Danelectro the eisenhower Fuzz
Plug in to the supreme commander of the allied fuzzes…
r eleased alongside The Breakdown in Danelectro’s new ‘vintage’ pedal range, which revives the sounds of certain ‘lost’ pedals, The Eisenhower Fuzz is said to be based on a 50-year-old fuzzbox with an octave effect. Resplendent in its distressed finish, the pedal features two selectable voices – Flat and Sculpt – suggesting to us that it may be based on the rare Univox Super-Fuzz, which had a similar twoposition tone switch and was used on stage by Pete Townshend, notably on the Live At Leeds album.
Where you need to turn some fuzzboxes’ Fuzz knobs up a bit to get a usable fuzz tone, you’re good to go from the minimum here because the Eisenhower delivers a righteous fuzzy grind with that ever-present upper octave contributing a spitty attack to the notes. Setting the Volume knob at around 10 o’clock will give you parity with your amp’s level, so there’s plenty available if you want to dial in a boost, and the fuzz has the whole range of travel to the huge saturated fullness and harmonic-laden sustain at its end stop.
This is classic square wave fuzz with rough-edged texture and plenty of compression, and the two-position tone switch pretty much gives you two pedals in one. The Flat position retains all the mids, giving the pedal a snarky poke that definitely won’t get lost in the mix, but with Sculpt you get a sharply executed scoop of the mids coupled with a side order of boosted low-end, creating a monolithic slab of sound for heavy chording but with that octave transient more prominent when playing single notes up the neck. Choose your weapon and tweak it with the Treble knob to enhance/subdue the brightness, and Bass to add more thump or clean up murkiness with a practical roll-off.
VERDICT
An invasion of octave fuzz seems underway with recent releases from Teisco and Dunlop, and this one storms the beaches with the best of them. Pete Townshend often used his pedal as a ‘hooligan’ fuzz to make noise at the end of songs and this could certainly inhabit that role – but with two distinct voices, it’s a versatile fuzzbox capable of more than just freakouts.