StewMac Sun Fuzz

The StewMac Sun Fuzz is a fuzz pedal from StewMac built around a '60s fuzz circuit descended from the Fuzz Face. It uses a silicon BC-108 transistor, which Pedal of the Day says makes it more reliable and more consistent than germanium fuzz designs and lets it play well with humbuckers as well as single-coils. The pedal carries classic Volume, Fuzz and Tone controls, and the review found you can dial in anything from a gritty rasp to infinite sustain, with a cleanup that responds to the guitar's volume knob¹.

From DIY kit to pre-built pedal

The Sun Fuzz began life as one of StewMac's DIY pedal kits, and it is now also available pre-built. Pedal of the Day described the new lineup as pre-made versions of the pedal kit effects, noting that the Sun Fuzz is now professionally built and ready to play: "Same fuzz circuit, same obsession with detail, but now you can skip the soldering and go straight to the sound."¹

The circuit is unchanged between the two forms. As the review put it¹:

For a player, the choice is between building it yourself from the kit and buying it assembled. The pre-built version exists for anyone who wants the circuit without the soldering iron¹.

The circuit: a Fuzz Face descendant

The Fuzz Face, a small round pedal from the 1960s, became the foundation of countless legendary tones, and the Sun Fuzz is built on that lineage. Pedal of the Day says that when StewMac set out to create the Sun Fuzz, they wanted to capture everything people loved about that circuit: the grit, the bloom and the touch sensitivity¹.

The touch sensitivity is the practical part of that inheritance. Like other Fuzz Face style designs, the Sun Fuzz responds to how hard you dig in and, notably, to your guitar's volume knob: the review found it cleans up beautifully as you roll the volume down, which is what lets one pedal cover everything from a gritty rasp to infinite sustain¹.

How it compares to the Analog Man Sun Face

The name points at the pedal's most obvious relative: the Analog Man Sun Face, a custom made to order fuzz pedal from Analog Man that Pedal of the Day reviewed in 2014². The Sun Face is available with germanium or silicon transistors, and Analog Man's manuals for both versions give the same playing advice the Sun Fuzz's design relies on: keep the Fuzz knob up all the way or close, and use the volume knob on your guitar to control the amount of fuzz³⁴⁵.

Analog Man's Sun Face also carries an internal CLEAN trim pot, which the maker says acts like turning down the volume knob on your guitar to clean up the fuzz, can kill Radio Frequency Interference, and helps the pedal work after a vintage style wah pedal⁶. The Sun Fuzz puts that cleanup response on the floor with its external controls and its silicon BC-108 transistor, which sidesteps the temperamental behavior germanium fuzzes are known for¹.

If you are weighing fuzzes in this family, the Fuzz Pedals page sets the Sun Fuzz among the wider field.

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