Fuzz Box

the sound quality is a bit difficult to describe...at lower string frequencies, the unit is very buzzy with harmonic overtones...on the upper registers, the sound quality is quite in a class by itself, as i could not compare it to other fuzz box sounds...it does seem to resemble an original tone bender fuzz (two transistor germanium, reissued by vox) but in a vague sort of way...it is a stand alone sound...i did have a thought, that this unit also strongly resembles the fuzzy wuzzy buzzy bass sound on spirit in the sky...i have read that norman used an overdrive unit installed in his guitar, but i don't think it was an actual overdrive unit...if you listen to spirit in the sky, this fuzz box shin ei fy2 sounds exactly like norm's guitar fuzz...and i mean exactly...but i think norman did not play the same effect for other sections of spirit, these tones may actually have been achieved through an overdrive circuit played by russel daschiel...quite different sound, so i am refering only to the fuzzy sound played by norman...for myself, i am using a textbook guitar amp that i designed, also boss stereo delay and boss reverb...my second amp is a kustom hybrid amplifier...i also use an elaborate array of tone shaping filters that i designed to give a full british comb filter time delay effect when all the systems are adjusted just so...pretty much it is impossible to tell from bass notes exactly how a particular fuzz circuit may be designed...the upper notes give it away...true fuzz is actually a term by definition that has to be met to fall into the fuzz catagory...there is in fact, a great deal of elektronik physics at work...but definitely, low frequency notes have to be buzzy, and this babe comes across quite well...the rest is interpretive...

warranties and such are useless to me...there is no fuzz box in existance that i could not repair...a failed unit to me is moot...i doubt that there is really much that could go awry in solid state boxes, perhaps a wire not soldered correctly, or a broken wire or dirty control, or a switch that doesn't reset correctly are issues that are more likely to occur than an elektronik failure...i never put myself in a position where i have to rely on real time operation of boxes...everything i do is the result of perfecting my failures on tape...i never play in front of anyone...so i don't have to worry about packing an iron to remove wrinkles in new york...

regarding the shin ei fy2 fuzz pedal, my story began like this...having acquired this box at a flea market for $2.00 i really hadn't given it much hope for a valid fuzz effect...i tried the unit out, and at first was quite disappointed...hardly any gain, and no seeming effect change through adjustment of the fuzz control...also, the fuzz effect seemed to be thumpy and muffled...i quickly put the box back into storage and forgot about it...about three years later, whilst browsing through the internet, i kept coming across the shin ei fy2 fuzz box...slowly and almost by surprise i found myself digging my fy2 out of storage and tried to use it again...still, the same results, very disappointed...i decided to see what was what with this pedal, and devoted some serious time to back engineering the circuit to figure out what made the darn thing tick...having studied the schematic logics i had made (i have a quite strong engineering background) it came to me that the unit could not possibly operate correctly...i devoted several more evenings to reengineering this little diamond in the rough...what finally emerged was one of the best if not the best commercially available fuzz tone effects i have ever used...i made at least four changes to the circuit design which were somewhat surprising to me as i couldn't for the life of me understand why the factory engineers couldn't arrive at the same engineering scheme i had arrived at...perhaps the unit had been altered, or just a mismatch of parts at the factory...but when fully restored elektronikally the box is about as fuzzy and mystical as one could ever hope for...it is fuzzy i'd say that about it...and i love it...there is virtually no noise or harshness on the startup...it is velvety smooth and makes other conventional fuzz boxes look like attempts at fuzz...this thing is really nasty...it is also extremely easy to play...i am using a gibson les paul custom left handed guitar with seymour duncan sh1n59 pickups...which seem to perfectly drive all of my 60's effects...the shin ei fy2 is no exception...to me, this is the stuff fuzz dreams are made of...this is what fuzz is all about...

customer support? are you kidding? even if there were warranty stations for repairs, i'd sooner chase grapefruits rolling down a hill in denmark than to send anything out for repairs...if something fails on me, i need to find out for myself why it happened...

the shin ei fy2 is an effect i am still experimenting with...i suppose i would have to say that emotionally draining deep blues are what i like to play...the fy2 seems as though it could be played well in this area...in a limited sort of way...my other fuzz designs might score better for blues fuzz owing to their unusual quiet nature...jimmy page was i suppose the best elektrik blues artist i have heard...he knew how to fuzz!!!!!!!!but he also was no ordinary guitar player...somehow he figured out ways to blend emotion, technology and talent into an amazing elixer of elektrik bent note blues...and so for him, he could probably play a fuzz box with no battery inside, and still evoke emotion...what i am saying is that for myself i cannot adapt all fuzz effects to blues as their physics involved would not allow it...and so it gets back to fuzz applications...the shin ei fuzz seems to come through for this...as of yet, i have not been able to find a viable place in music for it though that would be its permanent nich...fuzz is a highly subjective experience...as i said, i am still experimenting...for the time being, it seems to work for me pretty well...

This thing turns your instrument into a tuned chainsaw.  Single note riffs become brutally buzzy and chords are smashed into little pieces.  I've never played through a nastier fuzz box.  You've heard this box...it's what Radiohead is using on Myxomatosis on the Guitar/Bass part.  It's on Exit Music for the fuzz bass at the end and it's on the bass all the way through The National Anthem.  It's as nasty as you can possibly imagine.  It's so nasty, it actually does a great square-wave synth impression.  Mix it with a good envelope filter (like a Lovetone Meatball) and you can make it do all sorts of boomy low-end gurgles. Only complaint is that it cuts the volume of your overall signal by about 10% even when fully on.  Not a big deal if you run a boost into it but it's kind of a pain. Love it for what it is.  This is the best brutal fuzz ever.

The thing's a bit on the fragile side...I'm going to build a clone and put it in a better case so I don't have to sweat stepping on it too much.  Don't mash it...it's too hard to replace.

2 knobs...volume and fuzz...and neither of them even do anything significant to the sound.  Turn 'em all the way up and leave 'em. Doesn't get easier than this.

They don't exist anymore...

Great for crushing any sense of delicacy...if it's gotta be ear-bleeding, this is your box.