LunaStone RED FUZZ 1

The LunaStone RED FUZZ 1 is an all-analog fuzz pedal from Danish maker LunaStone, first shown at NAMM in January 2018 and shipping that spring. LunaStone's pitch for it is simple: instead of a fuzz into a cranked amplifier, it puts both in one box, what the maker calls "a classic Fuzz and a stack and cram them together into one single piece of fat and beefy rock'n'roll hardware"¹². The company also describes it as having "that classic over-saturated, thick Fuzzy sound" of the 60's and 70's, and says it "simply screams Hendrix-style Fuzz"¹.

It launched alongside three siblings, the Distortion 1, Blue Drive 1 and Smooth Drive 1, at an expected price of about $199³, a figure Guitar.com confirmed as the list price⁴. Pedal of the Day reviewed it in December 2018 and found it "full of over-saturated, thick fuzz sounds throughout"⁵.

The controls: Volume, Fuzz and Low Cut

The Red Fuzz 1 keeps its control set to three knobs: Volume, Fuzz and Low Cut². Pedal of the Day's review breaks down what each does⁵:

The Low Cut control is the practical answer to a common fuzz problem: thick, saturated fuzz circuits can pile on low end that turns to mud, especially with humbuckers or on smaller amps. Rolling off lows lets you sit the fuzz into a mix without losing the saturation.

The layout is the unusual part. The knobs are angled so that Volume and Fuzz sit at the edges of the enclosure, where you can reach them with your foot. LunaStone's own line is "Adjust with your foot on the fly"¹, and Pedal of the Day noted that "the parameter knobs are angled specifically so you can control the Volume and Fuzz with your feet, for hands-free, on-the-fly operation"⁵. For a player who rides gain settings mid-song, that is a genuine alternative to bending down between phrases.

Switching, buffers and power

The Red Fuzz 1 is true-bypass, with soft relay-based footswitching rather than a stiff mechanical switch¹. Classic fuzz pedals are famously fussy about what sits before them in the signal chain, and LunaStone addresses that directly: "Unlike the classic designs, Red Fuzz 1 also has built-in Fuzz-friendly buffers to make it more 'friendly' to the other pedals"¹. In practice that means you can run it after other true-bypass pedals or a tuner without the loading and impedance problems that make vintage-style fuzzes thin out or gate unpredictably. If you want the background on why buffers matter, see buffer pedals.

Power comes from either a 9V battery or a standard 9V DC center-negative adapter, which is not included¹. The listed power consumption is 75mA¹, which is on the high side for a simple three-knob fuzz, so it is worth checking against a small daisy-chain supply if you power several pedals from one output.

Where the circuit came from

LunaStone does not publish a schematic, but outside writers have characterized the circuit. At NAMM 2018, Gearnews' Jef wrote that "that kind of sounds like an extended FuzzFace pedal to me"². More specifically, a JHS Pedals article on LunaStone describes it as "a unique, silicon transistor Fuzz Face topology version of his own thing that has a lot of low end," referring to LunaStone founder Steen Grøntved⁶. For context, the original Fuzz Face itself most likely began as a modification of a Colorsound Tonebender, which was in turn an evolution of the Maestro Fuzztone circuit⁷.

So the honest answer for a player comparing circuits: it is Fuzz Face-family in topology, silicon rather than germanium, with LunaStone's own additions, the buffers and the Low Cut control, on top⁶¹².

What reviewers and players said

Pedal of the Day's December 2018 review covered the pedal's build and sound, summing up its appeal as "the feel and power of a true Marshall stack in a small box that will easily fit on any pedalboard"⁵. The review also highlighted the angled knob layout and the built-in buffer as practical touches⁵.

LunaStone's own demos give a sense of the range the maker claims for it, recorded with different guitars at different gain settings¹:

• Low Gain: neck pickup on a Stratocaster¹
• Medium Gain: both pickups on a Telecaster¹
• Max Gain: bridge-position humbucker¹

LunaStone's own demo material for the Red Fuzz 1 shows the pedal in two settings: a Low Gain demo played on the neck pickup of a Stratocaster, and a Medium Gain demo using both pickups on a Telecaster¹. By October 2018 the company noted that "Red Fuzz 1 is now out there"⁸.

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