Way Huge Conquistador Fuzzstortion

The Way Huge Conquistador Fuzzstortion is a gated fuzz pedal with distortion elements, made by Way Huge, the effects company founded by Jeorge Tripps and now part of Jim Dunlop¹. A gate in a fuzz circuit cuts the signal dead when it falls below a threshold, so instead of a sustaining wall of fuzz you get a sputtery, chopped-up sound. Way Huge's own description of what that sounds like has followed the pedal everywhere: take a giant Velcro strip and tear it apart with great vigor². Pedal of the Day called it "a mash-up of two effect genres combined into one gritty box"¹.

The pedal was introduced in 2017 and reviewed as a new release that August¹. It is no longer made: Dunlop lists it as a legacy product, no longer in production², and Premier Guitar described it in 2025 as "the beloved and discontinued Way Huge Conquistador"³.

A gated fuzz with distortion elements

The Conquistador sits on the aggressive side of gated fuzz. Pedal of the Day described it as "a gated fuzz that is more on the aggressive side of things, with a simple control set and lots of sonic frontiers that need conquering"¹. The gate is not a switch you stomp: it is built into the circuit, and Premier Guitar noted in a 2021 review that "Conquistador's gating is a feature throughout the pedal's range"⁷.

The way you work with the gate is through your guitar's volume knob. Gearnews explained at the pedal's launch that all you do to activate the gate function is back off the level of your guitar's volume knob; as long as your signal stays behind the threshold of the internal gate, the pedal is totally silent⁸. Roll the volume up and the fuzz bursts back in. That behavior is what gives gated fuzzes their choppy, spluttering character, and it is the trait later reviewers kept coming back to: in 2025 Pedal of the summed up the Conquistador's voice as "Gated, explosive, unpredictable, and dripping with character"⁹.

Way Huge says the sound stays musical even at extreme settings², and Pedal of the Day agreed, writing that "the tones remain melodic and pleasing to the ear, even at high ranges and volumes, something a lot of fuzz pedals are notorious for NOT being able to accomplish"¹. Not every reviewer landed in the same place. Looking back in 2025, Pedal of the Day's reviewer found the pedal's limits: "The gate was too tight. The tone was too narrow. It had a voice, sure, but not much of a vocabulary"⁹.

The controls: Volume, Tone and Fuzz

The control set is three knobs, the same layout most fuzz players already know. Way Huge describes it as "the classic Volume, Tone, Fuzz control setup to dial in your sound"², and Premier Guitar called it "a completely familiar control scheme: fuzz, volume, and tone"⁷.

Premier Guitar noted that the Fuzz control "behaves as it would on any fuzz apart from the gating"⁷, so the main thing to learn with this pedal is how the gate responds as you turn gain up and down and work your guitar's volume knob against the internal threshold⁸. The pedal also uses top footswitch actuation, with the switch mounted on the top edge of the enclosure rather than the front⁶.

Where it came from

The Conquistador Fuzzstortion comes from Way Huge, a maker whose continually evolving pedal lineup includes a range of fuzzes and overdrives¹. It is a gated fuzz with distortion elements, sitting on the aggressive side of that range, with a simple control set¹. Reviewers received it as a new release, and it reached players as part of the current Way Huge range¹.

On circuit lineage, MusicRadar's review called the pedal "a nod to fuzzes descended from the Big Muff"⁶, the distortion/sustainer design originated by Electro-Harmonix founder Mike Matthews¹⁰. The Conquistador is its own thing, though: a gated fuzz with distortion elements rather than a straight Big Muff derivative¹.

After the pedal was discontinued, its sound lived on. Premier Guitar reported in 2025 that the Berserker Electronics Velcrow gated fuzz was "inspired by the beloved and discontinued Way Huge Conquistador" and pushes that sputtery, aggressive sound further, with more dynamic range, more usable tones, and a sharper, more responsive gate³.

Replacement parts

Although the pedal is out of production, Dunlop still supports it at the component level. A parts version is listed as WHE406-PARTS²¹¹, and Dunlop states that its electronic parts "are offered for sale with the qualified technician in mind"⁵. The company adds a clear warning for anyone thinking of doing the work themselves: "If you do not have experience installing electronic parts, please have your installation or repair performed by a qualified technician"⁵.

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