A pedal is an electronic device that changes the sound of an analogue or digital instrument, often a guitar. It looks like a small rectangular box. You plug your instrument into the pedal and plug the pedal into an amplifier. It’s called a pedal because it’s usually operated by foot.

A fuzz pedal makes a dramatic, buzzy, attention-getting sound that’s brighter and louder than your instrument’s untreated sound. This makes it jump out of the mix and cut through the other sounds in the band or the song. It makes your amplifier sound like it’s on full volume and full treble, when it isn’t. You can use fuzz to add some sudden noise for a few seconds, or for whole songs.

History

Electric guitars first appeared in the 1930s and became popular in the 1950s, but amps were quiet, designed to reach a certain volume without distorting. Manufacturers and most musicians saw distortion as bad, but gradually guitarists turned their amps up to get a deliberately distorted sound. Black American guitarists started this. Amps got bigger and louder as time went on, and the cycle continued. Fuzz was the next step in creating deliberate distortion. In 1962 the first commercially produced guitar pedal ever was a fuzz.

Good Fuzzy Sounds pedals are inspired by the early fuzz pedals of the 1960s, but they work with all kind of music. They are designed with guitars in mind, but can but used with bass or any other electric instrument, including keyboards or even microphones.

Find out more

Take a look at pedals to buy, peruse my old builds and vintage pedal collection. Want to know a lot more? Read the Good Fuzzy Sounds zine (.pdf, 49mb).