EarthQuaker Devices - Fuzz Master General - Legacy Reissue - Octave Fuzz Blaster

The Fuzz Master General is our take on the vintage Ace Tone Fuzz Master FM-2 Professional fuzz machine, an octave fuzz that was very similar to the wildly popular Super Fuzz. We have taken the basic circuit and re-imagineered it to be more useful for the modern player. The Fuzz Master General features a more accurate Fuzz control that delivers a much broader spectrum of dirt tones ranging from nearly clean through full buzz saw assault. We added a Voice toggle to further enhance your dirt desires and wrangle a more variable tone out of the classic circuit. This toggle selects between germanium, silicon and no diode clipping. This has a huge impact on the characteristics of fuzz tone, upper octave clarity and output level. Germanium diodes offer more output and an open, looser fuzz tone while the silicon diodes compress the signal and yield a tighter fuzz tone. When the voice is set to no diode clipping (center position) you can attain a nearly clean upper octave that borders on ring modulation! While the original Fuzz Master had a foot switch to select between two different tone settings, the Fuzz Master General has a variable Tone control that allows you to dial in everything in between a wide-open treble assault and a super-scooped, bass-heavy vintage unit. With all these added features, the Fuzz Master General delivers a more versatile version of the original while still retaining the same swelling octave grind we all know and love.

Controls

Voice: Three way toggle switch which selects the clipping style:

• Mode 1 - Germanium clipping. This produces a more open and looser fuzz.
• Mode 2 - Silicon clipping. This produces a tigher, more compressed fuzz. 
• Mode 3 - Open, pure transistor drive. This produces a nearly clean octave-up effect and creates a sound very similar to ring modulation.

Fuzz: Turning this control clockwise creates more dirt.

Tone: Darker and scooped tones clockwise. Brighter and more open tones counterclockwise

Level: Adjusts the output volume. 

CAUTION!

Mode 3 is very loud; turn down the level when using this mode. To get the best octave effect, use the neck pickup and play above the 12th fret. This is an analog octave so single notes work best but full chords produce an awesome, destructive sound! 

SPECS:

Dimensions: 4.75 x 2.50 x 2.25 in. (121 x 64 x 57 mm) with knobs

Current Draw: 10 mA

Input Impedance: 15 kΩ

Output Impedance: <1 kΩ

Flexi-Switch® Technology:

This device features Flexi-Switch® Technology! This relay-based, true bypass switching style allows you to simultaneously use momentary and latching style switching.

• For standard latching operation: tap the footswitch once to activate the effect and then tap again to bypass.

• For momentary operation: hold the footswitch down for as long as you’d like to use the effect. Once you release the switch the effect will be bypassed.

Since the switching is relay-based, it requires power to pass signal.

Power

This device takes a standard 9 volt DC power supply with a 2.1mm negative center barrel. We always recommend pedal-specific, transformer-isolated wall-wart power supplies or multiple isolated-output supplies. Pedals will make extra noise if there is ripple or unclean power. Switching-type power supplies, daisy chains and non-pedal specific power supplies do not filter dirty power as well and let through unwanted noise. DO NOT RUN AT HIGHER VOLTAGES!

Artwork by Matt Horak.

WATCH THE DEMO HERE