JHS Pedals pays homage to “the most important fuzz circuits ever made” with its Legends Of Fuzz series.
The Legends Of Fuzz lineup consists of four fuzz stompboxes—Supreme, Bender, Crimson, and Smiley—spec’d from the 1972 Univox Super-Fuzz, the 1973 MKIII Tonebender, the 1992 Mike Matthews Red Army Overdrive, and the silicon Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face, respectively.
Per JHS Pedals founder Josh Heath Scott, the fuzz series is his “way of taking these rare, expensive and really hard to find circuits that many people will never find, or have access to and put it right in their hands.”
The Bender delivers the response, touch, and feel of a vintage germanium MKIII Tonebender, but with consistency and precision of meticulously picked contemporary silicon transistors. Clear and defined, the Smiley is straddling the line between a distortion stompbox and searing sustain, maintaining “low end and crisp mid-range bite” typical of a vintage Arbiter unit.
Meanwhile, the Supreme mimics the sound of 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.”
Ultimately, the Crimson clones what JHS refers to as the first-ever Russian-created Big Muff. It was purportedly more defined, clearer, and warmer than the latter Soviet Big Muffs.
The Supreme, Bender, Crimson, and Smiley retail for $179 apiece.
