Build Your Own Clone E.S.V. Fuzz

This is a clone of the famous Fuzz Face effects pedal with vintage NOS (New old stock) components and some useful features that the originals don't have.

Features:

-1/4" input and output jacks

-Standard boss DC jack

-True bypass

-NOS carbon comp resistors, capacitors and AC127 transistors

-Three controls, Volume, Gain and an internal trim pot for to control the Bias

-More pedalboard friendly sized case than the original

UTILIZATION

This pedal is a DIY kit so I'll split this section into two, Building and Using.

Building: This build is very simple to do as there's very few components and the instructions are very easy to follow as always from BYOC. The troubleshooting tips are very helpful if your build doesn't fire up properly first time.

The pre-drilled enclosure and board mounted pots make this build very easy to do neatly because the only thing that needs to be wired are the jacks and footswitch.

Using: I find this pedal pretty simple to use, I just fiddle with the knobs until I get the sound I want out if it.

SOUND QUALITY

This pedal sounds great through my Epiphone Valve Junior amp using my Squier duo sonic guitar. I have compared this pedal to the Crest Audio version of the Fuzz Face that I have and I prefer the BYOC version as it's a lot smoother and more musical fuzz.

The internal Bias trim pot can be used in conjunction with the two outside controls to produce some surprisingly different tones for such a simple fuzz.

OVERALL OPINION

Overall I think this is a good pedal and would be an excellent choice as a first BYOC build due to the low parts count and easy circuit board layout.

This is my favorite variant of the Fuzz Face that I've tried and I've built a few different ones myself and used a Crest Audio version.