Fjord Fuzz's new shimmery SOL Fuzz-Vibe represents the first rays of spring sunshine awakening the land from its dark winter slumber

The SOL Fuzz-Vibe is a very personal pedal - both for Daniel himself, and all Fjord-dwelling Scandinavians in particular. In those jagged fjords the sun never manages to rise far enough above those craggy peaks through the depths of winter (which in some parts can be almost half the year!) - the first hint of spring is the sun finally cresting those fjord peaks and releasing the land from darkness. We Icelanders call this fabulous natural phenomenon ’Sólarkaffi’ - when the first appearance of the sun is celebrated at coffee time on that day - with Icelandic-style pancakes and waffles (cream and jam!)[blueberry ideally!].

And here the SOL Fuzz-Vibe combines elements of old and new - and obviously very classically Hendrix! The Vibe side is very much based on the Frei circuit, but with some nuances - with its impedance matched to work well after high output impedance fuzzes - like indeed the Fuzz Face. Where a typical Fuzz Face doesn’t just have too low of an input impedance, moreover its output impedance is also overly high!

This is Daniel’s current weapon of choice and wholly geared towards his JCM800 amp, and low output guitar pickups. So Dan has created quite a vintage spec of Fuzz Face - not at all like his Berserks, and not really like the Hedda either. As Daniel only tends to have 2 or 3 pedals in his chain - he tends to need his gain pedal to compress and expand the signal also - and if you dial up the dB on the fuzz side - things get very compressed over 3 o’c, but also have the most elegant of guitar gain cleanup - all the way back to clean punchy tones - with no discernible additional noise.

For my rig - I have a slight preference for the two Berserks (in terms of Fjord Fuzz Fuzz Face types), and really love the original Frei + Freia pairing. It’s a little more modern leaning, and a little louder and more open.

While the SOL has a somewhat lower output profile - but with more ’thickness’ in the signal which is very much a signature Daniel thing.

I actually really like the Vibe side with one or both controls knocked pretty much right back. Daniel kind of likens this uni-vibe to a mid boost that constantly moves around all the time.

Daniel reports that with the pedal at full tilt - and his guitar’s volume all the way up - the SOL adds endless sustain and a whole bunch of croaky low end - like a huge creaking door! And as mentioned - when you turn the guitar volume down - the fuzz totally cleans up but remains loud and punchy at the same time.