Empress Effects Inc. Empress S&D Fuzz

The Empress S&D Fuzz is the Scratch and Dent version of the Empress Effects fuzz pedal. "S&D" stands for Scratch and Dent: according to the maker, these pedals are functionally working perfectly but carry small cosmetic flaws, and Empress sells them at a lower price than the regular versions¹. For a player shopping for a fuzz on a budget, it is the same effect with a marked-down finish.

What Scratch and Dent means

Empress Effects describes the Scratch and Dent program in the same words across its S&D product pages. The pedals are functionally working perfectly, and the only difference from the regular versions is on the outside¹:

• A smudge on the screenprint
• Scratches
• A powdercoating defect¹

In the maker's own words:

So the S&D Fuzz is a Scratch and Dent fuzz pedal from Empress Effects Inc. The Scratch and Dent units are functionally working perfectly, with small cosmetic flaws such as a smudge on the screenprint, scratches or maybe a powdercoating defect, and they carry a 2 year warranty that can be extended to 4 years for free by registering your pedal. For a player whose pedalboard is built around how things work rather than how they look, that is the whole trade in a nutshell: the discount buys a working fuzz, and the cosmetic mark is what you live with¹.

Empress applies the same description to every pedal in the S&D range, from the S&D Buffer to the S&D Reverb and the S&D Echosystem¹²³.

Price and warranty

The S&D Fuzz is listed at $79.00 for Scratch and Dent units, against a regular price of $99.00¹. That is a $20.00 saving on the same circuit.

The warranty is unchanged from a regular pedal. Empress states:

Those warranty terms appear on every S&D product page, including the S&D Drive, the S&D Heavy Menace and the S&D Reverb, so a Scratch and Dent buyer is not giving up coverage to get the discount¹³⁴. The free extension from 2 years to 4 years comes just from registering the pedal with Empress, which is worth doing whichever version you buy.

How the S&D discount compares across the range

The Scratch and Dent discount varies by pedal. The S&D Buffer shows the pattern clearly: $89.00 for the Scratch and Dent unit against a regular price of $109.00, a $20.00 difference⁵. The larger Buffer + Scratch and Dent version is listed at $129.00 against a regular price of $164.00, a $35.00 difference⁶.

The rest of the S&D range

The fuzz is one pedal in a wide Scratch and Dent program. Empress sells S&D versions across its catalog, which means a player can build much of a board from marked-down units¹:

• Drive and fuzz: the S&D Fuzz, the S&D Germ Drive, the S&D Drive, the S&D Heavy Menace, the S&D Distortion and the S&D Multidrive¹⁴⁸
• Modulation: the S&D Tremolo2 and the S&D Phaser⁹
• Time-based effects: the S&D Echosystem and the S&D Reverb²³
• Utility and EQ: the S&D Buffer, the S&D Buffer + and the S&D Bass ParaEq⁵⁶¹⁰
• The ZOIA programmable line: the S&D ZOIA and its variants¹¹

The breadth of the range matters for a player comparing options. If the cosmetic trade is acceptable on one pedal, it is acceptable on all of them, since Empress describes every S&D unit with the same functional guarantee and the same warranty terms¹. A player who wants a fuzz, a delay and a reverb from the same maker could look at the S&D versions of each rather than mixing full-price and discounted units.

Who the S&D Fuzz suits

The Scratch and Dent trade is straightforward: the same fuzz circuit, the same controls, the same warranty, and a $20.00 lower price, in exchange for a finish flaw somewhere on the box¹. For a beginner assembling a first pedalboard, where every dollar saved on one pedal can go toward the next, that math is worth knowing about. For an experienced player, the S&D route is mainly a pricing question: whether the discount on the day is worth a mark that will likely be joined by scuffs from gigging anyway.

What the S&D Fuzz is not is a different circuit. Empress makes no claim of altered sound, altered controls or altered specifications for Scratch and Dent units; the description is entirely about the outside of the box¹. A player comparing the S&D Fuzz against other fuzzes on sound alone is comparing the regular Empress fuzz.

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