, ART tube mp, boss tremolo/pan, boss stereo volume pedal... now this.

Some noise at high-gain. Whaddaya want? It's a clone of the Jordan Bosstone. Want classic fuzz? You're gonna get some classic noise with it.

This thing generates a RAD fuzz. It feels like gravel driveways in barefeet. Makes you shift uncomfortably in your seat, to and fro, to and fro. When I tried it out at the guy's house, I tuned up and then punched it in and BLAM! I was transported to a day long ago. I must say, that the inherent tone of my guitar was swallowed up by the fuzz quality. This is more like a facelift. But as far as facelifts go, if you like down and dirty fuzz tones (a la, Jimmy Page in that cool early live footage of Zep from the DVD, communication breakdown on Danish tv)... you owe it to yourself to check this OUT.

I have gotten varied results from the Resonance knob, but I read someone's post about ten inch speakers diminishing the effect. I have 10" speakers. So I'll simply re-state that fact. And ask anyone that has bashed this knob in previous post to check their cone diameter.

Seems like it is built like a tank. People have complained about irregular reliability, especially with switches. Mine was used and the dude I bought it from was very discerning about his gear. He was selling it cause he wanted octave fuzz. I felt very reassured buying form this guy that there wouldn't be any popping or failing switches.

I have been right so far (two weeks)

no opinion

playing fifteen years. rock and classic sounds. loud amps, distortion washes. Crazy Horse, Radiohead, Pearl Jam.

If it was stolen, I'd watch the classifieds for another one at the right price. I can't afford a new one.

Fairly staightforward. As others have commented, the resonance knob is barely detectable.

I play '52 & '62 reissue Telecasters(the latter with Texas Specials),Les Paul Junior>Budda Bud-wah>Fulltone FD2>Soul Bender>Demeter Tremulator>EH Memory Man Deluxe>Fender Pro Junior(tweed)>Gibson GA15RV.I like a Mick Ronson/early Jimmy Page type of tone.Perhaps the Superfuzz is more suited to humbuckers-I couldn't get anywhere near the sustain I wanted out of it with my guitars. Rather blatty and uninspiring, really.

Reading the other reviews here, it's obviously no secret that VL have a problem with quality control.Upon getting the pedal home, I noticed that when the volume was turned all the way down, the pedal still emitted a signal.I called them and sent it to them(at my expense as I recall)When the pedal came back, the problem was less apparent, but there was still signal when the volume was turned off.AAAAGGGHHH!!! Probably something I could live with, but it definitely didn't inspire confidence in them.I also bought a Micro Vibe around the same time on which the switch failed almost immediately.Would definitely not gig without a backup-probably wouldn't take it on a gig at all to be honest.

The person I spoke to was articulate and friendly-no problem there.

My advice is simple-save your money and buy a Fulltone Soul Bender.

Updating my prior review...I got my pedal back from Voodoo Lab and they appear to have replaced whatever was causing the horrible popping. All's well that ends well. If the pedal doesn't prove reliable (or does for that matter) for an extended period of time I will once again update this review.

This pedal has great tone. I love its nastiness and its wide spectrum of fuzz tones. I would highly recommend it. It's a fun pedal to play through! Perhaps I got a bad pedal and had a rough experience with support at Voodoo Lab, but for now I am happy. No hard feelings.

It's pretty easy to use once you get used to what the resonance and tone knobs control. The resonance knob is a bass boost. The tone knob essentially controls the mids. If Voodoo Lab had labeled them as such it might have cleared up any concerns.

I really like the way this pedal sounds, although it is closer to an overdrive sound than a fuzz face clone. That said, the Superfuzz has loads of gain and can get a wide range of fuzz sounds using the resonance and tone controls. If you crank up the tone and roll back the resonance, you can get a very "garage-y"--for lack of a better word--tone. Think the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. If you roll back the tone and crank up the resonance, you get a classic metal sound--sorta Masters of Reality era Black Sabbath. I have a 335 plugged into a Marshall Ed1 Compressor, Vox wah, TS9, Superfuzz, and Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe into a reissue Ampeg Jet 15 watt class A tube amp. All are powered with a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 1.

Here's where the problem lies. After having the pedal for about 7 months, whenever you stepped on the switch a loud popping sound would shake the amp and everything in a 10 mile radius. Moving to customer support...

I contacted Voodoo Lab about the popping and they were very friendly and offered to fix what they diagnosed as a bad switch if I sent them the pedal. After I received the pedal back it worked great for another 3 weeks, then the popping came back. I contacted Voodoo Lab, again, and they were quite friendly, again, and I was told to send them the pedal back and that the switch must have failed again. I was assured that this was a rare occurance and that they would fix the pedal...again. A couple of weeks later my pedal arrives, I hook it up and the damn thing pops just like the last 2 times I sent it back to be repaired. I contacted Voodoo Lab for the third time and was put on the phone with the technician who "repaired" the pedal the second time. Now, the invoice that I received with the second repair stated that they had replaced the bad switch and that the pedal had been given a "full test". The technician told me that he had been given instructions to replace the switch, which he did, even though he was unable to get it to fail. Apparently, the problem with my pedal lies somewhere other than with the switch. However, if anyone had given the pedal a "full test" they would clearly have recognized the problem. Especially since engaging the switch, even with the pedal's volume turned completely off, creates a pop so loud it could wake the dead. The technician asked me to send the pedal back again and said that they would give the pedal a thorough testing and if they problem couldn't be resolved they would send me a new pedal. I'm writing this review before I receive the pedal back for the third time. If the pedal is fixed and is reliable for a period of time I will update my review with more positive numbers. However, I think it's fair to let everyone know my experience hasn't been stellar.

Like I stated earlier, I really like the way this pedal sounds when it's engaged. However, the switching on and off isn't great. Hopefully, I will receive the pedal back from Voodoo Lab and it will work as fabulously as when I first bought it. But, 3 strikes and you're out. Voodoo Lab will lose a good customer--afterall I have a Micro Vibe and Pedal Power--if the problem isn't resolved this last time.

Not like yout typical fuzz or distortion it has slightly different named controls. Obviously volume, but there is Resonance, Tone and Attack.
The resonance provides sub freqs. While this gives only a little change when up to 3:00 to 5:00 it really adds balls. All the way down gives you a mid range sound.
With the tone the fuzz sound is actually shifted by this. You here a slight tonal change but you really hear more of a fuzz character change.
Attack is like the usual distortion control but more of a fuzz character change like the tone control.
I give it a 10 because you would never get lost in a bad sound.

I use a Marshall Plexi reissue and a Vox Ac-30 reissue. Gibson Les Paul and a Fender Telecaster. It is great with the Marshall but kicks serious ass with the Vox. If you are looking for a pedal to saturate your AC-30 this would be a great one. I was getting that heavy Smashing Pumpkins kind of fuzz out of the Vox.
This is a very clean Fuzz/distortion sounding pedal. One of the cleanest distortion or fuzz pedals I have heard.
I use delay,wah wah and phase and they all work fine with the Super Fuzz on both amps and guitars.

Although I have not really had it out there yet in the club/bar battlefield that even Boss pedals get destroyed in, but this seems very solid. Better then a Boss for sure.

I have dealt with this company before on other devices they make and they are very helpful.

I play heavy alternative style rock. Kind of industrial to grunge rock sound I guess.
I have been playing for 15 yrs.
I would buy it again if I lost it.
I really like how the tone and attack give you different fuzz sounds.
I find it a very inspiring device.
I just think this is a really great pedal. I think it is really underreated. It is very very clean distortion/fuzz pedal. I seldom write thes reviews but I was so impressed with such a clean cool sounding pedal I had to say something.