Review: Rotosound Fuzz Reissue

Classic tones from yesteryear   03-Dec-14

Back in the day the Rotosound Fuzz was THE pedal to have, being only made as a limited prototype run, only the most connected guitarists got hold of them. Most notably Jimmy Page used one to great effect with Led Zeppelin.

Inside there's really not much to see, a small circuit, with modern components enhancing the original Germanium Diodes used in the original, battery only power - the circuit draws so little current, a single PP3 will last for weeks, but by the same token makes it hard to power from a pedalboard PSU.

Three knobs - Fuzz, Volume and Treble.

Thats yer lot, but boy does it sound good. Really, when combined with a quality guitar - in our review Murph uses the Les Paul Custom , into the Fuzz, into the Vox Bruno. It just sounds great.

The Treble control actually does more, at anti clockwise positions it's more of a bass boost, whereas fully clockwise will slice through plate steel. Somewhere just past 12 Oclock we found was a sweet spot.

It's impractical - it's not going to fit on your pedal board so well, it only takes batteries, but it sounds great and it's a sound that many guitarists have craved ever since it was first released.

We've seen it in the UK for £229-249, so it's not cheap either. Plus we don't know how limited this re-issue is, but it's THAT sound.

Rotosound Fuzz RFB1