Fuzz Supreme Model:0466

[The Captain]

Meanwhile...

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Twelve, maybe thirteen, some years ago a good buddy of mine got in touch raving about a weird ass Australian fuzz box that, his good buddy, had acquired. "You've never heard anything like this" he said, "It's a Big Muff killer!" he said. "Send it over" I said.
And that he did. Talks were had. Minds were blown. People should hear this, I thought, I should make it a reality again, I thought. Time moved on, the years passed, the world became stranger and yet stranger still. I'd occasionally plug in the odd green Australian fuzz box. Always the same reaction - what is this insanity! I studied it over and over and on and on, and on it went. And then one day, the time was right, I had an angle. It all made sense. Oh hey, cool idea Dave! Let's do that. And then I did.

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Behold! The Fuzz Supreme. An exacting sonic replication of the uber uber uber UBER! rare Claybridge Audio Sound Systems Fuzzmaster. An insanely odd and almost demonic little creation made, approximately, in the autumn of 1966. Pretty much a unique entity in design, in the world of fuzz. Some very vague relationships to a Fuzzrite, maybe, but certainly has little to no auditory kinship. I'm certainly no expert in the field of Australian distortion devices, but I doubt little if anything would have commercially pre-dated the Fuzzmaster.

The circuit is based around three silicon devices, yup, silicon, pretty radical for 1966. These being 2N3565. Each gain stage piggybacks one into the other and unleashes something so god-damn wrong that it's so beautifully right.
There are times when a fuzz tone has a blurred definition, a liquid smoothness, a natural driven nuance, ...it's organic, bro! And then there are times when a fuzz tone is just that, a pure fuzz tone. A pure destroying all dynamics synthetic wonderment. A churning, mind-alerting sonic delight. I always consider such tonal flavours to be psychedelic in their nature, and in that the Fuzzmaster is the grand wizard of tripping balls mountain.

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The controls are thus. Volume is pretty self-explanatory, but does have interaction with, Treble. A subtle control, but does aid the skin not being completely stripped from one's face. Maximum "my face is sliding off into my lap" is fully to the right. Fuzz - a weird as fuck control if there ever was one. In its function slightly similar to that of a MKI in that it's shifting a lot of voltage, and as with some examples of the MKI it steps over a threshold and has something akin to a primitive noise gate function, past the 9 'o clock setting in this instance. This control also has an effect on the output volume. Minimal settings deliver a smaller highly compressed output signal, rolling to the right widens the output until one reaches the cliff's edge, as mention above.
Warning: This pedal is not for the faint of heart. It is primal sonic savagery at its best (worst?) It took me some time to gel with its behaviour, but I do know some that truly love the kind of fuzz tones that this hideous machine is capable of.

The Fuzz Supreme takes the Fuzzmaster and encases the enclosed sonic horror in armour. The original unit is quite a fragile piece. The Fuzz Supreme is not. The concept of construction was already there, just I've executed it with military grade gusto. It's often said "made with the best parts available" and that is often an untruth. I'm not saying these are the best parts available, because I'm not building a heart monitor, nor a military grade radio receiver, but maybe it's wise to say these are the best parts for the task in hand. Everything is top shelf selections and will guarantee both longevity and superior performance, likely long after you and I are worm food in the ground. The only 'NOS' components are the transistors, which are (Fairchild) 2N3565's as with the original.

Informationz

I made 41 of said items, 38 were available for public consumption via the D*A*M Forum. That will be the entire sum of the project, never again to grace my hands.

The original sale price, as of December 2022, was £628.35 (+ VAT where applicable) plus shipping costs.


Additional pr0n...

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[daCod]

absolute art. très magnifique

[sovtekfuzz]

As far as aesthetics go this might be my all time favorite DAM build

[redeyeflight]

Gorgeous. Can’t wait to hear what this thing delivers. Can we get one of these in the hands of Phillip???

[Markusgit81]

What a huge pedal. Sounds epic and the inside (as well as the outside) is stunning.

[redeyeflight]

Mine landed in Seattle yesterday. Gave it a good play though at home but will definitely be bringing it to my gig this saturday and will report back. My initial description is it sounds like a big muff and a MK I had a demon baby. Aka…it’s awesome. Tone control is quite subtle and the fuzz and volume controls are highly interactive. Plus…it kinda cleans up! Very un big muff in that respect. Really really digging this one so far. It’s definitely unique!

[dancehall]

Any demos of this anywhere yet? When I search Fuzz Supreme on YouTube all I get are that one JHS pedal.

[jujucritical]

I’ve never been able to find demos of this one, very curious what it sounds like.

[Markusgit81]

I tried to capture the sounds of the Fuzz Supreme. Marshall JTM45, Strat Bridge Pickup direct into DAW. Film was shot with the phone during thew night so the quality is poor. Had to cut the video because of the size. Hope you get an idea how it sounds. Enjoy...and be kind with my skills.

[electricsound]

nice to FINALLY hear a demo of this, great job mate