Pepers' Pedals Caustic Fuzz

The Pepers' Pedals Caustic Fuzz is a fuzz pedal hand built in small runs in Dunedin, New Zealand, using high quality parts¹. It uses Silicon and NOS Germanium transistors, including NOS Cold War era GE transistors, which are measured and hand-picked¹. Pedal of the Day described it as "a true powerhouse in the world of effects," covering a wide spectrum of fuzz tones, "ranging from splattery, gated fuzz to a thick, over-saturated wall of noise"¹.

The four controls: Decant, pH, Hazard and Dissolve

The Caustic Fuzz keeps its panel to four knobs, each named for the pedal's caustic theme:

All four descriptions come from Pedal of the Day's review¹.

The Hazard knob is the one to reach for when you want the pedal to get uglier: as it is turned up, it pushes the saturation between the Silicon and Germanium transistor stages harder¹. Between Dissolve for gain and Decant for output level, the pedal runs from gated, splattery fuzz to a thick, over-saturated wall of noise, per the same review¹.

Where it came from

Pepers' Pedals builds the Caustic Fuzz by hand in small runs in Dunedin, New Zealand¹. The use of NOS Cold War era Germanium transistors, measured and hand-picked for each build, is part of how the maker keeps the circuit consistent despite the variability of old-stock parts¹. The same builder's range includes the Pepers' Pedals Big Hefe Custom Fuzz, a related fuzz design¹.

What reviewers said

Pedal of the Day featured the Caustic Fuzz on 23 January 2019. Its reviewer noted that this was the first unit the site had tried from the builder, and concluded: "this is the first one we've gotten our hands on, and folks, it was worth the wait"¹.

For more fuzz designs, see the Fuzz Pedals type page.

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