The Tone City Golden Face is a compact fuzz pedal built around hand-matched BC183 silicon transistors. Tone City positions it in its LEGEND series and describes it as a "BC183 Triode Fuzz Guitar Pedal", saying it yields "warm, saturated and creamy fuzz with crisp, well defined furry harmonic texture, faithfully recreating the iconic tones of Jimi Hendrix and Eric Johnson"1. It sits in the wider family of fuzz pedals that use the fuzz face style two-transistor layout, where transistor choice shapes the character of the fuzz.
Controls and how it plays
The Golden Face keeps things simple: two knobs, Level and Attack. Tone City says the pair lets you "smoothly transition from gentle light overdrive all the way to aggressive high gain distortion", so the same pedal can cover territory closer to overdrive pedals and distortion pedals depending on where the Attack is set1.
The other headline feature is volume knob response. Tone City says the pedal "boasts excellent clean up performance, letting you dial back distortion intensity right from your guitar's volume knob"1. For players, that means setting the pedal near maximum and using the guitar as a second gain control, rolling back for cleaner parts and digging in for full fuzz.
The BC183 connection
The BC183 transistor is the heart of this circuit, and Tone City says its units are "hand-matched BC183 silicon transistors screened through our rigorous testing"1. Matching matters in fuzz face style circuits because the two transistors need compatible gain and bias for the fuzz to sound right.
Other builders work with the same transistor. The Chase Tone Silver Stardust BC183/2L Silicon Fuzz is a silicon fuzz whose maker describes its bias range as covering Tonebender and Fuzz Face style tones2. The Analog Man BC183 Sun Face was reviewed by Vintage Guitar magazine in September 2013 as "a medium/high-gain fuzz, it's sensitive to amp settings and the guitar's volume control"3. On That Pedal Show, Analog Man's Mike Piera discussed the internal clean trim pot fitted to the BC183 version of the Sun Face4. And the Guitar FX Layouts technical site quoted Analog Mike on the transistor itself: "The BC183 transistors we got in 2011 are my favorite for a silicon fuzzface. They are a little warmer than the BC108"5.
"The BC183 transistors we got in 2011 are my favorite for a silicon fuzzface. They are a little warmer than the BC108"
Power and practicalities
The Golden Face runs on a DC 9V adaptor and draws 5mA, a very light load that fits easily on a shared pedalboard supply1. Tone City lists true bypass switching, a 1MΩ input impedance and a 10KΩ output impedance, and the pedal measures 12 x 10 x 5.2 cm and weighs 0.49 kg1.
Tone City's page specifies a DC 9V adaptor with no battery option mentioned, so a 9V supply is the way to run it. At 5mA it will not strain a daisy chain or isolated supply1.
Tone City's own fuzz range also includes the Tone City Fuxx Fuzz and the Tone City London Bender, which cover different fuzz styles within the same compact format.
Questions
Is the Tone City Golden Face true bypass?
Yes. Tone City's product page lists the Golden Face as true bypass, so when the pedal is off, the signal passes through without the fuzz circuit loading it. Combined with its 1MΩ input impedance and 10KΩ output impedance, it is designed to sit on a board without noticeably affecting the guitars tone when disengaged.
What power supply does the Tone City Golden Face need?
Tone City specifies a DC 9V adaptor, and the pedal draws 5mA. There is no mention of battery operation on the maker's page, so plan on a standard centre-negative 9V supply. Its low current draw means it sits comfortably alongside other pedals on a shared supply.
Does the Golden Face clean up with the guitar volume knob?
Tone City says the Golden Face boasts excellent clean up performance, letting you dial back distortion intensity right from your guitar's volume knob. That is a common trait of fuzz face style circuits, and it means you can set the pedal for full fuzz and roll the guitar volume down for a cleaner rhythm tone.
What transistors are in the Tone City Golden Face?
The Golden Face uses hand-matched BC183 silicon transistors, which Tone City says are screened through its own testing. The BC183 is a silicon transistor used in other fuzz face style designs, including the Analog Man BC183 Sun Face and the Chase Tone Silver Stardust.
What is the input impedance of the Golden Face?
Tone City lists the input impedance at 1MΩ and the output impedance at 10KΩ. A high input impedance like this helps keep the guitar's signal from being loaded down, which matters with fuzz circuits that respond strongly to the pickups and the guitar's volume control.
Sources (5)
- TONE CITY® GOLDEN FACE, Tone City, 2026
- Chase Tone™ Silver Stardust™ BC183/2L Silicon Fuzz, Chase Tone
- Analog Man BC183 Sun Face, Vintage Guitar magazine, 2014-04-15
- That Pedal Show, That Pedal Show, 2017-12-12
- Guitar FX Layouts: Analogman Sunface BC108, Guitar FX Layouts (tagboardeffects.blogspot.com), 2013-03-01
