Dunlop Joe Bonamassa Fuzz Face

Recently purchased the JB Fuzz Face from Sylvan Music in Santa Cruz on an impulse buy. I was testing out fuzz boxes(or fuzz discs!) with a 70s Gibson Les Paul Custom off the wall through a Victoria Tweed Deluxe clone and decided the Fuzz Face would be perfect for my my blues band. I A/B'd the silicon transistor standard fuzz face versus the germanium transistor JB version. They both sounded good, but the JB was just way smoother and lacked the harsh high end of the silicon. I also really liked the decay of the germaniums. I also tried this set up with an early 70's fender strat and it was pure Hendrix. So I pulled the trigger on the JB Fuzz Face.

Unfortunately when I took it for a test drive at practice, it sounded amazing alone, but with the band I just could not cut through. With both my Greco Strat and Greco Les Paul, the sound was way too dark, almost mud. It was such a shame because without the band the tone nailed Clapton's Cream sound! Tragic!

So I contacted Dunlop to see if there was a cap change that could be made. They suggested lowering the value of the output cap. I tried this, which essentially is a bass cut, but to no avail. It sounded exactly the same. They offered to have me ship the JB to them and have them take a look. This was cool they offered to do that. But I contacted Sylvan to see about an exchange for another fuzz face or something else. They mentioned Dunlop was in the SF Bay Area. So I reached out to Dunlop once again to see if I could drop by. I was literally halfway to Santa Cruz to exchange the fuzz unit at Sylvan when I got the email from Dunlop saying to come on by. Getting to see the factory and have them possibly custom mod my FF was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. So I turned the car around.

The next morning I headed up to Benicia which is about an hour north. After passing bridges and refineries, waterways, and factories, I arrive at Dunlop Manufacturing. I had no idea what a small operation this was. They told me they only have around 200 people in the manufacturing facility doing all the MXR, Dunlop, and Way Huge lines. So they invite me in and test out my JB FF. I explain to them the issue I'm having with my setup. They demo a few other FF's for me including the standard with germaniums and the Hendrix with silicons. They both sounded great. It turns out the JB FF was designed for use in high gain situations and acts to darken the tone to almost a jazzy tone...not exactly what I was looking for. So after quite a bit of shooting the bull, Derek, who is helping me out, goes in the back and grabs some some germanium transistors that are brighter than anything they are using in any of the pedals. He throws them in, rebiases the pedal by ear, looks at it on the monitor, and slaps it back together. I ask him what I owe him for his trouble. He tells me not to worry, it's free. He spent over an hour on my pedal! And this thing now sounds amazing! What a great company! I thought Dunlop was one of those "mass produced in China" pedal companies. But they are a total small operation and work like a custom shop. I give them 5 gold stars!

I am heading home from socal tonight and will give it a test drive. I'll update you with results soon!