Reuss Electricity Fuzz (discontinued)

Sold out.

SOLD OUT - DISCONTINUED

Reuss Electricity Fuzz

Killer sounding hybrid fuzz based on the tonebender mark III circuit

The Reuss FZ-02 Electricity Fuzz is a hybrid fuzz built with a mix of two vintage silicon transistors and a single vintage new old stock OC140 germanium transistor. The transistors are all NPNs, making the Electricity Fuzz a normal 'negative ground' pedal which runs flawlessly on a moderen pedal board 'daisy-chain' power supply

The circuit of the Electricity Fuzz is based on the vintage 1960s tonebender mk III, which is extremely versatily thanks to the wide range of the tone control. At one extreme you have thin, trebly, stingy fuzz, and at the other, the pedal offers a massive, thick and bass-heavy sound.

It's a heavy fuzz with excessively amounts of super saturated fuzztones available. It cleans up wonderfully when you back down the volume knob of your guitar, and it's capable of all the classic and desirable vintage fuzz tricks.

The Electricity Fuzz is a compact and great looking high-quality pedal. Handmade in the European Union from top-shelf parts. Still, I am selling it at less than half the price of what you'd be asked to pay for other high-end boutique fuzz pedals with similar parts and specifications.

The silicon transistors in the Electricity Fuzz are both old types, one being a BC108A and the other being a super rare thing called a 2SC529. The latter ones I got by mistake when ordering 2SC539s for the Goo Goo Fuzz pedals. It's so rare my engineer argued that it didn't even exist, because a datasheet was hard to find. Interestingly it has unusually low gain for a silicon transistor, making it an excellent match for germanium transistors and perfect in this circuit. So there it is.

OC140 NPN germanium transistors are VERY expensive parts, costing more than 12 EUR/each at suppliers, if available at all. This is why you don't see them in other boutique pedals. Too expensive. PNP germanium transistors are much cheaper and easily available. OC140s was also used in Macaris’ yellow hybrid fuzz.

BLOW OUT SALE April 2022. Now that my other Tonebender based pedals, the Copenhagen Bender and the Germanium Bender have been revised and updated with the unique Reuss developed power supply filtering module and improved output stages, I find that the Electricy Fuzz is not completely up to date with the rest of the Reuss line, and representative of how I handle the art of building vintage based boutique fuzz boxes today. So I am discontinuing it, despite all its awesomeness, to make room for a possible future reinterpretation. There’s ten pedals left of the old batch, so here’s your chance of a killer deal (which never comes back)!

Casual demo

Inside the Electricity Fuzz:

Reuss FZ-02 Electricity Fuzz specifications:

Hybrid fuzz based on the 1960s tonebender mk III circuit
Two vintage silicon transistors and one vintage new old stock KRC brand OC140 germanium transistor specially selected for high gain
Pedalboard friendly, modern power polarisation (negative ground, a huge advantage over vintage original pedals which had positive ground)
True bypass switching
1970s-style carbon film resistors
100% handmade in the European Union
High quality Neutrik jacks, wired by hand
Mammoth Electronics upgrade quality footswitch (good for at least 15000 stomps)
Powder coated and silk screen printed aluminium enclosure
Orange LED resembling a vintage pilot light
24 months warranty against manufacturing faults
Runs on a standard ’Boss-style’ 9V DC 'negative centre' guitar pedal power supply or a 9V battery. Please note that due to the pedal's true-to-vintage circuit, modern 'switch mode' power supplies (SMPS) can induce a high pitched noise to the sound. I recommend using an old fashioned 'linear' power supply or a battery
Ships in a 'Reuss' box and linen draw-string bag
Worldwide shipping from Denmark. Orders posted before 2:00 PM Central European Time on weekdays ships same day

Please note: Being a vintage circuit, the fuzz wants to see a high impedance input signal to sound correct. Any low impedance signal from a buffered bypass pedal (like a Boss or Ibanez or similar type) will make the fuzz sound wrong. It will loose punch and fullness and sound thin and fizzy. Not as intended. Always put a vintage fuzz-circuit (tone benders, fuzzfaces etc.) first in your chain.