The Drag'n'Fly is a high quality "hybrid" fuzz box that utilizes both germanium and silicon transistors to create its ferociously vintage output. The advantage of this means you have the rich sweet organic texture of the germanium and the massive high gain bite of the silicon. The circuit design is a supercharged, highly tuned derivative of the Legendary "Arbiter Fuzz Face" with some elements of the mighty " Vox Tone Bender" dialed in to help create a truly unique sounding fuzz box that has sonic capabilities like no other.

Both the Fuzz Face and the Tone Bender can sound amazing but both units have drawbacks in one way or another. They both sound pretty bad when used with "Vox" or "Crybaby" style Wah pedals, when the Wah is placed before the fuzz the impedances don't match so the Wah either does not function correctly or will produce a strange howling sound. The transistors in these vintage units are usually mismatched or not correctly biased so the fuzz produced can sound constricted, very faint and lack over all output volume. Also as both units are now very sort after by collectors it's not uncommon to pay £300-£400+ for an original "Arbiter Fuzz Face" so are a little out of reach for most musician's. Well you've guessed it here comes the "Drag'n'fly" and its numerous advantages. 1. Has a passive tone "Filter" control so it sounds bold and rich on both single coil and Humbucker pick-ups and always has good clarity and dynamic response 2. Features internal "input impedance" correction, so that the input gain is perfectly set up so it works with all Wah pedal types. 3. Uses negative ground unlike the originals, so it can be used with a standard multi plug power supply. 4. Has an internal "bias" correction so that the high quality gain selected transistors are correctly set up and produce a bold, clear dynamic tone with a large amount of sustain. 5. Is built with low noise circuitry using high grade mylar capacitors,metal film resistors an a military grade germanium transistor so it does not amplify hiss. 6. Has a very reasonable price tag so you don't have to sell your soul to Satan to own one!

The Word... A new feature we are starting to add to the site are little snippets and reviews of our pedals written by the good folk who use them. This gives you fuzz lusting guys n gals out there a broader description of each pedal and not just a basic run down of the functions and controls from ourselves. "Well when I first plugged it in, I thought something was amiss. I had to nearly crank up the output level and the gain to reach unity. Plus I was in bedroom wanker mode, at home, not much volume happening at the amp. The drive tone was UNGODLY, but what about the overall volume? An email to David Main (and a swift kick in the pants) and I was thankfully corrected. Rather than paraphrase, here's a quote from an email sent by Lord Main: Yeah the Fly has that old school vibe so unity at full bore is the norm. It's the same deal with the old Vox and Arbiter fuzz boxes though the Fly does have a touch more output than both of those. It's not as full on say as a Fulltone unit or anything else with a more modern flavour. I really had to tweak hard to keep that vintage character in the Fly and pushing the output up added to much bass which in turn adds that awful mushy bass sag that some fuzz face variants have. It also gives it a little more flexibility with a booster and use with a fully overloaded tube amp. Any how, it's a workin' just fine : ) good rule of thumb with any true fuzz face variant is to start at full volume and then back if off if you need. Way cool! Fuzz Face for Dummies! So onto reharsal with some good volume happening (tho' not overbearing). Rig: Drag'n'Fly at the front, going thru my pedalboard of various effects, some buffered, some true-bypass. Into my Vox AC15 loaded w/one Celestion Blue. Oh lord, this thing is just unbelievable! The crunch is hands down just the fattest, sweetest, richest thing I've ever heard out of a Fuzzface type of circuit. The pedal is so typically big-bottomed and corpulent like you'd expect out of a FF type, but the top-end is so clear and sweet, not like any FF circuit I've heard to date. Probably a built-in result of the hybrid Ge/Si circuit. The Drag'n'Fly mixed in with all my overdrive pedals too (TBIAC and a Dual Drive) w/o missing a beat. None of that "man, this fuzz is cool but it doesn't blend so well" thing happenin'. It was also real stable and thus, not too fussy over the 8 or 9 effects that followed it in my chain.... NICE! What adds to the appeal and compatibility of the Drag'n'Fly is that it has this wonderfully voiced 'Filter' knob, which is a passive low-end rolloff (or high-pass filter) that lets you dial out the bass as you turn it clockwise, tuning it perfectly to your amp/gtr/rig. Like if you're using a 4x12 cab, you're gonna be able to reproduce more of that deep bass and having the 'Filter' fully counter-clockwise you get all the ped's got to give. But in my case, playing a 1x12 combo, many FF circuits I've since parted with couldn't be effective with my amp since they were just too dark and muddy for my rig. Not so with the Drag'n'Fly! Also, having more volume at the amp, I realized that the pedal has a lot more range to the 'Attack' (drive) knob then I had previously thought. So it will work as an chunky 'woman-tone' type of overdrive too if you have the Attack backed down, and then there's still ample (tho' not tons -- as discussed earlier) volume to support the range. Then there's the clean-up factor. Very very cool, w/lots of shimmer coming back at you if you roll down the gtr. volume (like any GOOD FF should do). Also as per the "good FF," there are many shades available in the gtr's. volume travel. And while it doesn't get the "piezo-pickup" type of crystilline shimmer that I've gotten with a Ge-only FF, it does get very clean (like down to a spot-on rhythm tone or even a "direct" sound). But roll that gtr. volume back up and it's just huge again. Like you stepped on a pedal or switched amps, just so powerful. Oh, and it's super dynamic to the touch, at any level of gain. Hit it, "WHOMP," lay back, "brrrrring." Even writing about it I'm getting the giggles!" Paul "The Fuzz Yoda" DiBenedetto