Cusack Screamer Fuzz Bass

The Cusack Screamer Fuzz Bass is a bass overdrive and fuzz pedal from Cusack Music. Like the company's Screamer Bass, its overdrive side is a Tube Screamer-inspired circuit modified for bass guitar, but it adds a fuzz circuit on top, and the two can be blended against each other to taste¹. Cusack says the pedal "runs the full gamut of gain, from subtle grit to buzz saw"¹.

The pedal is discontinued. Cusack Music marks the Screamer Fuzz Bass as discontinued on its product page, so it is now a secondhand find rather than a new purchase¹.

What it is and where it sits in the range

The Screamer Fuzz Bass takes the same approach as the rest of Cusack's Screamer Fuzz family: a Tube Screamer-style overdrive and a fuzz circuit sharing one box, with the blend between them left to the player. Guitar Pedal X described the family concept as "essentially a Tube Screamer and Fuzz Face in the same box, where you blend those voicings together to your own preference"². On the Bass version, the overdrive is voiced to preserve more low end than a stock Tube Screamer circuit, the same modification Cusack applies to the Screamer Bass³.

Cusack positions it as the higher-gain option next to the Screamer Bass, its straight bass overdrive: the Screamer Bass page asks "Not enough gain for you? Check out the Screamer Fuzz Bass!"³. The wider family includes the Cusack Music Screamer Fuzz, the Screamer Fuzz V3 Fuzzdrive, the Screamer Fuzz Germanium, the limited Selenium Screamer Fuzz, and the Scruzz⁴.

The controls

The control set is small: two knobs and a toggle.

The Scream knob governs the gain of the overdrive side, while the fuzz amount is set by how much fuzz you blend in against it, since Cusack states the overdrive and fuzz "can be mixed either the overdrive or the fuzz to your liking"¹. The same three-knob-plus-toggle layout appeared on the guitar versions: the Screamer Fuzz V2 carried Level, Scream and a matching 3-way clipping toggle⁵, and Delicious Audio described the standard Screamer Fuzz's controls as "Level, Scream (gain), and Fuzz"⁶.

The clipping toggle

The 3-way toggle selects which diodes clip the signal in the overdrive section: silicon on the left, asymmetrical LED in the center, and Schottky on the right¹. This is a practical voicing switch rather than a gimmick. Silicon diodes clip at a lower threshold with a tighter, harder-edged result; LEDs need more signal to conduct, so they clip less of the waveform and leave more dynamics intact; Schottky diodes sit low again but with a different forward voltage than standard silicon, giving another shade of drive. The same three options appear on the Screamer Fuzz V3's Clip Selector, which Cusack describes as selecting "silicon (Si), schottky (SBD), or asymmetrical LED clipping on the Screamer half of the pedal"⁴.

Power and battery

The pedal runs on a standard center negative 9V DC supply or a 9V battery, with neither included¹. At roughly 7mA it draws little current, comparable to the rest of the family: the Screamer Fuzz V2 draws about 7mA and the V3 about 6mA¹. One behavior worth knowing from the earlier guitar versions: in Guitar World's 2008 review of the original Screamer and Screamer Fuzz, the reviewer noted that "At approximately 6.5V the pedal goes into bypass until you change the battery," so a fading battery drops the pedal out of the signal path rather than degrading gradually⁷.

How it compares

Against the Screamer Bass, the difference is the fuzz half: same Tube Screamer-inspired bass overdrive, but with the extra circuit for players who want more than grit¹³. Against the guitar-oriented Screamer Fuzz versions, the Bass model trades the Tone knob of the V3 for a bass-voiced circuit, and its compact 4.42" by 2.39" footprint matches the rest of the line¹⁴. For a bassist weighing the categories generally, it sits at the overlap of overdrive and fuzz rather than being a pure bass fuzz.

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