My Danelectro Legacy / Vintage Fuzz Trifecta is finally complete!

I made a post very near the start of this year - which featured mostly the same visual, now a little more refined - where I indicated a desire to land the latest Nichols 1966 variant. Intriguingly Danelectro picked up on my visual and used is a couple of times on their social media - so I thought I was surely in for a discount on the Nichols 1966 - the third in the series. But no - despite some gentle nudging - Danelectro weren’t about to offer me an ounce of generosity - win some loose some as the saying goes!

In any case I had a number of priorities to juggle, where a slot as such freed up quite recently, and by happenstance I came across a Nichols 1966 at a reasonable discount. But wait - there was something different about this one, and indeed the main typography has been changed to a much neater variant. So it was probably just as well that this acquisition was somewhat delayed - as I ended up with a better looking one! Note that this can often happen for Beetronics pedals too - as some of the later variants can be much prettier than the originals

This series - which started with the Eisenhower Fuzz in the Spring of 2019 - has kind of come full circle - and each of this Trifecta has been an essential purchase for me - each is distinct and sounds great on its own terms, where perhaps this Nichols 1966 is the most versatile of them all - such is its grand degree of granularity. Of course the 3699 with its dual footswitches and optional upper octave is magnificent, and the Eisenhower Super Fuzz is no slouch either. I really don’t think you can go wrong with any of these :

• The Nichols 1966 Fuzz / Drive / Fuzzy-Drive - based on the rare 1966 Liverpool Fuzz-Tone
• The Eisenhower Fuzz - based on the 1968 Univox Super Fuzz
• The 3699 Octave Fuzz - based on the 1972 Foxx Tone Machine, whose designer went on to work at Danelectro!

All 3 of these are faux-relic’d, and have very similar markings on them. I really love this form factor - top mounted jacks and really neat vintage looking custom knobs - and that knurled washer really adds to the vintage feel too. An all-round great execution.

The Eisenhower is listed for just $149 on the Danelectro Website, while the 3699 and Nichols 1966 are both $199 - very reasonably priced really!

All 3 are excellent - while I do really love those Fuzzy-Drive sounds - so possibly the Nichols 1966 is my pick of the bunch - at least at this exact moment! I genuinely really like all 3 though! Danelectro refers you to the Sweetwater Webstore for orders - while these are generally widely available nowadays - and of course in all stores which carry the same-named guitars!

Here following brief individual overviews of each - in order of the above visual / release date rather than date of source pedal origin as in the above listing :