Fuzz Wah

This is one of the sickest fuzz-wahs I've ever heard.  It can have the highest, most shreiking quality to it with all settings on 10.  It is simply a gain monster.  Tinitus sufferers & fragile pre-amps beware.  On the down side, the hiss from this thing can be ungodly, & can almost play itself by turning it on.  Granted, it's a given that old effects make noise, this is almost more than is acceptable.  But then again, if you're taking full advantage of its super destructo tone, who cares about hiss when you're ripping out those Stooges covers anyway?

Um, lets put it this way... I'haven't played it for about two & a half years due to its non-functioning status.  The plastic stroke gear that turns the pot shaft gear is held in place by a plastic retainer, screwed into the underside of the housing.  The screw eventually falls out after numerous whackings with the pedal & the whole action goes slack.  There are only so many times that you can re-screw that thing in there before stripping the hole.  The last time I did this, I knocked the pot out of alignment, so when the gears were put back together, it never had the same sweep again.  needless to say, I've never gotten around to fixing it since the electronics of my unit were very on again/off again before the mechanical failure.  This is most frustrating since the outer casing is so huge & heavy it seems a Sherman tank could run over this thing & it'd be okay.  My advise for the owners of these pedals is to treat this screw with some Loc-Tite, or better yet some super-glue as some preventative maintainence.

As mentioned before, the pivot for this pedal is towards the rear, so if you're used to the "Cry-Baby" style pedal that has more of a central fulcrum, it may take some getting used to.  Some people might think this is better/worse depending on your point of view.  Also, there are 2 of the regular '70's era clunk foot switches on the top of the rocker that you have to manuver your foot between, sometimes it can be tricky.

Fender was probably too busy making solid state amps in the late seventies to even remember that they made this thing.

Would I replace it?  Haven't yet, but as an obsessive gear-head with a penahnt to keep everything forever, that's not to say I wouldn't.  If I found a another really good one for cheap, I might buy it just as a studio oddity to cure the duldrums. I think if you wanted to play noise-rock/trash-core/punk this would be a perfect pedal & worth it for the fuzz alone.  I think there's a reason that nobody famous is associated with using this pedal as the gain & tone are so over the top.  This could be a good thing if you're looking to set yourself apart from every other Big Muff-toting, beer swilling, knuckle-dragging, 4 chord bashing punk rocker out there.  I think if you like it, play it till it breaks & bring a Boss pedal as a backup. Overall, use of this pedal is a sure fire way to break your current lease if you don't mind putting up with some noise & figuring out how to fix it every other gig.