Wonderful Audio Technology Crafts a versatile new fuzz - the Fuzz Lands from a combination of JFET, Germanium and Silicon Transistors

Most Fuzzes we encounter tend to be derivations and variations on the classics - Maestro, Tone Bender, Fuzz Face, Muff and Super Fuzz - while every now and again we get surprised by something new and different.

I actually already own fuzz that utilises one of those unusual Black Hat / Top Hat Germanium Transistors (Rocket Surgeon Codename Black Hat Fuzz) - so it’s always interesting to see that particular variety in the mix.

There’s certainly not many fuzz pedals that mix up a hybrid combination of 3 different transistor types - where the added smarts here comes from those 3 toggle-switches - 2 x 2-way and 1 x 3-way.

Controls - Volume, Fuzz, Roots : Vintage (JFET Stage bypassed) / Modern (JFET active), Earth : Tigter / Singing Sustaining Quality / Thicker and more Classic sounding, Nature : Gated and Broken / Smooth / Bender-y and Nasal.

Those 3 toggles really allow you to switch up the variety - and make me miss less some sort of external bias. You’re mostly here impacting on the nature and character of the distortion - versus applying a bias to tone-stack - while there should be plenty of options onboard to cover most.

We’ve seen quite a few pedals recently which rely more on binary and trinity switches versus deploying a plethora of fully granular knobs - the Heather Brown Sensation Fuzzdrive is very similar topologically - coming also with two knobs and 3 switches.

This certainly goes down on the wishlist - and I will look to acquire it most likely at some stage in the future from the Wonderful Audio Technology Webstore - the Fuzz Lands retails for $190.

It really does sometime seem that my Fuzz Quest is never ending. I initially started off thinking I could get a capsule collection of around 40 key fuzzes - but that is so long since passed - I’m currently in the region of 500+.

I’m definitely meaning to slow down at some stage - but can surely fit this one more passenger in somewhere. After all I tend to typically get the most joy from deploying visceral and unruly fuzzes!

Any of you tempted?