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5 great blues-rock fuzz pedals

By Michael Brown
( Total Guitar )
published 22 July 2014

Our favourite recent fuzzes

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MXR CSP203 La Machine £139

MXR CSP203 La Machine £139

With The Black Keys and Jack White currently dominating the charts and festival stages worldwide, it seems blues-rock is firmly back on the mainstream agenda. In honour of Total Guitar's Dan Auerbach vs Jack White standoff, we've rounded up five recent fuzz pedals that are perfect for nailing hard-hitting riffs and solos.

MXR CSP203 La Machine £139
This all-powerful octave fuzz delivers a thick, mid-scooped dose of high-gain dirt, before adding searing lead tones into the mix with the octave-up switch – ideal for QOTSA-style licks and Hendrix-y solos

MXR CSP203 La Machine review

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Page 1 of 5
Bigfoot Electronics King Fuzz £129

Bigfoot Electronics King Fuzz £129

With dirt tones inspired by none other than Dan Auerbach, the King Fuzz certainly delivers the blues-rock tonal goods – its touch sensitivity and response to changes in pickups and guitars is truly impressive, and delivers more sounds than you'd expect from a two-knob pedal

Bigfoot Electronics King Fuzz review

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Page 2 of 5
Z.Vex Fuzzolo £99

Z.Vex Fuzzolo £99

This teeny silicon fuzz boasts a massive amount of midrange for cutting through a live mix, plus the all-important Pulse Width control, which allows you dial in gated fuzz textures and arcade-style bleeps and bloops

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Page 3 of 5
Electro-Harmonix Nano Big Muff Pi £49

Electro-Harmonix Nano Big Muff Pi £49

We couldn't do a fuzz round-up without the Big Muff! The ubiquitous dirt box – in name and tonal character – has long graced the 'board of a certain Mr Jack White, and this Nano incarnation captures the Muff's supreme sustain and crushing fuzz tones at an awfully tempting price

Electro-Harmonix Nano Big Muff Pi review

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Page 4 of 5
Vox Tone Garage Trike Fuzz £131

Vox Tone Garage Trike Fuzz £131

Ignore the name; the Trike Fuzz is one serious dirt pedal, with pure analogue octave effects built in, from one octave up to two octaves down. That means fat textures for riffs and gnarly tracking for glitchy solos

Vox Tone Garage Trike Fuzz review

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Michael Brown
Michael Brown
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Mike is Editor-in-Chief of GuitarWorld.com (opens in new tab), in addition to being an offset fiend and recovering pedal addict. He has a master's degree in journalism, and has spent the past decade writing and editing for guitar publications including MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitarist, as well as a decade-and-a-half performing in bands of variable genre (and quality). In his free time, you'll find him making progressive instrumental rock under the nom de plume Maebe (opens in new tab).

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