We all need a Fuzz in our pedal rig, and this one has whole bunch of different fuzzy characters
We had a bit of a dive into a new member of the ever growing Happy pedal family. This one here is the DG Fuzz from Flattley Guitar Pedals.
Flattley is a pedal company based in the UK who launched their first pedal in 2016.
All of their pedals are analog and are proudly hand-wired and hand-finished in Gloucestershire.
The company’s founder, Paul Flattley himself, is putting his electronics expertise from a career in avionics into what really matters.
Now onto the DG fuzz, which, surprise surprise, is a fuzz pedal. Flattley actually describes this as a ‘dual pedal’ as it is built up of a simplified version of the circuitry of Flattley’s tone booster pedal called ‘The Ace’ which is then coupled with a 1960s style fuzz and a typical period tone stack.
It also has a buffer built in so that you can chuck it anywhere in your pedal chain without the gain staging affecting the behaviour of the circuitry.
This is not a complicated one to wrap your head around. You’ve got 4 knobs; tone, fuzz, volume and grunt. The tone knob is a low cut, the fuzz knob cranks up the fuzz, the volume knob manages the output volume, and the grunt knob pushes the bass of the signal going in to fatten up the fuzz.
These knobs are a nice size and have a lovely resistance to them. All in all this thing feels really well made. It’s also powered by a standard 9V centre negative supply just like the rest of your pedals.
I’m a fan of this unit. It gives you everything you could ask for from a fuzz pedal, but retains the versatility that you don’t get from a lot of other pedals like it.
For example, the big muff or the fuzz face have awesome and iconic signature sounds, but those sounds are tough to get away from. With a bit of a play around with the tone, grunt and fuzz knobs the DG Fuzz can get you a whole bunch of different fuzzy characters.
I will say that I think that the tone knob probably could have only had half of the range that it does, I can’t really imagine using it all the way up because the tone gets super thin. It’s not bad though, The knob has plenty of rotation, so dialling in the tone cut isn’t a problem
The looks are likely to be the most divisive aspect of this pedal. As you can see this thing is not subtle. Having had a look at the rest of the Flattley platinum range, which is where this one comes from, maximalist designs are clearly their thing.
Honestly I really back that they’re not shying away from the strong aesthetic, and it’s clearly important to them. If you’re into how this looks, go check out their whole range, you’re gonna love it.
Let’s be honest we all need a Fuzz in our pedal rig, and this one here will give you everything you need. You can pick it up for 485 Australian Dollars.
Head on over to the Flattley website to pick one up or read more.
