Way Huge Jumbo Fuzz Swollen Pickle XXX

The Way Huge Jumbo Fuzz Swollen Pickle XXX is a limited-edition fuzz pedal built by Way Huge to mark the Swollen Pickle's 30th anniversary. In the maker's words, it "seethes and simmers with high-gain saturation and fat, hairy lows"¹. On Premier Guitar's demo video, John Bohlinger described the circuit plainly: "it's a square wave muff type fuzz"², putting it in the Big Muff family alongside the rest of the Swollen Pickle line.

The XXX is not a straight reissue. Dunlop says Jeorge Tripps "replaced the traditional transistor array with high-gain discrete transistors for even more HAIR" and "massively overhauled the tone stack from top to bottom"¹. It was available for a limited time only with special edition artwork, and Dunlop now lists it as a legacy product no longer in production¹.

A Muff-type fuzz with fat, hairy lows

The Swollen Pickle has always been a big-sounding fuzz. Reviewers of earlier versions described it as a fuzz with "a tremendous amount of bottom end"⁴ and as "a 70's style fuzz that goes from mild crunch to Armageddon"⁵. The XXX keeps that character and pushes it further: the discrete transistor swap is aimed squarely at more gain and more hair in the low end¹.

On the clipping side, the XXX carries a switch that, in Bohlinger's words, "goes between a silicon uh transistor and a LED clipping circuit"². The two settings have distinct feels:

• Silicon transistor: "a little more compressed"²
• LED clipping: "a little louder, more open, more overdrivy"²

The volume control is worth knowing about too. Bohlinger noted that "the bomb on the volume has a lot of output"², so the pedal can push an amp hard.

The controls

The XXX front panel departs from the five-knob layout of the MkII. Guitar Pedal X lists the XXX's controls as Loudness, a Crunch switch, Sustain, Lo, Filter, and Hi⁶.

The Hi and Lo knobs are the practical payoff of the tone stack overhaul: instead of one Filter sweep, you shape the top and bottom of the sweep separately¹.

The internal switches

Inside the pedal, internal switches "let players customize the sweep itself, from flat to ultra scooped or super bumped"¹³. This is a step beyond the MkII's approach, which used internal mini switches to vary the strength of the mid-scoop and to select between diode clipping options for smoother or more aggressive fuzz sustain⁷.

The Crunch switch

Crunch controls how compressed the fuzz is. On the MkII it was a knob: Pedal of the Day's reviewer explained that "the Crunch dial adds in (or takes away) the amount of compression present in the fuzz sound"⁸. On the XXX, Dunlop says Tripps "changed out the Crunch knob for a toggle switch to make compression tweaks lightning fast"¹. Gearnews reported that the XXX "replaces the compression knob with a high-speed toggle for instant response"⁹.

History and versions

The Swollen Pickle line goes back decades, with Jeorge Tripps as its designer. On Premier Guitar's demo, Bryan Kehoe introduced him as "George Trips, who was the owner of uh Way Huge and the designer"²; Delicious Audio calls the pedal "Jeorge Tripps' flagship fuzz"¹⁰.

The XXX's own artwork has a specific origin. On the demo, the enclosure graphics were said to be inspired by "Jumbo clown room in Hollywood... That's the inspiration"².

The version history, as the press covered it:

• Original Swollen Pickle: the three-knob jumbo fuzz that started the line¹¹¹²
• MkII: the reissue, "dutifully designated by a 'MKII' label," which added Scoop, Crunch, and internal controls⁷¹³
• Dirty Donny Edition: a shrunken version with limited edition artwork and six front-panel controls¹⁴
• MkIIS: the same burly high gain fuzz as the full-sized MkII in a smaller enclosure¹⁵
• Smalls Swollen Pickle: a compact version where flipping both the Scoop and Crunch switches down "delivers the classic three-knob Swollen Pickle setup"¹⁶
• XXX: the 30th anniversary limited edition, announced at NAMM in January 2026 and shipping in spring²⁹¹

The XXX versus the MkIIS

The MkIIS is the compact, standard-production sibling. Dunlop describes it as serving "up the same burly high gain fuzz as the full-sized MkII but in a more petite" package¹⁵, and MusicRadar's Total Guitar review called it "a similar fuzz in a more 'board-friendly footprint"¹⁷. The XXX, by contrast, is the full-sized anniversary edition with the discrete transistor overhaul, the new Hi and Lo knobs, the silicon/LED clipping switch, and the Crunch toggle in place of a knob¹²⁶.

Availability and price

The XXX launched at $199.99 street / $285.70 MSRP in April 2026³, a figure Premier Guitar also reported¹⁸. Gearnews earlier listed it at $216/£192/€219⁹, and Guitar Pedal X gave $199 / £199 and equivalent⁶, so early price reports varied. It was a limited run, and Dunlop now lists it as no longer in production¹.

What reviewers said

Published reactions to the Swollen Pickle family have been consistently positive. Premier Guitar's review of the MkII concluded that "The Way Huge Swollen Pickle MKII is an extraordinary fuzz pedal, and certainly lives up to its name"¹³. Pedal of the Day's Mike B called it "one that gets great sounds no matter where you set the controls"⁸.

On the XXX itself, Gearnews' Jef wrote from long-term ownership of a Swollen Pickle⁹:

Gearnews, January 2026⁹

Premier Guitar's demo video, presented by Bryan Kehoe and John Bohlinger, walks through the clipping switch settings and the high-output volume control, and shows the range from the silicon setting's compressed feel to the LED setting's more open, overdrivy character².

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Videos

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Questions