Delicious, dynamic fuzz tones that touch on classic themes without aping them. Excellent quality. Super-cool and useful octave effect.
Can’t mix and match gain modes.
$349
Great Eastern FX Co. Focus Fuzz Deluxe
Adding octave, drive, and boost functions to an extraordinary fuzz yields a sum greater than its already extraordinary parts.
One should never feel petty for being a musical-instrument aesthete. You can make great music with ugly stuff, but you’re more likely to get in the mood for creation when your tools look cool. Great Eastern FX’s Focus Fuzz Deluxe, an evolution of their très élégantFocus Fuzz, is the sort of kit you might conspicuously keep around a studio space just because it looks classy and at home among design treasures likeRoland Space Echoes, Teletronix LA-2As, andblonde Fender piggyback amps. But beneath the FFD’s warmly glowing Hammerite enclosure dwells a multifaceted fuzz and drive that is, at turns, beastly, composed, and unique. Pretty, it turns out, is merely a bonus.
Forks in the Road
Though the Cambridge, U.K.-built FFD outwardly projects luxuriousness, it derives its “deluxe” status from the addition of boost, overdrive, and octave functions that extend an already complex sound palette. Unfortunately, a significant part of that fuzzy heart is a Soviet-era germanium transistor that is tricky to source and limited the original Focus Fuzz production to just 250 units. For now, the Focus Fuzz Deluxe will remain a rare bird. Great Eastern founder David Greaves estimates that he has enough for 400 FFDs this time out. Hopefully, the same dogged approach to transistor sourcing that yielded this batch will lead to a second release of this gem, and on his behalf we issue this plea: “Transistor hoarders, yield your troves to David Greaves!”
The good news is that the rare components did not go to waste on compromised craft. The FFD’s circuit is executed with precision on through-hole board, with the sizable Soviet transistor in question hovering conspicuously above the works like a cross between a derby hat and B-movie flying saucer. If the guts of the FFD fail to allay doubts that you’re getting what you paid for, the lovingly designed enclosure and robust pots and switches—not to mention the pedal’s considerable heft—should take care of whatever reticence remains.
Hydra in Flight
Just as in the original Focus Fuzz, the fuzz section in the Deluxe deftly walks an ideal path between a germanium Fuzz Face’s weight and presence, a Tone Bender’s lacerating ferocity, and the focus of a Dallas Rangemaster. You don’t have to strain to hear that distillate of elements. But even if you can’t easily imagine that combination, what you will hear is a fuzz that brims with attitude without drowning in saturation. There’s lots of dynamic headroom, you’ll feel the touch responsiveness, and you’ll sense the extra air that makes way for individual string detail and chord overtones. It shines with many different types of guitars and amps, too. I was very surprised at the way it rounded off the sharp edges made by a Telecaster bridge pickup and AC15-style combo while adding mass and spunk. The same amp with a Gibson SG coaxed out the Tony Iommi-meets-Rangemaster side of the fuzz. In any combination, the fuzz control itself, which boosts gain while reducing bias voltage (both in very tasteful measure) enhances the vocabulary of the guitar/amp pairing. That range of color is made greater still by the fuzz’s sensitivity to guitar volume and tone attenuation and touch dynamics. Lively clean tones exist in many shades depending on your guitar volume, as do rich low-gain overdrive sounds.
The drive section is similarly dynamic, and also quite unique thanks to the always versatile focus control, which adds slight amounts of gain as well as high-mid presence. At advanced focus levels, the drive takes on a fuzzy edge with hints of Fender tweed breakup and more Black Sabbath/Rangemaster snarl. It’s delicious stuff with Fender single-coils and PAFs, and, just as with the fuzz, it’s easily rendered thick and clean with a reduction in guitar volume or picking intensity. The boost, meanwhile, often feels just as lively and responsive—just less filthy—lending sparkle and mass to otherwise thin and timid combo amp sounds.
Among this wealth of treats, the octave function is a star. It works with the fuzz, drive, or boost. But unlike a lot of octave-up effects, you needn’t approach it with caution. Though it adds plenty of the buzzing, fractured, and ringing overtones that make octave effects so wild and distinct, it doesn’t strip mine low end from the signal. The extra balance makes it feel more musical under the fingers and even makes many chords sound full and detailed—a trick few octave effects can manage. With the fuzz, the results are concise, burly, and articulate single notes that lend themselves to lyrical, melodic leads and power chords. In drive-plus-octave mode, there are many hues of exploding practice-amp trash to explore. The boost and the octave may be my favorite little gem among the FFD’s many jewels, though. Adding the octave to boosted signals with a generous heap of focus input yields funky, eccentric electric-sitar tones that pack a punch and are charged with character in their fleeting, flowering state.
The Verdict
It’s hard to imagine adding extra footswitches to the Focus Fuzz Deluxe without sacrificing its basic elegance and proportions, and without elevating its already considerable price. Certainly, there would be real utility in the ability to mix and match all three excellent gain modes. On the other hand, the output level differences between fuzz, drive, and boost are pretty uniform, meaning quick switches on the fly will shift texture and attitude dramatically without delivering an ear-frying 30 dB boost. And though it’s hard not be tantalized by sounds that might have been, from combining the fuzz and/or boost and drive circuits, the myriad tones that can be sourced by blending any one of them with the superbly executed octave effect and the varied, rangeful focus and output controls will keep any curious tone spelunker busy for ages. For most of them, I would venture, real treasure awaits.
Great Eastern FX Co. has released the limited-edition OC201 Preamp, featuring vintage Mullard OC201 transistors for a unique fuzz sound. Part of the 'Obsolete Devices' series, this pedal combines classic circuits with modern components for optimal tone and reliability.
Boutique British pedal designers GreatEastern FX Co. have released a new pedal. Limited to just 50 units, the OC201 Preamp is an intriguing twist on the familiar two-transistor fuzz circuit, built around a pair of new-old-stock Mullard OC201 transistors.
“The OC201 is a very early silicon transistor,” company founder David Greeves explains. “It was actually the first silicon transistor made by Mullard, using the same method as their germanium devices. It’s pretty crude by modern standards, with very low gain and limited bandwidth, but that’s exactly what makes it so great in a fuzz pedal.”
This little-known low-gain silicon transistor is responsible for the OC201 Preamp’s palette of sounds, which GreatEastern FX say ranges from dirty boost and garage rock drive sounds up to a raw and richly textured fuzz, all with the excellent volume knob clean-up characteristics this style of fuzz is famous for. The circuit has also been tweaked to deliver a healthy kick of volume to your amp.
This limited-edition pedal is the first in a new series that Great Eastern FX are calling ‘Obsolete Devices’. According to the company, the Obsolete Devices series will feature the company’s take on a range of classic circuits, constructed using a mixture of vintage and modern components. It’s a distinct departure from Great Eastern FX’s main range of pedals.
“With pedals like the Design-a-drive and the XO Variable Crossover, we’re really committed to developing original designs that bring something new to the table,” founder David Greeves explains. “I’m always very conscious of choosing parts that aren’t going to go obsolete so we can go on making the pedals for as long as people want to buy them. But I also love messing around with old parts and classic circuits, which is a totally different mentality. The Obsolete Devices series is basically a way for me to have fun modifying these classic circuits and experimenting with my stash of NOS components, then share the results.
“The name is a little bit of an inside joke,” he continues. “I think what gets labelled as ‘obsolete’ is very subjective. As pedal designers and guitar players, we obsess over obsolete components and what, in any other field, would be considered outdated designs. So the name is a nod to that. I also loved the thought of us coming out with some brand-new Obsolete Devices of our own!”
Alongside the pedal’s new-old-stock Mullard OC201 transistors – which are the reason only 50 of them are being made – the OC201 Preamp uses quality modern components, including high-tolerance Dale metal film resistors and WIMA capacitors. GreatEastern FX say that this hybrid approach, using vintage parts where they make the most difference sonically and low-noise modern parts elsewhere, will deliver the best combination of tone and reliability while also keeping the price from spiralling out of control.
The OC201 Preamp will cost £249 in the UK, $299 in the US and €299 in the EU. It’s available now direct from Great Eastern FX Co. and from the following dealers:
- UK – Andertons
- Europe – Pedaltown.nl
- USA – Sound Shoppe NYC
- Canada – Electric Mojo Guitars
For more information, please visit greateasternfx.com.
Obsolete Devices OC201 Preamp | Great Eastern FX Co. - YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.By splitting your signal into low- and high-frequency bands, and feeding them to separate effects loops, the XO lends a new, expansive vocabulary to the effects you already have.
Smart, intuitive controls. Exponentially widens the tone potential of just a few effects. High quality construction
Players with limited use for such effects will consider it expensive.
$279
Great Eastern FX
greateasternfx.com
Though some musicians consider it a chore, I relish the creative possibilities associated with mixing a song or record. Working with the Great Eastern FX XO Variable Crossover feels a lot like the process of experimental mixing using EQ and outboard effects. The concept is simple: The XO splits the low and high frequencies from your input into two separate bands, which are routed via corresponding send and return jacks to different effects or series of them.
Depending on how you set the crossover frequency, the return balance, dry blend, and phase, you can fluidly shape, blend, and move between sounds that are subtly different or radically deconstructed. On the surface, it might look and sound like a cumbersome process. In reality, it’s intuitive, fun, and full of surprises
Fear Not the Frequency Shift
The XO’s control set will probably look alien to most guitarists. The largest knob controls the crossover frequency, which determines the point at which the full frequency band is divided and sent to the low and high send and return. The range button just to its right selects two frequency ranges: 50 to 600 Hz, or 300 Hz to 3.4 kHz. The first is recommended for use with bass, the second for guitar, but you can experiment with either setting for any instrument. The return balance knob sets the relative levels of the two effects returns and the dry blend knob performs its namesake task. The phase button can be used to either correct phase issues when the two bands are out of phase or applied creatively to fashion out-of-phase variations on a sound. A very useful send button, meanwhile, switches the high and low sends, enabling instantaneous selection of mirror-image frequency and effects mixes.
Mutating Tone Tangles
My first experiments with the XO were simple: sending the low band to a delay with long repeats and the high band to another delay with fast repeats, lurking just at the brink of oscillation. The ways I could blend these divided and reconstituted tone composites were often unexpected, surprising, and totally inspiring. I could set up signals that found trebly repeats hovering at the edge of feedback, while low and low-mid frequencies (which can overwhelm a self-oscillating signal) provided a fat foundation for the resonant, ringing top end—a totally cool sound that responded in really interesting ways to picking dynamics and different rhythmic patterns. In a modification of that formula, I routed an intensely throbbing Vox Repeat Percussion clone, slow-sweeping phaser, and long-repeat delay to the low band and assigned a clean, heavily compressed, slapback to the high frequencies. In this configuration, simple folk-rock chords and melodic lead lines took on complex, alien alter egos, sometimes sounding like two players—one handling a bubbling bass synth, and a guitarist carrying the tune via the clear detailed high end. When the pulsing low end got tiresome, it was easy to dial in more dry signal via the dry-blend knob or dial in a mix favoring the tighter, chiming high band.
“Simple folk-rock chords and melodic lead lines took on complex, alien alter egos, sometimes sounding like two players.”
The spins you can put on these recipes are endless. Situating an octave-down pedal amid the tremolo and phaser made the two bands even more distinctive and heightened the illusion of a guitarist and synth player working together. You can mix fuzzy, thumping low end with ringing and heavily chorused top-end output. Or you can blend two similar but distinct effects to create oddly chorused and powerful widescreen tonalities.
The cool part of all this potential is that it can be realized with a single amp and just a few pedals. Some of my most radical sounds came via just four or five pedals including the XO, which adds up to a very modest and portable array, all things considered. Players that work with pedalboards that count stomps in the double digits could disappear in labyrinths of sound that are as immersive as those afforded by synthesis. And while XO is, after some practice, easy to control, the new, chaotic molecular reactions provoked by unorthodox stimulation of your pedals all but guarantees unique results. You will definitely find new sounds and new ways to play and compose here.
The Verdict
The XO Variable Crossover is more likely to see service as a studio tool than become a staple of live setups, though plenty of courageous musicians will find it practical in that environment. Although the mechanics and principles behind its workings can seem complex at first, it can be used effectively and dramatically with just a few stompboxes. The sounds and voices it can extract from, say, a phaser and a delay are exponentially greater in number than what you’d get by simply using two such effects in series, even if some of them are subtle. And the ability to manipulate and warp these sounds on the fly with the XO’s elegant, simple control interface could bring out your inner Lee “Scratch” Perry or DJ Shadow—creating new moods, scenes, and tapestries that can turn a simple song or riff into a moving, mutable, and flowing tone story.
