Fuzz Review: 3xfx Fatman

Construction and cosmetic concerns:

Stylish and dark. No labeling at all is visible on my black vinyl covered pedal, but an earlier version I had in green fabric had 3XFX stenciled on the side. The knobs are big and easy to use, but there isn’t really a default indicator to figure out what position the knobs are actually in. I got around this myself by assigning 12 o’clock noon as the ‘mark’ point and all references to settings are made with that in mind.

My wife will often comment on the visual properties of pedals as they find the way in and out of the house for testing, and after the initial inspection she was concerned that the fabric was folded over, which makes it a bit blocky in the corners. Being an amateur seamstress makes here a little anal about these things, but what the hell.. it’s my web page I can mention whatever I want.

The pedal feels like it could survive armageddon, but I worry about the potential fragility of the photo-eye. To date, I’ve had no problems. Insides are well soldered and everything looks and feels solid. I wish this pedal had a ‘mode’ light, which indicated when the oscillator was activated. In the heat of the moment, I’ve turned the pedal off and forgot what setting I left it on and flipping back in expecting a grunty distortion and getting a screaming wail can be a bit disconcerting.