Q. How do you know if you’re caught up in Pedal Frenzy?
A. You walk into a guitar shop the day after you post an article claiming that you’ve bought too many pedals recently.
That’s exactly what happened to me. After posting that I had dented my wallet with four pedals in a month, I stopped by my local guitar shop the next day. Sure, I told myself it was only to pick up the latest copy of Vintage Guitar, but deep down inside I knew differently. After all, I can buy guitar mags at any newsstand, and in fact had just come from a mall boasting TWO well-stocked magazine racks.
I went so far as to try out a Danelectro Black Coffee because so many have been offered up on eBay lately. However the battery was dead, and I refused a replacement battery, so as to avoid further temptation.
As I waited to pay for my magazine, I saw a pedal right by the cash register. It was a DOD with its name covered by a big sticker pointing out the amazingly low price of $25 Canadian (currently that’s about $16 U.S.). It was a FX52 Classic Fuzz. The price alone dictated that I try it out.
So I grabbed a Strat and plugged into a Fender Pro Junior (this is important). Right away I discovered the reason for the low price: the on/off switch was broken. Luckily, this meant that the pedal was always ON.
There was nothing wrong with the tone. I had to keep from laughing out loud at the nasty sound created by this pedal. If you look at the scan, you’ll see that the "FUZZ" control has a marking for "BOOST". If you move the knob into this area, the pedal goes into sonic overkill.
Because the switch didn’t work, I unplugged the pedal to compare its effect on the sound. The FX52 does remove a lot of high end from the original sound. At the same time, the pedal overdrives the amp when the FUZZ control is fully off. So I don’t know how well this pedal would work in a board.
Personally, I loved the sound. "Classic Fuzz" indeed! There seemed to be a wide range of nastiness on tap with this pedal, and there are times when I want a bit of nasty.
So I bought it.
The FX52 Classic Fuzz passed the "how does it sound at the music shop" test. How would it fare at home?
For the answer,click here!
