Fairfield Circuitry releases the ~900 Fuzz, a four-knob JFET fuzz

November 11, 2024 · 4 sources

Fairfield Circuitry released the ~900 Fuzz, a four-knob fuzz pedal built around two cascading JFET gain stages, the Canadian builder announced. The pedal is listed on the maker's site at a regular price of $310 CAD and marked sold out¹.

The maker describes the ~900 as tracing its lineage back to its discontinued Four Eyes Fuzz, with a very wide range of gain¹. The four controls are INPUT (input gain), FUZZ (second stage gain), BIAS (second stage bias and gain) and VOLUME (output level), which the maker calls highly interactive¹. Delicious Audio reports that the Input knob is based on a "mu-amp" design feeding the first gain stage, the Fuzz knob sets the level into the second stage, and the Bias knob controls that stage's saturation symmetry, which the site says can create gating effects at high settings². Guitar.com reports that at lower Input, Fuzz and Bias settings the pedal is reminiscent of a dirty boost or overdrive, and that higher Fuzz settings bring thicker distortion, with the Bias knob able to create a voltage-starved, gated sound³. The pedal carries the serial code AF, standing for "All Fuzzes / Are Friends," according to Guitar.com³.

Reports differ on price and timing. MusicRadar, publishing on 10 September 2021, gave the price as $259CAD⁴, and Guitar.com, publishing on 8 September 2021, listed it at $259.00 CAD³. The maker's current product page shows $310 CAD¹. MusicRadar described the pedal as the "spiritual successor" to the Four Eyes Fuzz⁴; Guitar.com called it partially inspired by the discontinued pedal, with more gain and harmonics on tap³.