FUZZ- SOURCE AUDIO Ultra Wave ...if a Fuzz is like ripped jeans why is this a tuxedo?

$250.00 USD

 SOURCE AUDIO ULTRA WAVE 

S.A. have been around for years and were one of the first to make digital pedals. I think they all but went under until they brought 

out a serious but conventional reverb. Now the world has caught up or maybe just got bored with a lot of 'more of the same' pedals.

So this was one of there first pedals that they pulled out 

of oblivion and with help or better chips etc they pulled out all the stops.

I will try and keep it simple. Like any instrument the guitar 

signal has different frequencies in the signal. Nothing pulls them out and exaggerates them more than a Fuzz. so what they did was divide the frequencies up into 10 and treated them with filters, modulation etc from the synth world and then blend them back in. Some frequencies may border on crazy noise but a good deal left in tact. 

The result is you still get a solid stable note. This means you 

can play in a conventional manner on a conventional tune.

In short unlike other pedals of this ilk it is not a toy that 

can only make sound effects for a SciFi movie.

CONCLUSION

Well the only downside is unless you waiting original material there 

is a limit to how useful this pedal is. I can't fault it. Unlike other pedals 

that are outside the box this pedal is dare I say? Totally useable!!! 

Yes unlike those overpriced reverbs and delays you can actually  

play a tune with this one. LOL

WHAT ORDER SHOULD YOU PUT YOUR EFFECTS IN ???

COME TO ORDER 

I run my rig as 4 separate boards with a switcher that changes from one board to another. This does not change how I prefer to set up each board. It does however make me very focused to do things like where possible keep all my Fuzz pedals on one of my 4 boards. 

Or not. LOL 

With pedals there are many either-or situations :-)

OVERDRIVE- COLUMBO AUDIO ELECTRONICS Eruption ...Eddie-in-a-Box ? YES!!!

 COLUMBO AUDIO ELECTRONICS ERUPTION

$200.00 USD

I will get right to the layout. You have the usual volume gain and tone. Yes ...BUT! You get a 'Variac'!

Most of you know that Eddie used variable voltage control box that can reduce the amount of power being sent right from the wall plug to the amp. In short the amp was starved of power. He initially did it because he ran his 100 watt Marshall dimed. At small clubs the owners would go ballistic so he tried this to lower the volume. It did do just that. It also increased the distortion and sustain big time!

The pedal is voiced bang on so the single tone control is all you need to match your amp and guitar to the pedal. You can zero in killer dirt and sustain from the 'Variac'

CONCLUSION

Damn it! Where's my wallet? Damit ! I need my credit card! NOW !!! LOL

OVERDRIVE- TONE INK Red Brit Distortion ...all the bells & whistles

 TIE INK RED BRIT DISTORTION 

$190.00 USD

Another pedal maker from Brazil that is under the radar.

The pedal has 3 switchable voices to give you a 3 Marshall amps a JTM 45, a Plexi and a modded high gain JCM 800 kind of sound. You can also change the saturation by another switch which mimics the headroom or lack of it with a 25, 50 and 100 watt amp. You have the usual level and gain and a 3 way EQ. In short you have a lot to work with.

CONCLUSION

The sound is very raw and in the room. Arguably harsh.

Most makers go for the kind of post produced sound that we hear on a finished recording not the sound of a Marshall at a small club with none or the rasp and gnarliness removed. It does however remove some of the warm and breadth to the sound that other makers spoil us with.

OVERDRIVE- TONEWAVE Bright OD ...WTF ?

 TONEWAVE BRIGHT OD 

$200.00 USD

It never ends another Tube Screamer! Well yes and no. OD pedals changed dramatically when the Pro-Co Rat made an OD using a new device that had just hit the market ...the OpAmp. Virtually a tiny amplifier in a chip. You plug in a guitar signal and it makes the signal louder or at least loud enough if you attach diodes to it then it will overload the diode and out comes a distorted signal. One of the most famous is the Japanese JRC4558. It was the basis for the Tube Screamer, Boss OD-1 etc. It has long since been defunct but many makers feel it is a very special element in the formula. Keep in mind the OpAmp itself puts out almost no distortion. The JRC4558 was only at best 5% of the sound. 

My point is now a legendary pedal so myths on it's construction sell new pedals that find old stock of these OpAmps and build a hotrod ts or boss OD etc. LOL

CONCLUSION

Another Tube Screamer? Yes. 

I would check out the Caline CP-75 Emerald Night it is as exact as you can get to an Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer and it sells for $35.00 USD

BASS PRE- WR AMPLIFYING Goliath Bass Tube Preamp Std... is low tech a better sound?

WR AMPLIFYING GOLIATH BASS TUBE PREAMP STD.

$560.00 USD

Very simple old school tech that may still be the best sound you can get sweat free.

You can simply run it into to your present rig or you can always buy an amp without a pre that is used for sound reinforcement or a studio power amp. 

The advantage is with these amps you have a lot of headroom relatively cheap. The Art SLA-2 is a good example as it has 560 watts into 8 ohms and is only $350.00 USD. It has been around for years unhanged. It well made very reliable

and is used to run studio monitors in thousands of pro studios.

CONCLUSION

What can I say. It is simple enough. Yes pricy but are you surprised? It is German made built like a tank and been around for years. For $680.00 USD they have the

'Plus' with built in XLR Di.

Most players these days have never tried a tube amp or pre. It can really be an eye opener. Instat punch, better sustain and generally a fatter sound.

FUZZ- ELECTRO HARMONIX Bass Big Muff... yes? or same old lame ...?

 ELECTRO HARMONIX BASS BIG MUFF 

$82.00 USD

Most Bass players are not to crazy over FX. I do not blame them. Many of these pedals are sold as miracle Synths. What they are, are variations on an envelope filter follower or in plain English an auto-wah. They want you to make bow-wow sounds like a barking dog in a cartoon. There are a few Fuzz pedals but they either kill the low end, turn your tone to mud or force you to use a pick. The original Sovtek Big Muff was a medium gain Fuzz that gave a warm and lightly distorted dirt sound. If you play with a tube amp or tube pre they are rather redundant as you do not need more of what you already have. 

The Bass Muff may be an exception? 

The layout is simple with volume, tone and gain and a switch lets you boost the lows and add in a bit of clean signal to keep the definition and fight any mud.

MORE OR LESS?

The Nano is smaller and does not include the bass boost. It is oddly not cheaper and Sweetwater do not even stock them ??? The clue may be the obvious omission of a bass boost? You can not have the boost and clean on together with either? So?

Enter the large Deluxe which has all the bells and whistles. You get a blend for the clean signal a gate that kills noise and tightens the sound and a pad for an active bass. 

Of course it very large and naturally more money. Good luck ...LOL.

$130.00 USD

$82.00 USD

CONCLUSION

I will give it my biggest compliment I can give to an effect for Bass.

USABLE!

OVERDRIVE- CKK ELECTRONIC Anka Distortion ...anything as good is 3 times more?

CKK ELECTRONIC ANKA DISTORTION

 $75.00 USD

I find both this pedal and all the work and care put in it impressive. This is the 5th version since it's inception. The company also makes the Sinvertek M5+ that is easily a competitor for the Origin Rival Drive Compact. The CKK is $225.00 USD and the Origin is $445.00 USD. The value for money of all CKK products is more than impressive. 

It appears to me that the Sinvertek's name hints at its origins as it is called '5' and the Anka version '5' is the 5th and final version of this pedal. I suspect it got down to costs. The company wants the Anka as the affordable option. Both pedals definitely have a very, very similar tone. The Sinvertek has quite literally dozens of option to fine tune it to the perfect medium gain right up to a silly high level of gain etc. 

I nearly never use a dirt pedal for more than one sound as all my dirt pedals are used live and used for the one sound they do best. It is not a thick syrupy kind of sound. 

It is all about clarity and detail and version '5' has taken that a step 

further. Unfortunately there are no new video's of the latest and last version. 

But there is no denying that even the older versions are very impressive.

CONCLUSION

If it said MXR or Wampler or JHS on it who wouldn't be impressed. If it was $225.00 USD would not look priced overly high.  It is only one third of that $75.00 USD on Aliexpress. WTF ...enough said!

BOOSTER- BLAMMO Voltage Booster... a beefed up Colorsound Power boost!

$170. 00 USD

 BLAMMO VOLTAGE BOOSTER 
The original was designed by the Gary Hurst who designed the original Tone Bender Fuzz. The first model had an 18 volt with  huge headroom and the second model was 9 vot that gave the pedal a lot of saturation and an OD crunch. The Bammo does both. Like the original it has 2 band/treble and bass Baxandall EQ.

CONCLUSION

At 18v it is good but other really clean boosters are as good. With the 9v setting it has a killer crunch that is beautifully nasty on the lows.

REVERB- FLAMMA FC02 Reverb ...very high spec ...very, very low price ...$40 !!!

$40.00 USD

FLAMMA FC 02 REVERB

Basics in a box thanx to Flamma or should I tip my hat to Mooer since they own the company, lol.

Verbs have got to point that you can hit one chord and they will ring out 

a series on tones that will entertain you for a half hour. Such a fascinating circus is not cheap. The bottom line is when you are at the gig plodding away on tunes that you audience wants to hear all those pedal pyrotechnics are useless. In short in the real world the spring reverb in that old Fender amp collecting dust in the corner is ALL you need.

In a survey of 'buying pedals you don't need' a pricey reverb was number one.

CONCLUSION

Since a verb is often an 'always on' pedal ideally you need a rich clear but very, very uncluttered voice. Even a spring can get messy. 

The perfect answer is a plate reverb (just ask Dave Gilmour)

Throw in a studio reverb (which is a man made room sound that is idyllic) and maybe a church sound for those couple of ballads. Make it a modern high spec digital unit and give it 

to me for less than the cost of picking up the tab for dinner at McDonalds with my band. :-(

Done.

FINAL WORD

In a blindfold test beside a pricey Strymon or similar you will be forgiven if you can not hear a difference.

OVERDRIVE- SOBBAT Drive Breaker DB-1 ... uniquely clean and transparent

SOBBAT DRIVE BREAKER DB-1 Distortion

$185.00 USD

This pedal has been in production in Kyoto Japan since 1995. 

Sobbat make 12 OD's and 2 Fuzz pedals all very old school handmade. They have made pedals for Eric Johnson, Ritchie Kotzen, Steve Vai, Doug Aldridge and others only because these artist sought them out. They are not just under the radar but near invisible.

All there pedals are uniquely transparent and are in

most respects only slightly lower and lower gain from the DB-1. They are all about subtleties in tone.

Nothing sounds like a Sobbat just like before all the clones nothing sounded like a Klon. They are not a copy or derivative of any pedal.

CONCLUSION

It has a Klon like vibe but the mids seem nearly flat. The harmonic contain of signal become boosted and the signal smoothly compressed but there is not the slightest fuzz or fizz in the signal. Impressive.

OVERDRIVE- DOLAMO D9 MK IV DISTORTION ...a better Boss DS-1 ?

 DOLAMO D9 MK IV DISTORTION

$23.00 USD

I have no idea what this is truly based on. Going by the sound it is a hard clipper that started life as a Boss DS-1 schematic but it is fatter than the Boss and it does not have the annoying Boss fizzy fuzzy. I think they kept experimenting with clipping diodes and trading out the OpAmp until it got an acceptable sound. Well maybe it is an unacceptable sound but that can be good too.

Having a volume. tone and volume is the OD basics but the presence is unusual. It acts like a bright switch on an amp to give the pedal a bit of bite very useful on HB PU's.

The graphics have a great vintage vibe. The pedal looks bigger than it is. It is like a standard Hammond B box but with about 3/4 of an inch chopped off the top.

CONCLUSION

It has a nice airy yet assertive sound. It does not to try and tear your face off and has a lot of breadth. It is very good medium gain OD.

OVERDRIVE- MASTER EFFECTS Misanthrope ...the classic ...Ampeg VH 140 C-in-a-Box ...vs. VHD SNK

MASTER EFFECTS MISANTHROPE PRE

$200.00 USD

As luck would have it I discovered MM a little while ago and did their Sodano and had plans to check out their other pedals. 

This is of course by coincident one of them. I just finished doing SNK's version which is damn good so why not compare?

It is enough to say that the Ampeg VH 140 C was the hot amp 

to have for Hard Core and Death Metal in the 90's. Check the SNK VHD Post for all the history.

The point is like all styles and genres are after years of fading away are discovered by new players that come along and breath fresh life into them. Someone remembers about old the gear and new 'old' tools are reintroduced. This is such the case.

CONCLUSION

I find the Misanthrope a bit brighter and a tad tighter and the SNK is a bit more open ...and fuller for it.

The Misanthrope definitely has a resonant point with a lot of punch and balz.

The SNK has a very rich wall of sound thing.

They both do a killer capture of the Ampeg vibe.

 

In the real world the bass player owns the low end. For example if you are doing a riff in unison the benefits of the Misanthrope may blend in so tight they disappear

and the less punchy SNK will fill the the room with it's richer and creamy mids and create a wall of sound. There is simply no bad choice. BUT ...damn it! You have to choose.

I am sure working on a tune would be a joy with the SNK. Hearing all that thick warm sound will be heaven.

When playing in my band if the Misanthrope removes the back wall will be an equal

unequalled thrill.

Please check the box if that was helpful. LOL

The video compares the amp and both pedals.

$225.00 USD

Update 

OVERDRIVE- SMK PEDALS VHD ...the classic ...Ampeg VH 140C-in-a-Box

SNK PEDALS VHD PRE

$225.00 USD

In the 90's when the genres of many Metal styles started to blossom Ampeg made the Ampeg VH 140 C solid state amplifier. It was quickly adopted by Hardcore and Death Metal players. These styles have a very good following but they never has been a band that has crossed over into the mainstream Pop/Rock market so Ampeg like others abandoned serious solid state amplifiers.

SNK has come to the rescue with the SNK.  The amp is solid state and a pedal is solid state by nature so getting good replica is reasonable goal. The layout is simple enough with volume, high, mid and lows. The mids have a very healthy cut and boost. 

CONCLUSION

The box is lot bigger then what most players want. To be fair there is a lot of old tech in the original and the parts were easily 4 times larger than a modern equivalent. 

SNK say they just took the original dirt pre from the original amp and duplicated it. It is definitely in the 'Chainsaw' pool with all the Boss Metal offerings and the many hot rodded equivalents. I tried the obvious but only kept my Boss Metal Zone. I play a Prog Metal style that these pedals are a small part of that. In fact all the sounds I use play equal but a small part. I am damn fussy though. I actually find most Metal Fuzz, Distortions and OD's not fat or punchy enough. I have a trio and as such I can use a lot more lows than a larger band.

I am general impressed with this pedal. It is both Brutal and balzy. The price is reasonable especially since a lot of the serious competition is easily a third more.

VERDICT 

With 82 pedals on my board and 2 more coming. I use a lot of pedals! I also use everyone on every gig to cover just 25 tunes. 

Before C19 I had it at a manageable 70 LOL. I would love to get back there. LOL I at least give my purchases a very serious thought. At minimum what I buy now MUST bump a pedal off my board.

HEADS UP

Check out the MASTER EFFECTS MISANTHROPE ...Post

It too is a Ampeg VH 140C-in-a-Box 

...Compare!

OVERDRIVE- GOD CITY INSTRUMENTS BJR ...'new' Metal OD ...in fact Cadmium comes to mind

 GOD CITY INSTRUMENTS BJR OD 

$175.00 USD

This company for several years has focused on kits of their original Metal pedals.
The biggest for a long time was the Brutalist followed eventually to the Brutalist Jr. The BJR has taken the smaller Jr. and beefed it up and added the 'edge' feature which is a high pass filter that tightens the lows. Great to tighten your whole rig and areal bonus when drop tuning. It of course has the usual tone, gain and level.

CONCLUSION

Even though we do not have a demo of the pedal but of the

kit models they alone are impressive!

I really like this ...it has a really heavy bass but the lows punch.

I think I will wait for a serious demo of the actual BJR pedal.

OVERDRIVE- ANIMALS PEDALS Tioga Road Cycling Distortion ...better Rat? ...Shootout?

ANIMALS PEDALS TIOGA ROAD CYCLING DISTORTION

$100.00 USD

This Japanese company started up with the idea that a few basic pedals could be made at a Pro standard yet kept at an entry level price. They indeed achieved just that. Most of their pedals not unlike other makers world wide are hot rodded classics. In this case it is a Rat pedal. Other pedals like the Major OD were designed by Skeddy who do indeed make the same pedal but as a handwired. They even got Wren & Cuff in to beep up their Rat design.

So as it goes the Tioga has the usual volume, gain and tone but also a switch to bring in a choice of diodes. 

Rat wires their tone backwards and calls it a filter. Keep in mind Rat were the first and neither name nor approach is wrong. It changes the tone in no way whatsoever. The Rat is the first ever OpAmp OD. Hundreds followed the Tube Screamer being the most famous.

The idea is you take an OpAmp which is a chip with a tiny amplifier in it then attach clipping diodes to it and out comes distortion. Although OpAmps are meant to just be very clean little amplifiers it is argued they all have a 'sound' They scientifically do indeed but 98% of the tone is all about how and what is used to clip the signal.

I have a faithfully produced clone of the original Rat which I will always keep. BUT I love the current and often despised Rat II. LOL  I bought it after already having the prized original clone.

CONCLUSION

The big deal is the Tioga has a very fat mid boost. There is nothing wrong with that.

It does not have balzy lows of the Rat II and it sells for $70.00 USD.  Both are very good. 

It is all about what you want the pedal to do. I have a sh@t load of OD's with fat mids so 

I wanted the Rat II for its very raw and gnarly scooped sound. You could even get both :-)

But compare ???

AMPLIFIER- FRIEDMAN BE-OD MINI 30 watt amp .... $330.00 USD ........yes I said $330.00 USD

LEAK

A store accidentally published an add for a new BE Mini Friedman amp. At the price it is almost guaranteed to be made in China.

A DAY LATER
The first video's are out. We new it would be small but perhaps not microscopic. lol It is quite obviously a toy. Do not let the 30 watts fool you. It is not 30 watts RMS into 8 ohms. It is 30 watts into perhaps 4 ohms. Trust me you do not have and will not find a guitar speaker that is 4 ohms outside of the exotic, unusual and eye poppingly expensive. It will sound more or less like what you would expect from a 5 watt tube amp. Keep in mind it does not clean up if you turn down and it does not have a clean channel. It is not a grab and go to the jam amp. In fact it a totally 100% bedroom level amp.

 

CONCLUSION

If you do not own a speaker cab why by it? If you do you probably have an amp too

so once again why buy it ...just get the pedal. It is not even a really usable practice amp ...it does not have a clean channel nor can you back off the gain enough to use it clean. 

If it was a little combo it could be fun to be able to tote it around and amuse yourself. As is WTF!!!

You would be far better off buying a Fender Champion 20 and the Friedman BE-OD pedal. It cost the SAME as just buying the Friedman amp head.

You can hall the Fender around and still have the pedal to use with separately. A quality pedal is good for decades and a small practice amp is always handy. 

Fender does not make unusable amps. They will get the job done just fine.

If you tire of either ...both are easy to find a buyer.

OVERDRIVE- TORTUGA EFFECTS Death Adder Metal-Stortion ...10th anniversary celebration

 TORTUGA EFFECTS DEATH ADDER METAL-STORTION 

$200.00 USD

The company or to be precise Matt Johnson is celebrating 10 years by introducing new pedals and a V.2 of others.

Mind you I just got a heads up that they have been 'new' for 3 years. Regardless I am sure to do a revisit and check out the others I have not reviewed. 

The short story is the Death Adder caught my attention.

Not this one. lol They make two. The Shred-Stortion is the V.2 'new' one but I did the first one in an old Post and there aren't any new vids for the V.2 yet. 

But, Big BUT! The Metal-Stortion though not featured grabbed my attention. It is a classic Trash Metal, Death Metal pedal with controls for volume, high, and lows, and a much needed scoop which also oddly enough will boost the mids when pushed past 12 o'clock and an attack/high pass filter to tighten the sound for those fast moving rhythms and is heaven for drop tunings. 

There are definitely shades of the MESA Dual Rectifier in the sound. MESA just released a new Rectifier model the 50 watt Badlander which sold out instantly so young guys looking for a new sound have taken things full circle.

CONCLUSION

It is impressively chunky and thick and is free of any nasty fizz, fuzz or buzz. 

I love its low grainy distortion.

It ticks the 'tight box' while still staying really heavy in the 'fat box' 

That box has stayed blank with my other Metal pedal choices. 

It is not the latest hot new pedal but has been around for 8 years. 

These days that means a lot of word of mouth sales.  

A very good sign that the thing actually delivers!

I sold a pedal on Reverb and found this one used

for $119.00 USD Soooo...I will give you heads up

when it arrives for a  HANDS ON! 

OVERDRIVE- MUSIC BOX PEDALS Lyla Drive- ...Timmy meets Arnold

$170.00 USD

MUSIC BOX PEDALS LYLA DRIVE

It all started for Rob Farrel with a Timmy schematic. What if? 

What if you through in a couple more clipping diodes and a generous sprinkling of pixie dust.

It has the Timmy layout of volume, drive, low and high EQ and a toggle.

CONCLUSION

Well it seems all rather bland at best. Another Timmy?

If you have the patience you can get a real Timmy Yes

it is a long wait but it is still is priced at $225.00 USD.

BIG but! The Lyra is NOT a Timmy! It does not sound like Timmy even at it's lowest setting. It has shinny metallic sheen and cuts like a razor. Every note of any chord jumps out with a shimmer and sparkle like no other pedal. You can switch to a very aggressive medium gain or even a near high gain that takes all this to a level that is hard to imagine. You simply NEED to hear it.

OVERDRIVE- JOYO Uzi Distortion ...update on it's 5th year

 JOYO UZI DISTORTION 

$50.00 USD

When you think of this brand you immediate think of 'clones'. Yes Joyo did indeed make clones but for $30 you got a pro quality build and a pedal that was scary close to the original. If you were not familiar with the original and in a blindfold test had to pick which was a copy of which you could easily like the Joyo better.

In 2018 Joyo started releasing pedals with a build and parts that are at minimum average world class. They still start with a classic. In this case a Friedman BEOD but it does not disappoint.

The price is still very affordable at $50 but that extra $20 pays for high end parts and more off them because no shortcuts were taken on things like the noise floor, headroom or better EQ etc.

Unfortunately for Joyo the big name stores have given Joyo a cold reception. The old $30 specials still sell well at all the familiar places. They only recent change is there is an Joyo Audio UK that has an excellent and totally pro site that sells there pedals direct much like Wampler's and JHS.

BEOD or not they added extras' BIAS control gives you a choice of a Brit open sound or 

tight American sound with axe chugging definition. Hard left takes it full Brit and right 

to a US sound. Impressive!

CONCLUSION

Like all OD it has its own vibe on what nails a sound. The devil is in the detail.

But I really can not fault it.

FUZZ- Solasound MKII Tonebender vs. Boss Waza Craft MKII Tonebender clone

BOSS TONEBENDER vs. MACARI'S TONEBENDER

Boss took a team to the UK and to the Macari's store where the Solasound Tonebender was invented and for a very long time made one at a time. The present Mr. Macari pulled out the best of the best of the original Tonebender Mk.II's 

for them to clone.

In March the Boss Waza Craft TB 2W was released Fuzz ltd. Ed. was released.

So lets see how it turned out?

$350.00 USD

OVERDRIVE- BEHRINGER M300 Ultra Metal ...the great sounding pedals we love to hate :-)

 BEHRINGER UM300 ULTRA METAL 

$25.00 USD

Yes good ol' Mr. B. is back with yet another of the famous

clones. The guts of these pedals high quality industrial parts 

which do not break down. No they are not audiophile parts

so there is a difference ...but they are definitely not low fi slapped together junk. These pedals are manufactured in China in Behringers own ...and it must be noted 'state of the art' factory. You can not sell pedals this cheap having them made in some north east corner of China in a glorified shack. That my friends is a myth. If you did half of what is made would go to the dump. You could also not boot out hundreds a day. It is all about volume of sales !!! The pedals must electrically sound. Yes if you send them sailing to the concrete they will break. So if you velco them on a board no problems.

CONCLUSION

Yes it is a quasi Boss Metal Zone. Does it sound like one? No!

Does it sound worse? No I have a Metal Zone. The Boss is more scooped and the EQ on it is very narrow and very spikey.

The UM 300 has a broader EQ. In short the  M300 is not as 

tight but you can actually make it fatter.

Is Pro. YES! If a good player used it a band you may love or 

hate the tone but you would not think is was an amateur tone.

LAST WORD

I would love to see a blindfold test with some top YouTubers with 9 high end metal pedals

all over $200.00 USD and the Behringer. I bet $200.00 USD myself that the the UM 300 

will not come last !!!

OVERDRIVE- FUZZSIMP FX Shroot ...a Muff? could be

FUZZSIMP FX SHROOT

$110.00 USD

This pedal is in the Tube Screamer via Boss SD-1 but with more gain and low end.

CONCLUSION

It has a very fat and very full sound.

Cool graphics and very reasonable price.

This guy has several pedals and I was generally impressed. There is very little info. I will try dig a little deeper and get back to you. 

I expect like all of the better builders he is running an unintentional 'Non-Profit' company. We will have to

change that :-)

FUZZ- PHILLY FUZZ Heretic... it goes from a kind of Green Russian to Sludge

PHILLY FUZZ HERITIC

$200.00 USD

I can not find any background on the company? But!

Following the breadcrumbs led me to John Dyer Baizley of the Sledge, Alternative and Prog Rock band Baroness.

The Fuzz is a germanium Fuzz. According to John every knob does it's thing and there are good sounds from low right up to being dimed. Every pedal is numbered and comes in a hand done and different finish.

CONCLUSION

It does exactly as it claims. You can go to a light nearly pleasant sound to flat pick to a Rat like hard clipping OD kind of sound to a full on Sludge Metal syrup. It has a monopoly on that. I would need 3 pedals to do that. Mind you. I prefer using 3 pedals that do their one thing better. If however your music is primarily into a Sludge, Doom etc. then Hell this could be perfect.

ALTERNATIVELY

On the other hand if you are looking for a that super heavy Fuzz which this this is mostly about than I would wait to see how the Chicago Stompworks Fat Bald Guy works out once I get it and do my 'Hands On.'

At the moment my money is on it. It is half the money and half the size. Add to that it is OpAmp based and will not have the problems associated with germanium transistors.