their fuzz in the most unnecessarily huge
enclosure—the Project V measures at more
than a foot long. For those that crave the
Project V sound without the hunt or
ridiculous enclosure, Ghost Effects sells a
pedal called the Warmjet V that may tickle
your fancy.
SCHUMANN ELECTRONICS TWO FACE
Like the Moonrock, the Two Face Fuzz isn’t
exactly vintage, but Schumann Electronics is
nearly banished to obscurity at this point
outside of its flagship wacko-modulator PLL.
In fact, Schumann Electronics made three
other pedals other than the PLL and Two
Face Fuzz—the Lion, Lion X and F Loop.
None have matched the legacy of the PLL,
but they are just as rare, if not more so. All
Schumann designs are original, and all of
them are somewhat complicated. The Two
Face Fuzz is a monster; it uses four
germanium transistors and five ICs and it’s a
fire-breathing beast even at its lowest gain
settings. There’s nothing subtle about the
Two Face Fuzz and this extends to its build
quality—but that’s more of a Schumann
trademark than a choice. The man behind
the designs would regularly build his units
with “booby trap” circuits to scare away
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TONE TALK //
would-be cloners. It worked—for a while.
Nobody yet has cloned the Two Face Fuzz
en masse, but it’s certainly ready.
CONRAD BUZZ BOX AND VOLUME
EXPANDER
Also sold as the UMI Buzz Tone and Volume
Expander, the Conrad BBVE features a dual
transistor design. Both are silicon, but the
pedal sounds closest to a Fuzzrite or a
Maestro Fuzz Tone. As those effects are allgermanium, they are a bit smoother than the
BBVE. As it stands, the BBVE is a garagerock machine that puts the rawness of the
Fuzzrite to shame. The transistors are lowgain, for extra raspiness, but the input
capacitor is pretty hefty whereas the output
capacitor is pretty tiny. As a result the BBVE
is almost like a dual-layered fuzz; there is a
raucous buzz to it, and the tone is sort of
lopsided, if that makes any sense. The
second gain stage features asymmetrical
clipping by using a germanium clipping
arrangement, which only adds to the
jaggedness. This is another box that’s in
desperate need of a reboot, but who will be
the brave soul that dare attempt it?
9 Old Bizarre Fuzz Boxes You Never Knew Existed