Fender's 2 Mainline Silicon Fuzzes are pretty cool, distinct and versatile modern fuzzes
I’m obviously a little late to the party for the pair of these - The Pelt was released back in 2018 in the second phase of the then new Mainline Fender Effects Series - while The Trapper came out a couple of years later in 2020 - so we can presume both are fairly established by now. Weirdly The Trapper is no longer listed on Sweetwater - so I’m not sure exactly what that indicates - there certainly seem to be plenty of Trappers in circulation, while The Pelt is kind of sold out in lots of places.
Fender obviously has pedigree and previous in the area of Fuzz - with its large format classic Fender Blender from 1968. I thought that might have been an inspiration for The Pelt - but the Fender Blender is a different animal and has its own more vintage-inspired sound.
I’ve almost gotten around to tackling these 2 particular fuzzes a few times now - but I struggled early on to establish exactly what kind of circuits we were dealing with here and I didn’t have anything concrete to pivot from. There are no gutshots or circuit traces for either pedal, and the chassis / construction is deliberately disincentivised towards opening the pedal up - as you need to unscrew the jacks etc. to get in - which is frankly too fiddly to be be worth it for me. What is clear is that both circuits sound like multiple Silicon transistor types - I can’t tell the specific type / model of transistor or overall numbers - but I would guess 3 or more considering the output of each - and definitely for the somewhat more raucous Pelt!
I would classify The Pelt as sitting somewhere between and in among 3 classic high-gain silicon fuzz circuits - around the Regulus VIII, Fuzzrite and Maestro FZ-1S - it has quite a distinct breakup and attack - which has a somewhat strident, splatty and splashy character at its core. While The Trapper is a slightly more conventional silicon fuzz (closer to a Fuzz Face core) with 3 voicings really - a robust classic fuzz, an Octavia upper octave style fuzz, and a gated, velcro-ish and heavily biased style of fuzz - across 2 channels.
The combination of controls on The Pelt mean that it has a somewhat more extended range than the generally simpler Trapper - which I feel could have done with a little more level on the output. For The Pelt there really is ample Volume and Gain - where you can either try to tame and tether the pedal or else let it loose and unleash the beast!
The Pelt is slightly trickier to dial in, but the more satisfactory overall. The Trapper is decent and versatile - but overall it sits somewhat in the shadow of its more versatile and smaller, better priced brother.
Most people are familiar with this line of pedals by now - so I won’t waste any time going over the particular special features - beautiful anodised brushed aluminium enclosure, light up knobs and a cool magnetic battery latch / door etc.
It was actually Chris Buck’s recent Friday Fretworks YouTube video that prompted me to finally get on the case for these two pedals - that video is included directly below! :
The Pelt Fuzz - $149
Controls - Tone, Bloom (Attack + Compression + Sustain : Soft > Hard), Level, Mid : Mid Boost / Flat EQ / Scooped Mids, Thick (Low Boost), Fuzz (Gain).
The controls actually take a while to get used to as several of them are so interactive - especially the Bloom and Fuzz knobs. While every change requires you tweaking at least a couple of knobs typically.
Everything here is fairly straightforward as such - and there really is a tonne of gain and volume here - and you can go from a pretty elegant overdrive to a totally searing and splatty fuzz - and everything in between.
The most nuanced knob here is the Bloom control - which combines clipping Attack characteristics with compression and sustain - and which at extremes delivers a splatty velcro-y spitty output. It has quite a distinct almost bouncy clipping character / onset which is kind of there even with Bloom turned back fully counter clockwise.
I encourage to you test the Bloom dial out at both extremes - with a variety on Tonal changes and at different levels of gain. There's so many different tones here - while this is actually a pretty distinct sounding silicon fuzz - most enjoyed at its extremes - while for me it's character never gets quite close enough to that vintage germanium Fuzz Face timbre - you could argue that the softest Bloom setting kind of gets you there - while it doesn't quite have that gentler more gradual and open clipping onset - it's rather denser in nature.
My general favourite settings work really well with the Bloom both fully rolled back and fully maxed. Tone is @ 9 o'c, Level is circa @ 2 o'c, both switches are fully down, and Fuzz is around Noon. The pedal can sound really strident at higher levels of volume and gain / Fuzz - so I tend to mostly have the Tone Dial kocked back a bit - and while the Mid and Thick switches give you useful alternative tones - for my taste the pedal sounds best with those scooped and off!
When I first got my hands on The Pelt I kind of struggled to get a proper handle on it - while on second attempt everything really snapped into place. It was just a matter of scanning the full range of everything that was possible and settling on the most pleasing outcomes. The Pelt can kind of approximate several different classic fuzzes - while it's so much its own thing that it doesn't really replicate those that closely at all. It can kind of ballpark Fuzz Face and Muff - but really with it's own character.
The most fun you can have with it is to use my Settings and Max out the Bloom. I always thought that 'Pelt' was somewhat and somehow alluding to a Big Muff - but it's not that at all - while like I mentioned - it can sort of ballpark it a touch. My original 3 reference points - Regulus VIII, Fuzzrite and Maestro FZ-1S are definitely the closest to most aspects of this pedal's output.
I would love to know what other owners of the pedal think it sounds like and what their own favouite settings are!
The Trapper Dual Fuzz - $179
As mentioned in the intro - The Trapper is kind of 3 fuzzes in one, across two Chanels. Interestingly my unit is the second iteration of this pedal - where the initially launched ones had the middle knob as Level 2, and right-hand knobs as Level 1 and Fuzz 1. That actually makes more sense to me as on this current version for Fuzz 1 you have 2 LEDs light up, while for Fuzz 2 it's just the main jewel LED. It makes far more logical sense for Fuzz 2 to be 2 LED's and Fuzz 1 to be just 1 - rather than the inverse we see now - that actually really confused me early on.
Beyond the confusion of LED status - this pedal is really rather simpler in use than its sibling as there's less range on its outputs. For my rig I need to run both Levels @ Max. While the Fuzz 2 knob starts to over-compress and choke out after 4 o'c - so that really is my maximum there. I prefer the Fuzz 2 with the Upper Octave applied, and the output sounds best for me with Tone @ noon, and Contour @ circa 3 o'c.
My one slight niggle here is that the overall output is far lower than on The Pelt - and while that one rarely needs to go above 2 o'c on the Level dial - conversely for the Trapper - having both Level 1 and 2 on Max is never quite enough - needs to be a couple of notches higher really. I of course remedy that by applying my Strymon Sunset Treble Booster to beef up The Trapper's output.
It still sounds pretty great - the gated fuzz is beautifully thick and textured - and the Octave Fuzz is suitably cutting. I can fairly easily hit the Octave switch with my big toe - and since Tone and Contour are pretty much constant for my preferred settings - as are Levels etc. - then it's a breeze flipping between the 3 modes on the fly.
I really don't understand why they Inverted the Fuzz 1 and 2 Labels compared to the original edition - the original's topology makes so much more sense - it makes you wonder if they changed something else too along the way - as the Gate onset doesn't seem to be quite so strong for me compared to some of the earlier demos. Funnily the Fender onsite manual has the settings per my unit, while the small Trapper manual that cam with the pedal has the Fuzz 1 and 2 Labels inverted per the original versions. So no idea what happened there or why??
Both fuzzes work best near the start of your signal chain.
I still quite like The Trapper, while I probably prefer The Pelt overall - neither one is exactly to my usual preferences really - but they're both close enough - and The Pelt is actually nigh perfect as it is - as a distinct and fairly unique textured fuzz. The Trapper obviously needs a few tweaks as far as I'm concerned!
I think for the price these are both really decent - but there are better all-rounder Silicon fuzzes as far as I'm concerned - with the DOD Carcosa and Spiral Electric FX Demhe somewhat out in front - also the killer retired Termofuzz from Shift Line - the Scarab Deluxe etc. etc. - in fact in my 15 Everyday Fuzzes article - I prefer all of those to these two. They're decent, but not quite upper echelon!
What say you?
What say you?
