60s Fuzz Face production numbers?

[59junior]

I did a search for this and nothing really came up… does anyone have a wild guess about Arbiters Fuzz Face production numbers in the early years (let’s say pre-1970)? Were fuzz faces somewhat available in stores in North America or mostly just in the UK? If anyone has any insight I’d love to hear it. Thanks.

[Nick]

I'm not aware of any concrete data about production numbers that has been found. If it was ever logged at all, then it's probably been lost to time. Based on how frequently they come up for sale nowadays, however, it would appear that the 1960s Fuzz Faces are more common than any other of the other British fuzz boxes from the time.

(Pre-Dallas) Arbiters were definitely being sold in the States. There's a big dealer's advert in the Music Trades periodical, which is supposedly as early as 1966, but I've yet to gain access to this in order to verify it. Couple of late 1960s Fuzz Face adverts printed in the States as well, and while it's never a direct piece of evidence, the fact that Arbiter Fuzz Faces come up for sale pretty often in the States strongly indicates that that's where they've been hiding for 50+ years.

Arbiter was selling them on the European market as well. There's a Dutch advert with the picture of the weird enclosure/graphics Fuzz Face, which was supposedly printed in 1966, but I haven't found the source yet. Arbiters resurface often enough in Sweden to suggest that they were being sold there as well — one of mine came from Sweden, and it even has a funky Arbiter "export only" sticker underneath.



I've seen two others with this sticker underneath, and they both surfaced in the States. Interestingly, while the sample size is pretty small, I've noticed that all of these 'export only' Fuzz Faces came with the Sato 'dial' knobs & Bulgin 'wafer' switch, rather than the more commonly seen 'top hat' knobs/moulded switch.

[ombudsman]

I recently read something about the history of either Manny's or Sam Ash that said they were a dealer/importer of fuzz faces in the late 60s. I'll see if I can find it again.

[59junior]

Thanks so much for all the info Nick!

[ombudsman]

https://www.samash.com/spotlight/pedal- ... r-effects/

There aren't any specifics but this is the article I mentioned, says they were the first US dealer.