SolidGoldFX Re-tools its 76 Super Fuzz style Octave Fuzz, now in MKII edition with additional controls

SGFX’s 76 has long been one of my favourite octave fuzz boxes - where I’ve had a Custom Shop Rust Edition for several years now. Just a beautifully textured and calibrated Fuzz - and about as musical as these sorts of pedals get.

Controls - Level, Octave : On/Off, Fuzz (Gain), Color (LPF / High-Cut), Texture (Mid Scoop > Bump).

So the original MKI had Fuzz, Volume, and Texture (Mids) Knobs - with Color (Treble-Cut) as a 3-way toggle.

This time around the Colour (LPF / High-Cut) is a fully variable knob, and you can now switch the Octave in and out via central toggle. When I see ’Octave’ on a toggle-switch I always think it a missed opportunity - where it should really be controlled by a second footswtich. I’ve long criticised Beetronics for not making that default on its standard Octahives - where all Custom Editions have that side-mounted toggle-switch as a second footswitch. The 76 should really have had a second footswitch too for toggling Octave on and off - otherwise this is a decent improvement.

I’m not sure how much improvement was required really as this was already one of my favourite Octave Fuzzes in its original format. The new version looks more striking and is more colourful - which it would have been a lot more appealing to me with ’Octave’ on a second footswitch.

There’s not much else to say about this really - the original was already a beautifully textured and stellar sounding variety of Super Fuzz - and in the grand scale of things the changes aren’t particularly revolutionary - nice to have the Octave optional I suppose.

Because of how much I loved the original - this ones goes straight in on the wishlist, while I’m not sure how much of a priority it is yet - as I still regularly use and love its predecessor. Possibly this will be a more opportunistic buy!

Top-mounted jacks are always a nice-to-have - while I’ve never let side-mounted jacks on a compact enclosure get in the way - it matters, but not that significantly.

The new MKII 76 Octave Fuzz is available right now on the SolidGoldFX Webstore for $199 and imminently at dealers worldwide.

One of these is certainly on the cards for me - just not sure how soon.

How about you dear readers - do you have a big appetite for a MKII 76?

Main Features 

• Silicon Octave Fuzz pedal
• Inspired by the Ibanez Standard Fuzz circuit - for maximum fuzz awesomeness
• Uses a JFET Preamp stage and a quartet of high-gain Toshiba transistors (new)
• Octave bypass switch - intended to tame the wild
• Dual independent Texture and Color tone stacks for precision audio sculpting
• Color toggle switch for switching between three different frequency ranges from scooped to full frequency fuzz tones
• Texture control sweeps the mid-range for many flavours of Fuzz
• Soft-touch True bypass switching and top-mounted jacks (new)
• Made in Montreal, Canada
• Powered by 9V DC PSU (centre -, 2,1 mm, 10 mA current draw)
• RRP : $199