Blind Panic Devices Reactor Fuzz

The Reactor Fuzz is a four-mode fuzz from Blind Panic Devices, a small builder whose pedals are themed and built around nuclear power imagery. Guitar Pedal X calls it a "3D-printed four-mode Fuzzstortion"¹, and Delicious Audio describes it as a fuzz that "delivers four distinct modes of saturation, from searing octave leads to earth-shaking doom distortion"². Each of the four modes is named after an actual nuclear reactor, and the whole pedal is voiced around that idea of escalating destructive power.

The pedal was created by Matt of Blind Panic Devices and shown at the Leeds Pedal Show in 2025³. Delicious Audio sums up the intent behind it:

The controls: Level, Energy, Fission and Meltdown Stabilize

The Reactor Fuzz puts its nuclear theme straight into the control names. The knobs break down as follows:

Energy and Fission are the core gain structure: Delicious Audio notes that "The Energy and Fission knobs constrol respectively input level and amount of gain"². Fission is described as a gain filter, so it shapes both the amount of gain and its frequency character³⁴.

The Stabilize control is the most distinctive of the set. In his review, Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson found it works like a bias control¹:

In other words, Stabilize shifts the distortion character along two axes at once, from dark to bright and from dense to open¹. It only functions in Green Fusion mode; in Red Meltdown mode, "Red unleashes full destructive power" and Stabilize has no effect³.

The pedal also carries two footswitches: a Fusion Footswitch (Meltdown) and a Bypass switch labeled Power Up³.

The four modes

The four modes, which Guitar Pedal X labels the "Degree of Destruction," are each named after a real reactor³:

The names track the history of nuclear power, from Chicago Pile-1, the world's first artificial nuclear reactor, through an experimental Manhattan Project plutonium reactor to the AP1000 pressurized water reactor, described as the world's most advanced and efficient commercial reactor, and the saturation character is meant to escalate along the same path, from searing octave leads in the earlier modes to earth-shaking doom distortion at the top of the range³.

Expression pedal use

The Reactor Fuzz has a Fusion Stabilize expression port. As Guitar Pedal X explains it, "Essentially your Expression controller here takes over the Stabilize control"¹. Delicious Audio puts the player-facing benefit this way:

Because Stabilize only works in Green Fusion mode, the expression control is likewise limited to that mode¹. If you use expression pedals on your board, this is the one parameter you can sweep in real time.

Designer, enclosure and the Nuclear Power Station Fuzz

The Reactor Fuzz was designed by Matt of Blind Panic Devices³¹. The enclosure is 3D-printed, in a horizontal layout, and fitted with 3D-printed tactile knobs in four different styles¹. Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson admitted the horizontal layout took some getting used to:

A custom set of GPX Deviation knobs was also proposed for the pedal, using the Blind Panic eyepatch band as the pointer¹.

Price and reviewer verdicts

The price has shifted slightly across 2025 coverage. Guitar Pedal X listed it at £179 in June 2025³, £179.99 ($240) in their August 2025 review¹, and £179 / $239 in their December 2025 roundup of the year's best new fuzz pedals⁴. The most recent figure is $239 as of December 2025⁴.

The December 2025 roundup gave the Reactor Fuzz a Silver award⁴. The August 2025 review was more effusive still, calling it "the most incredible, crushing and grinding weapons grade Fuzzstortion" and "the very definition of uncompromising in the best possible way"¹. The earlier coverage reached a similar conclusion:

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