ZVex Fuzz Probe

The ZVex Fuzz Probe is a fuzz pedal that adds theremin-like gesture control to the company's best-known circuit. It combines a Fuzz Factory with a copper antenna built into an acrylic plate: wave your foot or hand near the plate and you disturb a field of RF energy coming from the antenna, altering the circuit that generates it¹. ZVEX itself calls it "the older brother of the Fuzz Factory," a big favorite of experimental noise fans for its varying oscillation pitch and strange fuzz guitar interactions².

Under the plate, it is a fully functioning Fuzz Factory, so everything that circuit is known for, from thick fuzz to gated velcro-ripping to pitch oscillation, is still there on the knobs³⁴. What the probe adds is a way to play one of those knobs, the stability control, with your body instead of your fingers.

How the antenna works

The probe is a proximity sensor. The copper plate on top of the pedal radiates a field of RF energy, and anything that comes near it, a foot, a hand, a shoe, disturbs that field and alters the circuit generating it¹. That circuit is wired to the STAB (stability) control, the knob that governs the pedal's oscillation and filtering, so moving closer or farther away sweeps it continuously⁶³. MusicRadar's Alex Lynham called the stab bias pot "generally seen as the most interactive and strange" control on the Fuzz Factory, which is exactly the one the antenna takes over³.

Because the sensor responds to proximity rather than touch, everything about your setup becomes part of the sound. On a JHS Pedals video, the player described how technique, footwear, guitar and volume control all change the tone, and that you get the most reaction when it is just skin on copper⁵.

The copper plate and the controls

The physical build is distinctive. Analog Man's page describes a 3 5/8" copper plate mounted on a chunk of 3/8" clear acrylic that passes over the top of the pedal housing, angles down to a sharp turn, and goes back to the pedal. Underneath there is a 3 5/8" by 7" sheet of aluminum for shielding, so ground effects and wires under the stage do not confuse the sensor⁶. The plate is a square of copper, mounted on a thick bent acrylic footpedal⁶.

The payoff, in use, is sounds you cannot get from knobs alone. MusicRadar's Trevor Curwen found you can wave your foot around for police car sirens and faux-theremin squeals, with the character of those sounds determined by the stability knob setting¹.

The Fuzz Factory inside

The Fuzz Factory circuit the probe is built on is, in the words of circuit specialists Aion FX, "essentially a classic Fuzz Face with a LPB-1 booster in front of it, but with the twist that half of the components are replaced with knobs, allowing fine-grain control over the transistor bias"⁴. That is what makes the family so wide ranging: everything from a thick, musical fuzz, to gated velcro-ripping, to pitch oscillation comes out of the same few controls⁴. RockBoard's PedalPedia entry describes knobs that take you from tight sounds that gate off instantly, to intermodulating oscillations that fight for control of your guitar as notes decay, to shortwave radio sounds, ripping velcro and octave-like fuzz⁷.

The Fuzz Probe is one of several variants in the family. Others include the Fat Fuzz Factory, which began as a prototype when ZVEX was experimenting with tone controls on the circuit⁸, and the various Vexter Fuzz Factory, Silicon Fuzz Factory and Fuzz Factory 7 versions. Premier Guitar noted that, with the exception of the theremin-like Fuzz Probe, the Fuzz Factory has not really been updated with any new abilities for generating additional tones⁹.

Vexter series versus hand painted pedals

The current version is the Fuzz Probe Vexter. Vexter Series pedals are lower priced and feature silk-screened art, and ZVEX states that the parts inside Vexters are identical to the hand painted pedals². In other words, the circuit and the probe are the same; the finish and the price differ. For comparison, MusicRadar listed the hand painted Fuzz Probe at $369 in 2019¹⁰, against the Vexter's $269.00 list price as of 2026-10-25².

Probe family differences: Fuzz Probe and Wah Probe

The probe idea spread across several ZVEX pedals. The Wah Probe combines a wah pedal with a proximity-sensing radio transmitter so it can be used without a treadle, by feet or hands¹⁰. The Fuzz Probe uses the same kind of sensing but pairs it with the Fuzz Factory circuit and wires it to the stability control instead¹⁶. There is also a Tremolo Probe, built on the Super Hard-On (SHO) circuit combined with a probe controller circuit originally developed for the Fuzz Probe, providing boost, tremolo and volume swells with a copper probe plate like a Fuzz Probe¹¹.

Batteries and unit-to-unit variation

The Fuzz Probe runs on batteries, and that has a practical consequence: supply voltage can vary between units⁵. On the JHS Pedals video, the discussion turned to exactly this, that because it works on batteries you never quite know if it is getting the same voltage, and that the Fuzz Factory is the kind of pedal where you breathe on a knob and it sounds totally different⁵. Two or three Fuzz Probes played side by side were described as all different, hard to get the same, and loved for being a little idiosyncratic⁵.

That verdict captures the pedal's appeal for experimental players: it is a Fuzz Factory you can play with your feet, with all the unpredictability that implies. Delicious Audio's buying guide grouped it among unusual fuzz pedals, noting the theremin-like sensor that lets you control the Stab control with your foot¹²¹.

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