JHS Pedals debuts the Legends of Fuzz

JHS Pedals

Josh Scott, the tone wizard behind JHS Pedals has unleashed not one, but four new pedals for us tone junkies to freak out over. The Legends of Fuzz series consists of the Smiley, Supreme, Bender, and Crimson. All of these pedals look exactly the same, but when you plug each of these in they come alive and set themselves apart from each other.

The Smiley is based off of those early silicon based Fuzz Faces that Ivor Arbiter brought to the scene. While there have been many iterations of the Fuzz Face both with silicon and germanium transistors, no one can deny the impact that this first generation fuzz had on the face of music in the mid to late sixties. The year that Arbiter introduced his legendary pedal he caught the ear of an up and coming guitar legend named Jimi Hendrix who had recently moved to London. Jimi Hendrix would go on to have a Fuzz Face at his feet for the rest of his career. He preferred the aggressiveness that the silicon based Fuzz Faces offered and they were much more reliable than the germanium ones.

While faithfully recreating this legendary tone, Josh also made sure to keep the controls the same with only a Volume and Fuzz knob. He added a button on the side to activate “JHS mode” which allows this fuzz an even higher on the gain stage to allow the player to take this to another sonic level. The Arbiter models were known for their smile-like design and while this pedal doesn’t retain that layout, you will be smiling as soon as you step on one.

The second pedal in the line is the Supreme. The Supreme is based off of the Univox Super-Fuzz, but specifically the 1972 Univox Super-Fuzz out of Josh’s personal collection. In the late sixties there was a pedal boom happening in Japan and one of the pedals that emerged was the Univox Super-Fuzz. This is an octave fuzz pedal that gives the player a thick, octave up texture to any chord or even single note. The Who’s Pete Townshend was an early user of this pedal that definitely helped others take notice of what this thing could really do. As Josh puts it on his site describing this pedal, “Imagine an Octavia fuzz that woke up on the wrong side of the bed…a loud, screaming, full and vibrant octave fuzz that is always at 11.” If that statement isn’t enough to make you want to check it out, then I don’t know what it will take.

Much like the Smiley, this pedal has a simple two knob configuration, Volume and Expand. Volume works as you’d expect and Expand increases the amount of fuzz. This pedal’s JHS Mode has two buttons on the side: Tone and Mode. The Tone button will scoop out your mids to tame your overall sound and the Mode button will give you a more pronounced octave up effect, volume boost, and thicker, more defined midrange.

The next pedal in the line is the Bender. Based off of the legendary Sola Sound Tone Bender, the Bender by JHS pedals is a faithful recreation of 1973 MKIII Tone Bender. Gary Hurst invented the Tone Bender while at his workbench of the famed Macari’s Music Exchange in London. Gary used the Gibson Maestro Fuzz as the basis for his inspiration and then made it his own by expanding the fuzz capabilities. Throughout the years there have been the MKI, MKI.5, MKII, and MKIII/IV. The Bender is the derived from Josh’s own germanium based 1973 MKIII and is the pedal that initially got me interested in checking out this line. Having recently watched Josh on That Pedal Show where they take a trip to Macari’s and embark on some Tone Bender history, I was fascinated by its history and never knew the stature that the Tone Bender had amongst the other fuzz pedals in history. Do watch this episode and let’s see which version of the Tone Bender will be your favorite.

The design of this pedal is very straightforward like the others in the line. Volume, Tone, and Attack. Volume is a given, Tone will go between dark and bright tones, and Attack will allow the player to dial in as much fuzz as they want. The single JHS Mode button on the side will push this pedal’s gains and mids to allow you to really cut through when you need it most.

The final pedal in the Legends of Fuzz is the Crimson. The Crimson is Josh’s take on the elusive Mike Matthews Red Army Overdrive. In the late sixties and throughout the seventies Electro Harmonix had released a few versions of its successful Big Muff pedal, but by the mid-eighties, the company was forced into bankruptcy and had to shut its doors. In the early nineties, pedal builder, Mike Matthews realized that the price of the Big Muff pedals were soaring and decided to resurrect the Big Muff line. He worked out a deal with a Russian manufacturer to begin building these new pedals, and since he no longer owned the trademarks to the name, he instead introduced the Red Army Overdrive by Sovtek. This is the seventh pedal in the Big Muff line, and one of its most sought after.

This pedal has a trio of controls. Volume, Tone, and Distort. Volume will make the pedal louder, while Tone will let you sweep between a variety of dark to bright tones. This is a great feature because it allows the pedal to work well with a variety of different guitars. Distort will in fact distort your tone by adding copious amounts of fuzz as you turn the knob clockwise. The JHS Mode button on the side allows the player to push the mids to further stand out in the mix. I have previously owned a Big Muff Pi and the Op Amp Big Muff that was released a few years ago. While, I liked them, I didn’t love them or feel like they needed a permanent place on my board. That being said, I am definitely interested in checking out this and the Bender.

I think that this Legends of Fuzz series of pedals is a great way to put the legendary tones that these pedals are known for at the feet of today’s player without commanding those vintage prices. Each of these pedals are priced at a respectable $179 and the addition of the JHS Modes really allow the player to make each of these their own as well as being a great feature to a remarkable pedal. Josh selected some of the most iconic fuzz circuits ever as the foundation for this line and I hope this is something he will continue to do with other notable pedals. The initial pre-orders of these pedals sold out really quick, but we are working on getting some to try and demo. Stand by.