Hartman
BC108 Silicon Fuzz
WAS: $175
NOW: $165
Category: Fuzz
A very musical sounding and faithful clone of the early Silicon transistor Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face circuit using genuine metal-can BC108 NPN Silicon transistors (the type used in the originals during the very late '60s and throughout the '70s) plus modern amenities: true-bypass, on/off LED, and 9VDC-in jack.
The tonal variation among BC108s of similar gain is relatively mild compared to their Germanium predecessors; leakage is also an order of magnitude smaller. A byproduct of their stability is that BC108s are less finicky than Germanium about variations in the guitar volume knob potentiometer's sweep, guitar output, amp (or subsequent effect pedal) input impedances, ambient temperatures, etc. These factors can still impact the fuzz, but less audibly, and the pedals still exhibit the workable cleanup, dynamic voicing and smooth decay that a good fuzz should. At their higher settings, the BC108s get really angry sounding, with highly musical, controlled feedback just about anywhere on the neck. The lead sound during the middle of Pink Floyd's "Echoes" (on Meddle) is a perfect example.
External bias control is standard on all units. Bias can be set high to keep the fuzz ultra-smooth. Lowering it produces crisper fuzz. The lowest bias settings evoke the trademark crackle, spit and grind of "starved" Silicon.
Features:
- Genuine BC108 NPN Silicon transistors.
- Quiet carbon film resistors.
- Heavy-duty true-bypass switching.
- Rugged metallic silver powder-coated aluminum enclosure.
- ON/OFF LED.
- 9VDC input jack
- Comes with new carbon-zinc 9v battery.