Colortone's Fuzzball Black Russian Muff style Fuzz has an enormous degree of versatility, while it really excels at those Super Smooth Singing Tones

The Black Russian Big Muff pedal is the softest and smoothest of all the Big Muff variants - and AD Hauser’s exacting take on that format in the guise of his Fuzzball pedal sounds superb. 

Controls - Sustain, Mids : Scoop / Boost, Volume, Tone.

So we have the usual 3 knobs we would expect to see on a Muff - Sustain, Volume and Tone, while we also have a Mids toggle switch - where Scoop is the Default variant authentic to that circuit - but you also get the ability to Boost the Mids - for a more cutting tonality / delivery.

The Tone Control here is pretty unique as it’s really smooth at both extremes - you would expect the fully CW position of that dial to be the brightest and sharpest, while instead that sort of peaks around 3/4 o’c and then it smooths out again. It can sound really edgy and textured from around 10 o’c to 2 o’c on Scoop.

I actually like it best between 11 o’c and 1 o’c in fact near enough at each of those values - where the former is softer, and the latter is more enriched and accentuated. I encourage everyone to experiment with the Tone control at the two extremes and in that middle portion in particular.

I tend to have Sustain around 3 o’c, and Volume of course on Max!

So the Fuzzball is elevated quite a bit above the norm by its Mids Scoop / Boost switch - and that really cool and unique tone control.

I’ve noted several times in the past that a pet peeve of mine is lack of output volume on vintage derived circuits - and it’s a frequent issue with the Big Muff format. While I’m happy to report that the Fuzzball has plenty of volume onboard.

There aren’t too many Black Russians about, while this is now my second one after the Vick Audio take on the same circuit. 

The Black Russian renders quite differently to the more aggressive end of the Big Muff spectrum - Triangle, Ram’s Head and Opamp - it is softer, smoother, and slightly less sustaining overall - while obviously still very much a part of that same family.

In AD Hauser’s demo you can hear how well his Muff playing style is suited to this Black Russian circuit - as he totally captures that smooth singing nature of this variant.

The Fuzzball is available for order right now from the Colortone Webstore for A$279 - which equates to circa $180 and equivalent.