What it does
The Fuzz King is a fuzz in the Big Muff Pi family tree. Kit Rae's history of the Big Muff describes it as a knockoff of the Sola Sound Supa Tonebender, which was itself a knockoff of the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi. In other words, players who know the Big Muff's saturated, sustaining character have a rough idea of the territory this circuit occupies, filtered through the Tonebender design it copied.1
"the Fuzz King was simply a knockoff of the Sola Sound Supa Tonebender, itself a knockoff of the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff"
Origins and build
The pedal came from the Italian-made Electronic Sounds series, and Rae notes the pedals were made in Italy, possibly by Jen Elettronics. The series used plastic cases rather than the metal enclosures common on American and British pedals of the era.1
The three brand names
One pedal, three badges. Rae's account is worth reading as a table:
| Brand name | Notes |
|---|---|
| Electronic Sounds | The Italian plastic-cased series the pedal belongs to1 |
| Dallas Arbiter | One of three names under which the Fuzz King was sold1 |
| UFO (Meazzi) | The UFO brand used for Meazzi1 |
For players comparing this pedal to modern fuzzes, the closest relatives in spirit are the Big Muff lineage it copied. Electro-Harmonix's current take on that family is the Electro-Harmonix Lizard King, an octave fuzz the maker describes as "Octave Fuzz for bass and beyond!"2
Sources (2)
- A Fuzz and Muff pedal Timeline, Kit Rae (kitrae.net), 2014-07
- Lizard King, Electro-Harmonix (ehx.com)
