ThorpyFX Tacit Blue Fuzz

The ThorpyFX Tacit Blue is a germanium fuzz pedal built around a highly modified Fuzz Face-style circuit. ThorpyFX positions it in the company's "Vintage Reimagined" series as a more versatile take on the vintage fuzz sound, one that, in the maker's words, "plays nicely with your pedalboard"¹. Where a stock Fuzz Face gives you two knobs, the Tacit Blue adds Smooth and Bias controls on top of Volume and Fuzz, which widens what the pedal can do, from a subtle hair on your notes to a crazily thick fuzz, and even into lower gain overdrive territory².

Guitar Pedal X described it at launch as "a gloriously textured extended range Germanium Fuzz face"³.

What it is and how it sounds

The Tacit Blue is an analog pedal whose sound RockBoard's PedalPedia says is "based on a highly modified fuzz face type circuit for a more versatile vintage style sound"². Delicious Audio's Paolo De Gregorio noted that despite the name, "it is not a Blues Breaker variant (as the name might have suggested) but a Fuzz Face one," and that it is "a highly modified circuit with a much broader sonic palette than the original"².

That broader palette shows up in the gain range. RockBoard's PedalPedia says the fuzz "can give a subtle hair to notes or get crazily thick depending on your preference," and that the pedal can also be used as a nice, thick lower gain overdrive². Delicious Audio heard the same thing, finding it able to deliver thick lower gain overdrive tones with the Fuzz knob turned down².

The controls

Four knobs shape the sound, two more than a classic Fuzz Face:

The Smooth control is the headline addition. Guitar Pedal X called it and the Bias knob "additional but essential for me" when describing the pedal's extended range over a standard Fuzz Face³. In practice, Smooth lets you trim how wooly or tight the fuzz sits, while Bias pushes the transistors toward a more aggressive character.

Germanium circuit and where it came from

The Tacit Blue is a germanium fuzz. RockBoard's PedalPedia lists it as a germanium fuzz pedal with an analog circuit¹, and Guitar Pedal X reports it uses NPN-type germanium transistors plus an audio transformer³. A later Guitar Pedal X piece specifies somewhat softer and smoother 2N-type germanium transistors⁴.

The circuit has a specific lineage. Guitar Pedal X reports the Tacit Blue is an extraction from ThorpyFX's original Germanium Veteran pedal with slight enhancements, and that the Tacit Blue and its sibling, the Have Blue Germanium Rangemaster, "essentially split out the two sides of the original Germanium Veteran," using slightly different NOS germanium transistors³⁵. In other words, the Veteran's fuzz side became the Tacit Blue and its Rangemaster side became the Have Blue. Guitar Pedal X also notes the Tacit Blue uses similar military spec transistors to the Boneyard Multi-Bender⁶.

The Tacit Blue was originally released as Secret Project #1, the first pedal under ThorpyFX's special "Secret Projects" division, and Guitar Pedal X reported at launch that only a few hundred, low hundreds, would be made³.

What reviewers said

Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson reviewed the Tacit Blue in his 2023 best-of fuzz roundup and counted it among his very favorite germanium Fuzz Faces, writing that "this has the same amazing visceral vibrancy and sizzle of that pedal," comparing it to the Boneyard⁶. At launch he had already called it "the more important one for me" of the two Secret Project pedals, an essential buy³.

How it fits with other ThorpyFX fuzzes

Within the ThorpyFX range, the Tacit Blue sits alongside other germanium vintage-style fuzzes. Its sibling from the same launch is the Have Blue Germanium Rangemaster, the other half of the Veteran circuit⁵. Later ThorpyFX germanium Fuzz Face-style pedals include the Redacted, which combines a Germanium Fuzz Face and RangeMaster with mil-spec transistors, and the Hanami, a four-stage blooming fuzz. The company's broader fuzz line also includes the Fallout Cloud, the Field Marshal, the Boneyard and the EAO.

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