“When I saw the FVZZ IPA come out, I thought, ‘There should be a pedal to go with that!’” This pedal company was so inspired by an indie beer brew that it launched a companion fuzz
The two-stage, all-analog fuzz pedal is the latest in a growing line of gear-beer collabs
(Image credit: Spun Loud Effects)
When Spun Loud Effects saw Structures Brewing release its flagship beer, the FVZZ IPA, it knew there was one thing missing: a companion stompbox.
Lo and behold, the two firms have now come together to rectify that marketing mishap and bring the Structures FVZZ into existence.
Promising to be a bold, full-bodied fuzz pedal with articulate flavors and dynamics, it vies to be the perfect pour for hairy fuzz tone enthusiasts and beer lovers alike.
Spun Loud Effects, the company that brought us the Blister & Peel “bitstortion” pedal, has opted for a simple yet refined design based on a two-stage fuzz circuit with germanium and LED clipping.
It’s tweakable via a tone knob and has “gobs of volume on tap”, while there are dedicated dials for its two stages of fizzy-fuzzy goodness, which can also be run independently.
The fuzz circuits can be rolled back to provide a “mild overdrive”, but its maker adds that “a heft of output volume will push those tubes into breakup”.
Built using germanium clipping, the first stage is very sensitive to the gain dial, while the second stage – which uses LED clipping – delivers creamier, overdrive-like tones that bump the output signal as the gain increases.
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Its tone control can be employed to either cut out or boost the pedal’s high frequencies. Players can “find unity somewhere around noon or just above” on the volume knob, depending on the gain levels of the fuzz’s second stage.
It offers an all-analog design, with internal filtering allowing for super-low-noise operation, and is powered by a standard 9V plug.
“When I saw the FVZZ IPA come out, I thought, 'There should be a pedal to go with that!'” says Spun Loud Effects’ owner and founder, Dan DeMay.
“I’m so thrilled to see this finally come to life. It’s been a blast working with the Structures crew to make this a reality and I couldn’t be more proud of how it turned out.”
The FVZZ is designed, assembled, and tested by hand in Bellingham, Washington.
The Structures FVZZ costs $165 and is available today.
A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog, Guitar World, and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis, in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He's also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.
