Specifications

Manufacturer:
Visual Sound, visualsound.net

List Price:
$207.00

Originally printed in Guitar World, Holiday 2008

There are many things to be angry about these days—job loss, the rising price of gas and food, underage Chinese gymnasts, to name a few—but your fuzz pedal shouldn’t be one of them. Visual Sound understands, so it has introduced the Angry Fuzz, which expresses all of your pent-up rage while you play away with a Joker-like smile on your face. The pedal summons up a wide variety of furious fuzz tones, including octave-up and octave-down overtones, and its simple control layout allows you to duplicate the madness every time.

FEATURES

The pedal has three level controls—volume, fuzz and “Anger”—a bright switch and an effect on/off LED. The die-cast aluminum housing is extremely tough, and the ultra-heavy-duty on/off footswitch is tested to endure more than 10 million clicks without failure.

The volume control lets you match bypass and processed tones or dial in a significant amount of boost, and the fuzz level has a colorful fuzz-tone palette that ranges from a subtle sizzle to full-on ripped-speaker terror. The Anger control allows you to mix in varying degrees of octave-up overtones, from a nuanced hint to squeal-like-a-pig delight. If you prefer fuzz with the character of liquid sludge, leave the bright switch disengaged, but if you want tone that cuts like a switchblade scalpel, let ’er rip.

PERFORMANCE

The angry fuzz delivers more amusing character than two decades of Marvel Comics. The fuzz effect has a satisfying square-wave fuzz splatter, but it refuses to fart out even when you play obscure jazz chords. When you add in the Anger control’s octave effects, the tone takes on a sharp presence that’s ideal for solos, and when you strum chords wonderfully bizarre octave-down overtones start to emerge. Experiment with volume, tone and pickup settings (this pedal is a wonderful match with a Strat), and outrageous and wonderful overtones begin to shine through.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The Visual Sound Angry Fuzz has hulking fuzz tone that you will absolutely love. It sounds similar to the vintage Ampeg Scrambler, but its rock-solid performance will give you one less reason to get stomping mad.

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