August was the guitar fuzz pedal test month. I tried many, many fuzz pedals, and the winner is Robert Keeley’s Fuzz Head. It’s a great, very high quality handmade fuzz pedal, and it’s perfect for my pedalboard. I also replaced the compressor and the delay, so the project is now 99% complete.
Robert Keeley’s Fuzz Head: the king of fuzz pedals
First, let’s talk about the Fuzz Head. It’s a very complete fuzz pedal, featuring a switch which allows you to switch between germanium and silicon transistors. When using the germanium transistors, it behaves like a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face with NKT275 transistors: relatively low gain and excellent response to the guitar’s volume control (plus the weirdness when connected after a wah-wah pedal). Switching to the silicon transistors will give you a more aggressive fuzz tone, a bit overdrive-like, but with excellent dynamic response. When you roll down the fuzz control to zero and set the volume to maximum, it acts as a great clean boost pedal. It’s a bit pricey at $209, but it’s worth it. Fuzz Face tone in a pedalboard-friendly size is enough to convince me. If you are looking for a guitar fuzz pedal, you should really consider it — the Fuzz Head combines great tones from the best fuzz pedals in the market in a single box. Oh, and as this goes in, my Boos GE-7 goes out and is on sale.
Other pedal updates
The other pedals were more ‘natural’ replacements. The MXR Dyna Comp compressor is probably the best compressor out there, along with Keeley’s. And the Boss DD-3 is a great, well-proven delay pedal which provides me more control than the previous Danelectro DE-1 Dan Echo unit.
Now only the tuner remains, but I think I’ll complete my guitar pedalboard project before the end of the year. After years of planning, it’s finally coming to an end.