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Voodoo Lab Superfuzz

 

Review of the Voodoo Lab Superfuzz by The Man in the Jar  

This is a remake of the celebrated 1968 Jordon Bosstone Fuzz with a couple of modern enhancements.    

Features of the Voodoo Lab Superfuzz

Construction - The all-metal construction makes the Superfuzz capable of surviving much abuse. The control knobs are black plastic and appear squat and sturdy. The on/off footswitch is standard chunky. The casing is graced with a rather attractive swirly green pattern to make you believe it's 1968 all over again.  

Ins and Outs - There's a single jack input and single jack output on the front face of the body. Between these is an input for the optional DC adaptor (sold seperately). 

Power - The 9volt battery is housed in the body and changing it requires you take off the entire bottom of the unit by removing four screws. This is not something you want to be doing mid-set on a crowded pub stage - so buy the adaptor.

Controls - The Volume control is self-explanatory, adjust this to make the loud noise get bigger. A useful by-product of this is the overdriving effect it has on the pre-amp section of your smouldering valve amp. I would mention important considerations such as balance, but by now you're halfway to Hendrix-ville and probably won't be listening. At the other end of the knob queue (next to the drummer) is the Attack control. This is another name for the Gain control which sets the amount of distortion/gain/fuzz/buzz that the Superfuzz endows upon your Rock Godliness.

New additions for the new millennium are the Resonance and Tone controls. The Tone control concerns itself primarily with the mid-range frequencies. Setting it at 12 o'clock gives the classic Buzztone sound. Turn it down to produce modern a "scooping" effect in the tone. Turn it up to produce a more substantial, bluesy mid-range. The Resonance control is a sub-harmonic boost (what used to be called Loudness). It adds a more controlled bass element that doesn't threaten to bugger your speakers. Turn it right down to get classic Buzztone response. Turn it up to fatten your sound in general or to improve overall tone when playing at low volumes (like you were going to play at low volumes).   

 

Sound of the Voodoo Lab Superfuzz

With the Resonance and Tone set to classic Buzztone positions and the attack at 12 o'clock the Superfuzz is a real sweet and creamy vintage-toned monster delivering controlled overdrive that cuts through for lead work without mushing out on full barre-chords. The controlled tightness stays with you as you increase the attack to get more sustain. Never does the Superfuzz go over the top or mush. Safe in the knowledge that the Voodoo Lab isn't clipping your tone you can advance the Volume control to overdrive your preamp and unleash whatever wildness your amp is capable of.

I loved everything that the Tone control did. The scoopy sound is a great big-hair-metal noise that gives your lead breaks that slightly-open-wah-wah-pedal feeling. Swizel it the other way and it adds bags of body to the sound for heavy blues expression.

The Resonance is a far more subtle creature. Turning it up above 12 o'clock starts to add a lush bottom end that just creeps closer as you keep winding. My favourite fat heavy rock sound came with Resonance at about 2 o'clock and both Tone and Attack at slightly past 12 o'clock.

Overall Impressions of the Voodoo Lab Superfuzz

Every setting on the Superfuzz yielded a credible, useable guitar sound. This is not always the case with fuzz pedals and the restraint this quality brings will make it more likely that you will sound good to your fellow band members and, more importantly, your audience. Fuzz pedals are generally quite simple affairs, the Voodoo Labs Superfuzz, although not complex, does deliver highly critical tone control within a sublimely useful sonic envelope. 

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