The British Pedal Company (former JMI) BPC Zonk Machine

The BPC Zonk Machine is a reissue fuzz pedal made by The British Pedal Company (former JMI) in England in 2013. It recreates the John Hornby Skewes Zonk Machine, a fuzz design from the early days of the effect, and it is aimed at players who want that original circuit without hunting down a vintage unit¹.

What it does

As a fuzz pedal, the Zonk Machine is a distortion effect in the oldest sense of the word: a circuit that clips the guitar signal hard to produce a thick, sustaining tone. The original John Hornby Skewes Zonk Machine used a three-transistor circuit, and Fuzzboxes.org notes that "The Zonk Machine's three-transistor circuit gradually evolved during the two-to-three year period in which it was being" produced, meaning the design changed in small ways over its original run².

The circuit

The British Pedal Company's manual describes the pedal as using a "unique transistor configuration (NKT213)", a reference to the type of transistor at the heart of the circuit³. Transistor choice is central to vintage-style fuzz designs, since the device used shapes how the circuit clips and how it responds to the guitar's volume control.

How it relates to the original

The BPC version is a reissue: TONEHOME describes it as "a BPC (the BRitish Pedal Company) made reissue from 2013" of the John Hornby Skewes original¹. Players comparing the two should treat the BPC pedal as the modern build of the same design, made in England like the original, rather than a new circuit of its own.

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