Garen Fuzz - Chambre De Distorsion (1969)

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By the late 1960s the sound of gritty primitive fuzz had fully captured the French youth. In addition to music trends coming out of the US and UK, new Garage Rock and Blues Rock bands were popping up in France all the time (highlighted well in this recent video by Yesterday's Papers). Many of these bands were using pedals made outside the country or homemade one-offs by local solder jockeys, but we also know of at least two truly French fuzz pedals made during this time; the somewhat mysterious Baby Fuzz (we highlighted years ago in THIS POST), and the Garen "Chambre De Distorsion".

Garen Electronic Music Instruments MFG. was mostly known as an amplifier brand, based in Paris and started by Jean Guen around 1958. And I would go into more depth about their history, but it's so well laid out in this website run by Guen's own grandson, that I highly recommend going through all of their awesome photos and detailed info if you really want to go extra deep. But to skip ahead for the sake of this post; with the rise in popularity of Rock & Roll in France, Garen decided it was time to capitalize on the moment with a new line of amps and their own take on both reverb units and the new 'hip' fuzz sound sweeping the nation.

So in 1966 the Garen Distortion was born! Coming in a super sleek, polished chrome wedge enclosure with a cool 3-way tone switch, it stood out among the onslaught of foreign fuzz pedals invading Europe during the 60s. With an unexpectedly simple design, based more on basic transistor theory than on any specific fuzz pedal, the Garen Distortion was something unique that proud French players could call their own. 

Built like a tank with the engineering precision of a NASA rocket, it also stood wayyyyyy out in terms of quality for the 1960s. Everything from the wiring to the battery door was constructed with an attention to detail rarely seen in the vintage effects world.

It might not translate over photos just how well these are made, but trust me! These things are solid, and ready to last another 50+ years.

The circuit itself runs off three germanium transistors, and while the majority used are unlabeled, at least one unit has surfaced with AC182's.

And like we said a second ago, it doesn't appear to borrow directly from any other fuzz at the time. The basic design has instead been described as three cascading gain stages followed by a selectable filter (you do see a similar circuit concept in the elusive Liverpool Fuzz, but a connection between the two is impossibly unlikely).

The selectable filter is really unique though, and offers quite a range of tones. The first setting gives a nice fat, but still hairy 60s style fuzz. The middle position actually boosts the midrange, giving you a more focused but again, still fairly aggressive fuzz tone. And the final setting is the closest to that classic crispy icepick FZ-1A tone we all love but with a bit more gain on tap.

I can't think of many other contemporary fuzzes that had filter/tone sections quite like this, except maybe the GM Fuzz Up FD3 and obviously the Honey Baby Crying Fuzz (and all its offshoots). Otherwise it was a pretty novel way to dial in your tone at the time. 

While these are fairly rare outside of France, they aren't impossible to find. That being said, for a long time I was under the impression that the Garen Distortion was only available during 1969. I had seen three different units by this point, all hand-dated to 1969 (including the one I now own), plus the 1969 catalog from earlier in this post. 

But then a "1966" labeled pedal surfaced, an undated unit with "67" codes on the capacitors was next, and finally a really odd unit with a serial number on the back that could possibly indicate it was made in 1970! So I can't say with 100% certainty that they were originally released in 1966 and made through 1970, but as of now that's my best guess.

photo by: Rafmax

The Garen Distortion is definitely more of a fuzz, and soundwise I would put it comfortably in the Maestro FZ-1 family. That being said, it offers a lot more gain than an FZ-1, and maybe lies a little closer to the Tone Bender end of this imaginary spectrum.

Luckily for us though, we don't have to worry too much about getting the adjectives right because our friend Rafmax made a demo of my 1969 unit back in 2014. Check it out below!

Even though most of the pedals we write about here are steeped in mystery, the Garen fuzz has been pleasantly easy to research (and I greatly appreciate that!). So although we still don't know exactly how long they were being made, how many were made, and if they actually appear on any of those 60s French fuzz records, I can appreciate that we're much further along than we typically are by then end of these posts.

So I hope you have enjoyed this one! And if you happen to own a Garen "Chambre de Distorsion", I would love to know what date is on yours, and if you could send a photo of it, that would be even more awesome! :) Please feel free to reach out via Email or Instagram, and I hope you have an awesome week.



Thanks for reading,

-ed