long awaited NPD

the first used boutique pedal I ever bought used (when I first started playing guitar, coming from a long time simple bass > tuner > sansamp setup) was a Team Awesome! Fuzz Machine. it was 2015 I think, & it was in the used case at my local GC. almost all the writing, save one or two controls & ”team awesome“ was totally faded or scratched off. totally thrashed looking. didnt realize it was even a fuzz when I asked to plug it in. had more character than any other dirtbox I saw so for $134 it was a no brainer.

it really was the pedal that i learned a bulk of my playing on, but eventually I sold it so I could try other higher end stuff. I took for granted how truly awesome this thing is. I thought maybe all fuzz/distortion pedals could be this good, but after dozens of dirtboxes and several years, I couldn’t stop thinking about how easy it was to get good sounds out of it, like one of the few pedals I had that I always enjoyed the sound of, on all settings, with no fuss dialing in

for all these knobs/switches it’s actually really straightforward pedal! it was designed to be a germanium bass fuzz , so it has a clean blend/volume control! then there are two controls for gain, the main fuZz level and the input gain for overloading the main fuzz. add a wide ranging low pass filter “tone” knob, switchable Mids, phase inversion for the clean signal (yields different textures I guess?), and footswitch able gate/boost, and you have a truly awesome fuzz machine.

It can definitely cover some of the broken, crackly type sounds the F_ck can do with the gate/clean blend, and it does do lower gain / clean up well but it really is so easy to dial anything from thick & wooly to brittle & sharp. it can be a one pedal “wall of sound” at extreme settings.

I sold my first one 8 years ago, it was so durable I’m sure it’s still shredding to this day. the one I got feels like new in box so I’m fairly certain it will outlive me (mid 30s rn). SSBS are all built like tanks.

even though this cost me 2x as it did 12 years ago, i think it’s still worth the price of admission. it’s just so easy to dial in good sounds, there are loads of them to be found.

this is what fuzz Is all about, and why fuzz is my favorite effect of all- it’s the most fun to play.