The Carlsbro Fuzz (Sola Sound version) is a three-knob fuzz pedal sold under the Carlsbro name from the early 1970s. Unlike the company's earlier wedge-shaped Carlsbro Fuzz-Tone from 1966, this version was not built by Carlsbro itself: the company offered a new fuzz box that was supplied to them by Sola Sound, the London firm behind the Tone Bender family of pedals1. It belongs to the wider family of fuzz pedals of the era.
What it is and where it came from
By the early 1970s, Carlsbro offered a new fuzz box supplied by Sola Sound. The pedal carries three knobs, and according to Fuzzboxes.org it "was identical to the various fuzz boxes that Sola Sound were also supplying to other companies". Those same boxes went out under other brand names, including Park and Vox, and under Sola Sound's own name as the Tone Bender MKIV1. In practice, that means the Carlsbro-branded version is one badge among several for the same circuit, which matters to players comparing vintage units or tracing which pedals share a design.
Production and survival
Date stamps inside surviving original pedals show the Sola Sound version of the Carlsbro fuzz was manufactured at least until 19761. Surviving examples are comparatively common: the number of surviving three-knob, Sola Sound-built Carlsbro pedals dwarfs the earlier wedge-shaped pedal from 1966 by a significant margin1. For anyone hunting a vintage example, that makes this version the one more likely to turn up, while the 1966 Fuzz-Tone is the rarer of the two Carlsbro fuzzes.
This is a vintage pedal from the early 1970s and is no longer in production. Units on the used market are original 1970s hardware, not reissues.
Videos
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Sources (1)
- Carlsbro Fuzz-Tone • Fuzzboxes, Fuzzboxes.org, 2021-05-12
