Tone Report Weekly Issue 144 | Page 59

remain useable and even musical, pairing great with darker amps like Marshalls or Blackstars. GOOD VIBRATIONS When stomping on a fuzz, there is a sort of primal enjoyment that comes from feeling the walls shake and hearing any loose pictures hanging on your wall rattle. Feeling a good fuzz in my opinion, is almost just as important as the tone of it itself. When the tone and the vibration in the air around you come together, it’s a magical experience. The Peachfuzz checked off those requirements, but the experiment didn’t stop there. Running it at lower gain settings opened up a whole bunch of overdrive sounds that were clear, dynamic, and (please forgive me for saying this) very tube-like. The attack on those tones was spongy and reacted naturally to my picking dynamics. Cranking up the gain pulled out all the stops, and produced a fuzz overture heavy in second- and third-order harmonics, with very slight musings of upper fourth and fifth harmonics. As you can probably tell, this fuzz has a very full spectrum sound, and feels as if it was designed by a mad hi-fi engineer. ROLL DOWN YOUR TROUBLES Like any good fuzz should, the Peachfuzz is reactive to your volume control. This is almost a requirement in today’s day and age, so it comes as no surprise that it works. What does surprise, is the clarity the fuzz still retains with the guitar’s volume rolled back. Due to the nature of the capacitor in your guitar’s pickups, as you roll the volume down more and more highs are cut out of your signal. Apart from the natural high-end rolloff, the Peachfuzz still manages to stay clear. The tone becomes somewhat bassier; with dark rumbling overtones on the low end and those prominent upper second and third harmonics peeking out for a wellbalanced overdriven tone. been put into the design and tone. There is a level of quality that comes from handmade pedals that is very evident in this pedal. Frantone takes a lot of what doesn’t work in the classic fuzz circuits, and chucks them to the wayside while adding a few tweaks of their own. It’s a triumphant return of a tried-and-true classic. WHAT WE LIKE Clarity, dynamics, and a wide swathing almost hifi fuzz tone that embodies boutique design. Low mid warmth and prominent upper harmonics. Good quality build. CONCERNS None. When playing the Peachfuzz, you can clearly see that a lot of care and attention has ToneReport.com 59