16 of the Best Fuzzy-Drive Pedals

I did a post back in August of last year about modern Colorsound Power Boost alternatives - and this was the one in the listing I ended up getting - and it catches that texture and tonality pretty faithfully in just a far more pedalboard friendly format. The Power Boost was one of the original 'overdrives' as such, its tone is slightly dark, but it has the definite fuzz edge to the texture. There's plenty of range here from pretty subtle to full-on, and the gain goes pretty high too.

This is a tremendously versatile fuzzy-drive that can go from dumble-esque through twangy overdrive to sort of germanium fuzz sounding. Has a lovely singing quality to it and remarkably broad tone-shaping through just those 3 dials (Output, Bias, Input). I've been meaning to get this one for a while - no doubt it will be in the collection before long.

One of the permanent fixtures of my pedal-chain and much featured on this blog under several different categories - this all-round two-channel boost/drive/fuzz allows you to mix up 2 separate fuzz and drive voicings - which between them cover enormous ground - this is likely the ultimate fuzzy-drive in the compact enclosure format as befits its price.

This pedal was on my wishlist for the longest time - and in fact I only acquired it fairly recently - when Crazy Tube Circuits were selling off some of their B-Stock pedal. This is a really great chewy fuzzy-drive and the kind of tone I really love is beautifully demo'd by R.J. Ronquillo in the above video - this is one of the great unsung pedals that more people really need to know about!

This was a sort of NAMM 2019 special where I think only 50 or 100 were made - and I was lucky enough to snag one from Prymaxe. At the time I wasn't that well versed with the Cusack Music universe and thought this was just a straight up fuzz - where it's obviously a mix of Tube Screamer and Fuzz - with separate dials to turn up the degree of gain/mix for each voicing. I'm sorry to report that this is yet another one of my favourites of this type - these featured pedals pretty much all have individual voices to me and I would not wish to part with any of them - this one can sound particularly stellar.

Compared to the chewiness of the Starlight above, this one is slightly more subtle - but there's still that lovely edge of fuzz embedded within the drive tone - when you get the settings right - all switches down, Drive around 10 o'c etc. It's my favourite of the Dumble ODS style pedals and has been a permanent fixture in my pedal-chain since it arrived.

Even though I mostly use the Mulidrive for its exceptional Marshall-style flavours, it is like the Chase Bliss Audio Brothers above and somewhat unique in allowing you to mix up Fuzz, Overdrive and Distortion flavours together in any combination. I always pair my Overdrive and Distortion settings on the Multidrive with a healthy hint of fuzz - for more texture and articulation - more harmonics too. How much Fuzz you blend in is entirely up to you - and you can get some amazing combinations out of this highly versatile pedal.

I went through a phase last year when I played catch-up on Hudson Electronics - and acquired 4 of the best Michael Hudson productions over a period of just a few months - the Germanium Fuzz, White Heat Fuzz, Sidecar Germanium Clipping Overdrive and this Dual Footswitch Broadcast. These are produced in fairly small batches still and several cool special editions - which nevertheless means getting your order in early and waiting a couple or months or so to get your pedal. Michael Hudson no longer ships direct - so you need to find one of the many local dealers and place your order with them. This is a slightly tighter sounding fuzzy-drive hybrid than say the Starlight above, but it still has wonderful texture and tonality which gets well into fuzz territory when you dime it.

This is a pedal which somehow passed me by for a while - and when I came to acquire it - it was seemingly out of stock everywhere local to me. You get the choice of factory-made or hand-wired versions - but I'm not sure you can discern the difference in output fidelity - both sound superb. Nearest one available to me was Denmark in the end! Another beautiful confection of drive and fuzz. For those who think they don't like fuzz - this could be your gateway drug as such!

This was recently listed as one of my One Knob Wonders - and R.J. Ronquillo properly goes to town on the demo above. I feel this is another one of the perfect gateway drugs to fuzz as such - just a wonderfully balanced mix of those two tonalities - and one of my essential mini pedals.

Pettyjohn was a brand I wasn't overly familiar with until fairly recently - it's not in that wide a distribution this side of the pond. I included the Gold Overdrive in my recent Marshall style pedals article, and came across the Fuze while conducting that research. This is billed more as a Fuzz-Distortion pedal and obviously ranges a little harder and more gainey than some of these others - it's still easily capable of that wonderful mid gain chewiness that I so love.

I have a lot of love for Skreddy pedals and I see the Hybrid Fuzz Driver as one of a pair really with its sibling the Lunar Module Mini Deluxe. Each is supposed to be providing the same sort of treatment - but optimised towards humbuckers and single coil pickups respectively. The Hybrid has a mix of Germanium and Silicon transistors, while the Lunar Module is all Silicon. I actually play mostly humbuckers and I really like both - possibly I have a slight preference for the Hybrid and its slightly more elegant articulation - but there are many of us who have and love both.

This is one of a couple pedals here that have that sort of Tweed amp + fuzz flavour to them - the other being the forthcoming and as yet unnamed pedal from True North q.v. Both of these have this lovely warm fuzzy-drive character which is right in my target zone. I'm a big supporter of Sheldon Ens - so I will likely get his first, but I really like this one too!

When I did my Modern Colorsound Power Boost alternatives piece - I actually featured the newer V2 version of this - which converts the pre-gain toggle into a second footswitch - otherwise the control topology is identical. I feel I just prefer the vertical format for this sort of pedal - of course I would take a dual-footswitch vertical version to the V1, but I also much prefer the V1 vertical to the horizontal V2. It of course features the classic characteristics of the earliest of overdrive type - where proper breakup comes in pretty high on the gain scale. The Master Volume on the side is also an essential addition over the original inspiration for this pedal. I've often said on this blog that size and form-factor are key considerations for me - and generally my preference is for modern vertical compact enclosures!

The very early prototype video is the only one available on YouTube, although there are some more recent Facebook ones with the presumed final shape of the intended black-tweed wrapped enclosure - minus the print - and similar to my composite one at the top of this page. Sheldon is still doing some refinements so we don't have a launch date yet, but we're fairly familiar with some of the early tone demos - and this looks like it's going to be every bit as great as the Tweed Drive. I feel it's my most likely next acquisition here.

I inadvertently overlooked this one - it's another one I've been meaning to get for a while - and GuitarGuitar gave me the excuse by reducing these temporarily to £126. The 4-knobs control - Volume | Distortion | Color (Tone) | Heat (Bias). And you get some lovely harmonic texture here courtesy of 3 New Old Stock BC184C Transistors- definitely another favourite of this type!