DanDrive Austin Pride

The DanDrive Austin Pride is a fuzz pedal made in Germany that recreates the classic Fuzz Face circuit with a twist: separate switches let you select germanium or silicon transistors in both gain stages, so one enclosure covers germanium, silicon and hybrid voicings¹². It is built by DanDrive around the 1991 César Díaz Square Face Fuzz take on the Fuzz Face circuit, a design associated with Stevie Ray Vaughan's guitar tech².

Germanium, silicon and hybrid voicings

The Austin Pride's central idea is that both transistor stages, Q1 and Q2, carry a germanium and a silicon device, and a switch on each stage selects between them²³. That gives three basic voicings: both stages germanium, both stages silicon, or a hybrid of one of each².

Guitar.com's Ed Oleszko described the germanium side in his 2020 review: "Thick and warm germanium fuzz, rich and enveloping sustain, and blurry-edged single notes and chords are coupled with the beautiful sparkly clean-up we associate with the best of these circuits."¹

Of the silicon setting, he wrote: "Switching both transistors to silicon gives the fuzz voice more midrange authority, note articulation and definition, and a tighter low end."¹

The transistor complements themselves are the subject of some variation between units and reports. Guitar.com describes the germanium units as military-spec OC75-equivalent CV2N1308 parts and the silicon units as gain-matched NTE123AP¹. Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson, writing about his own unit, cites the pairing as Germanium NTE103 and Silicon NTE123 transistors on both Q1 and Q2²³. Guitar Pedal X notes that all four varieties of the design are still available, while the look and finish may vary, as may some of the overall specs².

Controls

The pedal carries four knobs and three switches, a step up from the two knobs of the Square Face it is based on².

²

How it differs from the Square Face Fuzz

The Austin Pride's lineage runs through César Díaz, Stevie Ray Vaughan's guitar tech, whose 1991 Square Face Fuzz was itself a take on the Fuzz Face circuit². As Stefan Karlsson put it in Guitar Pedal X: "And where Dan Querner further evolved that circuit to the Austin Pride variant here - which goes from 2 knobs to 4, adds a further bass boost switch, and switches for selecting Silicon or Germanium Transistors on both Q1 and Q2 Slots."²

In other words, the Austin Pride keeps the Square Face foundation and adds the transistor-switching flexibility, the extra controls and the bass boost on top of it².

What reviewers said

Guitar.com reviewed the Austin Pride in March 2020, with Ed Oleszko calling it "a faithful recreation of the classic Fuzz Face circuit with some intriguing alterations"¹.

Guitar Pedal X's verdict, from August 2026, was stronger still. Karlsson called it "the best version of the Square Face Fuzz, and an S-Tier example of this type of 2-Stage Transistor Switching Fuzzes overall"².

Guitar World's 2023 history of the fuzz placed the Austin Pride among the pedals that "offer both in a single enclosure", naming it alongside the Spaceman Effects Gemini IV Dual Fuzz Generator as an example of germanium and silicon combined in one box⁴.

Power, size and availability

The pedal runs on either a battery or a 9V power supply with a DC 2.1mm center negative adaptor, so it works with standard pedalboard power¹. Its enclosure measures 121 x 64 x 55mm and carries a custom cloth covering¹. As of August 2026, Guitar Pedal X reports all four varieties still available, with a listed price of €589 ($543), while noting that the look, finish and some specifications may vary between editions².

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