Lastgasp Art Laboratories Super Oscillo Fuzz

The Lastgasp Art Laboratories Super Oscillo Fuzz is a circuit-bending, oscillating fuzz pedal from Japanese maker Lastgasp Art Laboratories. Where a conventional fuzz pedal gives you a fixed circuit with a few knobs, this one lets you rewire the circuit itself from the top panel: six switches each bring a different node of the circuit into play, and the pedal carries its own internal oscillation system, so it will self-oscillate and generate sounds on its own as well as mangling your guitar signal¹².

Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson called it the maker's flagship and "a fantastic journey into circuit-bending with a very responsive oscillating fuzz"³. Delicious Audio described the 88 version as capable of "an almost unlimited variety of fuzz distortion and oscillation sounds"².

What it is and where it came from

The pedal's full Japanese name, "Hachihachi shiki kebadate hizumaseki SUPER OSCILLO FUZZ," translates into English as "FUZZ DISTORTION PEDAL TYPE 88"². The numbering follows a family of Lastgasp models named after Japanese planes: the "Hachi roku" (the 86) and the "Hachi nana" (the 87) came before it². Analog Man listed the earlier model 86 at US$200.00 and the 88 at $285 back in June 2006, so the design has been around in various forms for a long time⁵.

Delicious Audio's 2024 round-up of unusual fuzzes characterized it bluntly: "This wild oscillating fuzz is intended to sound like a jet engine. With 6 distortion voicing switches and expression pedal control"⁶. Karlsson compared it to the Analog Music Co Evil Pumpkin series of circuit-bending pedals, noting those have twice the circuit nodes and additional controls¹.

The controls: Level, Adjust, six node switches and CV input

The full control set, as reported by Guitar Pedal X³:

The node switches are the heart of the pedal. Each of the six switches switches in a different node of the circuit, and Karlsson found that combining two or three of them at a time produces very interesting results³. Delicious Audio made the same point from the maker's description: using combinations of the six switches, many different kinds of distortion can be chosen, along with a huge variety of oscillations².

The CV pedal input on the left side means you can control the oscillation with an expression pedal rather than reaching down to the knobs mid-phrase, which is what makes the pedal playable live rather than just a studio noise box¹.

What reviewers said

Karlsson reviewed the pedal at length in March 2024 and placed it first among the Lastgasp fuzzes he had tried: "the Super Oscillo Fuzz is King for me, followed kind of equally by the Sooper Fuzz and Octavella"⁴. His overall verdict was that it is "a fantastic journey into circuit-bending with a very responsive oscillating fuzz"³. He noted it is "obviously an oscillating fuzz at its core," with a lot of variation within that genre and some subtler options as well¹.

Price and availability

Reported prices:

The Super Oscillo Fuzz was listed at $350 at Perfect Circuit¹.

Related Lastgasp pedals

The Super Oscillo Fuzz sits in a wider Lastgasp line that Guitar Pedal X has covered pedal by pedal:

• Lastgasp Art Laboratories 88 Super Oscillo Fuzz: the current model, following earlier Lastgasp pedals named after Japanese planes, the "Hachi roku" (the 86) and the "Hachi nana" (the 87)³²

The Lluna is the closest relative in spirit. It is described as a loud, searing, strident, oscillating silicon fuzz, with Level, Tone, Volt (starve) and Gain/Oscillation controls; its voltage dropper starves the circuit to change the feel of the fuzz, and Karlsson suggested Level and Tone at noon, Volt at about 1 o'clock and Gain just into oscillation at around 2 o'clock. He wrote that "it may even be my favourite Lastgasp to date," which puts it ahead of even the Super Oscillo Fuzz in his personal ranking⁷.

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