Z.Vex Fuzz Factory - Overview

Overview

The basis for the Fuzz Factory is a traditional fuzz effect circuit using New old stock Germanium Transistors, as used on the Fuzz Face, the seminal device used by Jimi Hendrix and many others during the late 1960s/early 1970s. The Fuzz Factory innovates by use of internal feedback loops and component-level bias adjustments to achieve unprecedented control, or deliberate lack thereof, of the distorted signal. Designed by electronic trial-and-error, closely tied to circuit bending, the controls of the Fuzz Factory are highly interactive, and represent a wide spectrum of tonal ability, often extending into self-oscillation and noise. Many musicians find the promise of near-infinite new sounds and textures inherent to the device to be inspiring to their music, and the Fuzz Factory has a well-known following among professional guitarists.

The Factory has 5 knobs, 2 of which are only suggestions of what parameter(s) they actually control. From left to right:

• "Volume" (output level)
• "Gate" (transistor bias)
• "Compression" (transistor bias)
• "Drive" (input level)
• "Stability" (supply voltage)