Cusack Music releases 20 Selenium Screamer Fuzz pedals with vintage rectifiers

July 11, 2022 · 3 sources

Cusack Music released the Screamer Fuzz Selenium, a limited run of 20 pedals built around vintage selenium rectifiers, at $375 each¹². The maker's product page now lists the pedal as "DISCONTINUED" and "SOLD OUT!"¹.

The pedal combines a selenium rectifier overdrive circuit with the LED fuzz circuit of the Screamer Fuzz V3, and the maker says the layout and signal path match the V3¹. The overdrive comes from running the signal through plates coated in selenium, each acting as a diode that clips the signal¹. The rectifier is riveted to the side of the enclosure¹. The controls are fuzz, drive, tone and volume, with soft switching, custom milled aluminum knobs and a custom Duco frost finish by Steve Olsen of Lansing, Michigan³¹. Each pedal is signed inside by owner Jon Cusack, and buyers could pick a serial number when ordering¹.

Cusack sourced the parts while repairing a vintage amplifier and bought the supplier's remaining inventory of 26 rectifiers, estimated at 60 or more years old, which he kept for over 20 years¹. The maker says a few enclosures did not turn out and some rectifiers did not meet spec, leaving 20 for sale¹. Guitar Pedal X reported the 20 were offered "via individual colourway editions"².

Delicious Audio described the result as "a dark and full fuzzdrive with a thick creamy texture," and said that with overdrive and fuzz turned down it can work as a preamp or tone shaper³.