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
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
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
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
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
