Spaceman FX announces Sputnik III germanium fuzz

August 2, 2022 · 3 sources

Spaceman FX announced version III of its Sputnik fuzz on August 2, 2022, according to Delicious Audio. The report says the pedal incorporates all the functions of the previous iterations plus new features, and will be released both in a limited, hand-made version and a more affordable mass-produced one¹.

The Sputnik III is an all-germanium fuzz featuring vintage Soviet transistors, the report says¹. The four controls are Scan, Calibrate, Range and Signal; the Signal knob controls output and the Range knob controls fuzz gain¹. A toggle switch offers mid-scooped and flat settings in conjunction with the wide-range Calibrate tone control¹. The Drift footswitch, taken from the Sputnik II, produces squealing and noisy tones whose response can be tweaked through the Scan knob, and version III adds latching and momentary control of that mode through the new footswitch¹. The transformer-based pickup simulation of the Sputnik II is carried over¹. The pedal is hand-wired and built in Portland, Oregon, with true-bypass relay switching and soft-touch footswitches, a cast-aluminum enclosure, an engraved vinyl faceplate and a jewel indicator light¹.

Spaceman's own description of the circuit, quoted in the report:

Delicious Audio gives no price or release date for either version¹. Earlier coverage of the Sputnik III put the price at USD 269 to USD 399, with limited fancy color variations available for a little extra². That coverage, from April 2020, describes the same four controls and the upgraded momentary Drift mode, and says the pedal merges the best bits of the previous two versions². A May 2020 write-up describes the mid-sized enclosure as smaller than the Sputnik II's and offering more options than the original³.