Fuzz Review: 3xfx Fatman

From the maker:

As it’s name implies, the Fat Man has a very big sound! It offers a huge variety of distorions ranging from warm tube sounds, bluesy overdrive, ballsy distortion, and insane oscillating fuzz; this pedal is extremely versatile. In Rythmn mode this pedal just plain rocks, the gain knob allows for a very wide range of distorion to cover every playing style! It offers enough clean boost to make it a great pre-amp and drive your amp to really make it purr.

When in the oscillating fuzz mode, this pedal offers insane leads. You can switch between having a pre-set oscillator tone, controlled by a knob, or you can vary the oscillator frequency in real time by placing your foot over the built-in light control, giving an organic wah-distortion like effect. In oscillator mode this pedal can also give you very robotic sounding synthetic guitar tones, and even Nintendo-like video game sounds! Please note that when I refer to an oscillating fuzz, I mean it really oscillates. When you are not playing you will hear a tone generated by the pedal. In oscillating mode if you hit a note and let it fade out, you will first hear the oscillator sound interact with your insturment for a ring modulator like sound, then the oscillator will take over as the instrument continues to fade out.

This pedal is unique in many ways, including it’s look. It is covered in a thick army green fabric, wrapped around a heavy duty steel enclosure. Why fabric? Well, it isn’t susceptible to scratching the way a paint finished pedal is. It also offers a unique look while being very tough to damage.

Features include: true-bypass footswitching, Switchcraft jacks, heavy duty steel enclosure, red on/off LED indicator, 9V AC adapter jack, low noise high quality parts, and very tough scratch resistant fabric covering.

The controls for the Fat Man pedal are: gain knob, volume knob, oscillator control knob, tone switch, photo on/off switch, true bypass footswitch, and rythmn mode/oscillator mode footswitch. It is powered by a 9V battery, or optional 9V Boss style AC adapter (not included).

And a video (on guitar) from the maker