JHS Launches Affordable Legends of Fuzz Series

Several people predicted that following on from the pricey $400 hand-wired 1966 Range - which I wasn’t entirely complementary about - that Josh Scott would release more mainstream SMD style devices covering the same sort of territory. In the launch video (per Final Thoughts below) Josh mentioned that there would likely be 10 pedals in this new series - with the above 4 being the first available. I expect the Legends of Fuzz Series to overlap very significantly with the 1966 Range eventually - meaning that there will be more Tone Benders, Fuzz Faces and Big Muff variants for sure along with some of the more unusual ones - possibly a Roland AF-100 Bee Baa Fuzz derivative or similar.

I’m always amused at how wrong some of the demonstrators get the facts and the details - some describing these as faithful reproductions (which they’re not), and some stating that the knobs were front-facing? While they’re distinctly rear-mounted or top-mounted depending on your perspective!

If you have opened up the fairly recent JHS Cheese Ball or MXR Brown Acid Fuzzes and inspected their guts - then this is likely the style of manufacture here - PCB’s with SMD’s or surface mounted devices - meaning those tiny little 3-pronged chip-like transistors etc. - with just the odd full size component - typically one or two canned or WIMA style capacitors and the like - these can be fully automatically manufactured and fed into machines like ammunition-belts on smart component strips.

Overall I feel this is a much better proposition than the 1966 x 4 Range as its pricing here is pretty spot on to what it should be or at $179 per unit - labor-day discounted at the moment down to $152 at some dealers. So I feel the pricing is pretty fair, along with the functionality. These are not exactly extended-range fuzzes, but each has at least an alternative voicing via red left-hand-side JHS Mode Button Switch - which typically and variously adjusts Mids, Gain and Gating, while on the Supreme there are 2 push-buttons - one for Mode and another for Tone.

Those who know me will know that I’m not overly enamoured with rear-mounted-knob pedals - they are not in the slightest bit pedalboard friendly in my opinion, and it’s usually difficult to see what the dials are set to. JHS has tried to mitigate this with a small white dot on the reverse side of the knobs - opposite to the indicator line that is - but the dot is so small that it’s nigh impossible to see. On a variety of pedalboards these knobs would be butting up against the second or third row and getting in the way of some of the cabling. Ergonomically this is just a non-optimal design - and is a reason for why I did not take to the Beetronics Babee / Fatbee series - which is otherwise a pretty neat and good-looking execution. The rear-mounted knobs though will always kill the deal for me. Even if they have that dual concentric construction with a window to display the numerical value dialled in - they’re just not as immediately obvious or as tweakable as proper top-mounted knobs - and you can’t use your toes to adjust which I do a fair amount! I don’t mind the wedge shape per se - but these are pretty close to vertical medium format - versus compacts - so would not rank as particularly ’pedalboard-friendly’ in my book. Construction and execution though seems pretty decent and they do have top-mounted jacks - which is very rare for JHS.

I would classify these as near as darnit ’Tonal Adaptations’ - where mass-manufacturing components have been selected and paired as closely as possible to match the tonal profiles of the original pedals. I don’t think you could classify these as replicas or reproductions as they’re not faithfully accurate to the originals beyond the simulated tonal signature and the controls. I feel that for the Silicon / BC108 style Smiley Fuzz Face that this is probably the closest in tone and dynamics to the original inspiration - while Josh also has a way with Big Muffs - and the Sovtek-style Crimson comes plenty close enough too. For the Super-Fuzz and Tone Bender I can hear distinct variations in the texture, character, bloom, creamy saturation and higher frequency harmonics - where the copies just don’t quite reach the lofty heights / textures / timbres of the originals.

Calling the Sovtek Red Army Overdrive a distinctly unique Big Muff is not entirely correct either as the Red Army Overdrive and Civil War Fuzzes overlapped exactly with the same circuit - while only the enclosure was different. You need but refer to the fantastic Kitrae Big Muff Page / Bible to get the full breakdown on that. And there are several excellent extended range Civil War -style Muffs out there that are equally if not more impressive.

It surprises me to a degree just how much hype these JHS Fuzz launches garner - as if Josh Scott has invented or innovated something exceptionally different here - where there are several specialist full-range Fuzz Pedal Builders that have been doing properly more authentic varieties of these for years and decades even - Builders like John Lyons of Basic Audio, Marc Ahlfs of Skreddy Pedals, Mike Piera of Analog.Man, Matt Pasquerella of Stomp Under Foot, Richard Coibion of Monsterpiece, Matthew Holl at Wren and Cuff, Scotty Smith of ProAnalog Devices, Greg Djerrahian of SolidGoldFX, Mike Vickery of Vick Audio, Tim Webster of Fredric Effects, Dan Querner of DanDrive Pedal, Sof Tebboune of Expresso FX, Daniel Thornhill of Fjord Fuzz - and not to mention The Three Fuzz Lords - Stu Castledine, Steve Williams (Pigdog) and David Main (D*A*M) (Note - apologies to anyone I may have inadvertently overlooked here). Some of these are somewhat closer to the 1966 Range pricing bracket, but most here are in and around the $200 bracket. You could, and still can get fantastic versions of these circuits with a little more hands-on care and attention put into them! That’s not to say the Legends of Fuzz Series doesn’t have its own merits - but the way some people have been going on is as if they’ve witnessed the second coming.

These JHS Legends of Fuzz units are decent, well-designed, but mass-manufactured adaptations of those original circuits. Some get tonally very close - almost indiscernibly so, while for others there are obvious differences if you know what to listen out for. From the standpoint of authenticity - Andy Martin’s Demo is by far and away the best benchmark in comparing the copies to the originals - he really knows each of those fuzzes and how to get the very best out of them - some of the other demonstrators seemed to be encountering some of these varieties for the first time. In terms of my own credentials in this area - I now have 206 Fuzz Pedals alone in my collection - with extensive coverage of most varieties, and including 52 Big Muffs, 50 Fuzz Faces, 31 Tone Benders and 21 Octave Fuzzes - including 10 Super-Fuzzes. So while I may not have sampled every single variation - I’ve really pretty much covered most of these avenues over the years - each of my collected pedals has its own distinctive character / personality and voicing - and encourages different styles of playing - I love them all!

Here follows a little more detail and analysis on each of the featured varieties :