MusicRadar Verdict
If you want a Fuzz Face-type pedal, this has the sound and is compact, robust and reasonably priced, with the ability to focus its fatness with the shape knob.
Pros
- +
Germanium transistors. Bias control. Great tones.
Cons
- -
Battery power only.
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Based on a classic Arbiter Fuzz Face, with a few original tweaks, the Ge Fuzz Ace features germanium transistors - not the typical NKT275s, but a type that DRW believes have not previously been used in this design.
"The experience is typically vintage germanium Fuzz Face with amp-like overdrive up to a sweet singing fuzz"
These PNP transistors would need reversed polarity to run from a standard 9V power adaptor, so the pedal eschews a power socket for battery power only.
Besides standard fuzz and level controls, you get bias - which adjusts the input impedance, useful for matching it to various pickup types - and shape, which dials in some midrange boost.
The experience is typically vintage germanium Fuzz Face with amp-like overdrive at low levels of the fuzz knob, up to a sweet singing fuzz with an aggressive trebly edge, cleaning up smoothly with guitar volume.
