Vitalii Bobrov's Drunk Beaver Fluff Fuzz Magnificently Combines Big Muff Style Fuzz with Upper Octave and Independent Linear Boost

I’ve been after one of Vitalii’s Fluff Fuzzes for quite some time - but as is often a quirk for me - I wasn’t happy with the original knob selections. In particular I didn’t like the typically white DM-150 style knobs - so I suggested Purple - either milled aluminium or Boss / DM-1360 types. Vitalii then came up with the brilliant combination you see now - with 5 x Purple ones, and a white one for the Octave - which I feel looks particularly sharp and elevates the aesthetics suitably!

Controls - Shift (Contour/Mids), Tone, Fuzz, Boost, Octave, Level, Fuzz Footswitch, Boost Footswitch.

At the core of the pedal sits a fantastic sounding Muff style circuit - loosely based on the Violet Ram’s Head - utilising 3 x MPSA18 and a Motorola 2N6427 (Darlington dual transistor). Where the 2N6427 combines with 2 Red LED’s in the first gain stage. And where the 2nd gain stage doubles up with 4 x NOS Silicon BAYP95 Diodes (made by Unitra CEMI Poland in the 80’s and similar to 1N4148) to elegantly smooth off the output characteristics.

The separate Boost is a sort of LBP-1 type using a single MPSA18 transistor, while the Octave utilises a combination of 2N5087 and 2N5089 transistors. Finally there is a J112 JFET acting as a buffer in front of the octave - those are essentially all the key parts!

The core Muff voicing sounds magnificent - and you can shape the output superbly with the Shift (Contour/Mids), Tone and Fuzz controls. Having the independent Boost means you essentially get 2 voicings - where I set the Fuzz / Gain at around 10 o’c, and then use the Boost to slam in a killer searing sustain. The Octave knob is best positioned for me at 10 o’c, where a lot of the time I have that just dialled off at fully CCW and use my Coppersound Triplegraph for more momentary Octave action - while the Fluff Octave sounds particularly great.

Preferred Settings - Shift at 9 o’c, Tone at 1 o’c, Fuzz at 10 o’c, Boost at 3 o’c, Octave at 10 o’c, and Level at 10 o’c.

I’ve suggested to Vitalii that the Boost and Level knobs need to be the other way around so as to ergonomically match the corresponding Footswitches below them. I’ve also suggested a digital control layer for the footswitches - such that you can get soft-click action, and more importantly switch the octave on and off by pressing on both footswitches simultaneously.

Other than those two tiny nice-to-haves - this really is a perfect pedal - and truly sounds magnificent every which way - most definitely one of Vitalii’s finest - and every home should have one! You’re getting a superbly voiced Big Muff style Fuzz, elegant Octave Fuzz and linear Boost - all in one compact and very reasonably priced package of just $150! Usually to be found on the Drunk Beaver Reverb.com Store - while they get snapped up very quickly each time a batch is released - so you will need to follow Vitalii’s Instagram Page too for updates - if you want one!

Any of you tempted here?