The FX Files… Z.vex Fuzz Factory

Stab:

The ‘stab’ control is a common circuit bend for Diy’ers on a number of pedal types. After people found that dying batteries on fuzz pedals, and especially germanium fuzzes, resulted in interesting and unpredictable results, modders started adding controls to their pedals to reduce the amount of voltage going from the power supply to the circuit. This is exactly what the ‘stab’ does, with the effect that, when the pedal is starved of voltage it becomes increasingly glitchy, and much more likely to slip into oscillation.

Vol:

The volume control is nothing but a passive control – it sits at the end of the circuit and dumps signal to ground.

Comp:

This control biases the third and final transistor in the circuit. Together with the ‘Drive’ control, it has a large effect on the tone of the pedal when used on more sensible settings.

Drive:

This control is where the circuit is visibly closest to the Fuzz Face, as this has pretty much the same effect as the ‘Fuzz’ control on the Fuzz Face – controlling the amount of gain delivered from the second germanium transistor, up to its maximum gain. Because of where it is within the circuit, it is highly interactive with the ‘Comp’ control.

Gate:

Some would say that, at least in the early days, Zachary Vex’s talent was as much marketing as engineering, and this control’s name is fine evidence for that. Although it’s named ‘gate’, it actually rebiases the first germanium transistor, the second gain stage in the pedal, resulting in sputtering guitar signal and glitchy cut-outs when the transistor is biased ‘wrong’ – but who reads the datasheets, anyway?