Guyatone FS-3 - The Other Super Fuzz

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If you're tied into the vintage Japanese pedal market whatsoever, you may already know that the Guyatone FS-3 Fuzz is one of the most sought-after effects in the scene. It's famous among nerds for being extremely rare and sounding particularly awesome/gnarly. 

But what's the story with it? And what's going on inside that familiar looking enclosure?

A good internet scouring on the Guyatone FS-3 will typically find you little, and what you will find theorizes that it's possibly from the late 60s, and has some relation to another classic Japanese fuzz...

So the first myth we can work on is the "late 60s" part. It's funny, I've noticed specifically with vintage Japanse pedals, the default guess is that they were made "sometime in the late 60s". And while that's obviously true for some of them, the vast majority were actually made in the 1970s.

We did a whole video on the history of the Companion FY-2 a while back, where we discovered it actually hadn't been released until 1970, even though it's often considered to be one of the classic 60s fuzzes. And in that same video we briefly discussed the history of its big brother, the FY-6 Fuzz Master; another one thought to have been from the "late 60s", when in reality the Companion/Shin-ei version hadn't been released until 1970 as well.

So what about the Guyatone FS-3?

There are luckily an abundance of old Guyatone catalogs online, which have definitely helped me in my quest for supreme pedal knowledge! But there are a few glaring misses too, so I'll try to put it all together the best I can.

Above you see a 1973 Guyatone catalog that features three effects; the FS-4 Wah-Wah, the FS-5 Wah-Fuzz, and the FS-3 Fuzz. The next earliest catalog I have is from 1969, where they introduced the FS-2 Buzz Box. So we can probably guesstimate that the FS-3 was released some time between 1970 and 1973.

*Update: while I was working on this post, my good friend Marcelo hooked me up with the missing 1972 catalog! And inside we see basically the same pedal lineup from 1973. 

After taking into account that the pedal was available for at least a year and a half, it's surprising just how rare it is to come across one. Scanning through the 1971 catalog, it shows that they were still selling the FS-2 Buzz Box, and then in the 1974 catalog the FS-3 was replaced by the new, Big Muff inspired, FS-6 Fuzz Sustainer.

So while we lack some of the better hard evidence, like magazine ads, Guyatone really hooked us up by publishing accurate catalogs that pictured their available gear in proper chronological order.

Alright, so that part was fairly easy, but what about the enclosure? At first glance it probably reminds you of the Univox Uni-Fuzz. And that would make sense because they're exactly the same shape. There is a significant difference in size though, so it might not be related, or could simply be a generic enclosure.

But there is a better suspect; the Honey Special Fuzz. The Special Fuzz came out in 1968 and was made for probably less than a year, as Honey went out of business in 1969. And while Shin-ei continued to build the Honey Baby Crying Fuzz (as the FY-6 Fuzz Master), they did not continue with the extremely unique Special Fuzz.

So what happens when we compare the two pedals? I apologize for the awkward angle of the above FS-3 photo, it's not quite that long. So when we take that into account, the enclosures look pretty close, even using the same style of graphics badge! Obviously one has been pressed/drilled out differently for switches, pots, and jacks, but many of the other details seem to check out.

Luckily for us, at least one person has already made this comparison in real life, and did so in a photo essay of sorts, on the legendary Cult pedals blog; Check it out HERE.

I reached out to him to confirm the sizing, and he said that while they are close, the Special Fuzz was notably wider and shorter than the FS-3. Which is odd because with all things considered, I would have expected the enclosures to be exactly the same size. I say this because of what we find when we look INSIDE the Guyatone...

photo by: Cult Pedals Blog

So after looking at the all-important gut shots above we see some things that tell an entirely unexpected story, and simultaneously spawn a whole new crop of questions. The component-side of the board shows the exact layout you see on many of the pre Shin-ei Super Fuzzes (Honey, Univox, LRE, etc). And while that is a bit weird to see in a Guyatone pedal, there were others from this era, like the Royal Fuzz Box, that also copied the Super Fuzz PCB layout, so it's not unheard-of. But when we take a look at the bottom of the board, we see that it is in fact an original Honey-labeled PCB! 

So what the hell is going on here???

Through my long obsessive searches online I have found at least two other examples of "Super Fuzz" style pedals that use the Honey PCB, but were otherwise completely different when it came to the components used. And knowing the FS-3 didn't come out until 1972 (at least 3 years after Honey went out of business) the only conclusion that makes sense to me, is that old parts stock was sold off at some point, and these brands (including Guyatone) purchased it and released as many pedals as they could make out of them.

I don't think it's a coincidence that both the enclosure and the circuit board are Honey related. And while I write this, another possible version of the story just came to me. It could also be that a currently unknown third-party was responsible for building the Honey pedals. And while Honey itself went out of business, this particular manufacturer did not. It's also possible then, that Guyatone (and these other brands) contracted this company to build a new fuzz pedal, and they simply used parts they had left over from the Honey days?

Obviously this is just me speculating out loud, trying to make sense of it all, but I do find it interesting that apparently a handful of seemingly unrelated brands somehow acquired these PCB's (and who knows what other parts?) and made their own version of the Super Fuzz. It's also kind of funny to know that the legendary, extremely rare and sought-after Guyatone FS-3 is basically a Univox Super Fuzz with different components inside (not to diminish how awesome it is or anything. trust me, I still want one ;)

Guyatone's entire pedal history is still quite hazy to me. I have never been able to confirm that they built any of their pedals in-house (60s-70s). Each one is a bit different, construction-wise, and looking back at the 1972 catalog, right next to the FS-3 we also see two pedals confirmed to have been made by Maxon (what Guyatone has called the "FS-4 Wah-Wah" and the "FS-5 Wah-Fuzz").

Well we definitely know that this was a business practice they followed (it was also how the vast majority of Japanese guitar brands functioned at the time). And while we don't know the builder of the FS-3, or the FS-2, or the FS-1, or even the FS-6 actually, the most confusing part is figuring out if each of them was built by the same manufacturer or not. I truly have no idea.

When it comes to the sound of the Guyatone FS-3, it's been described as a beefier version of the Super Fuzz; with a bigger low end, more pronounced upper octave, and it's just a bit more gated than its cousins.

There are a few demos online, but most of them really don't do it justice. The one that is pretty good, and what I usually send to people when they ask about the FS-3, is this classic banger by Effeken//

So the background of the FS-3 isn't quite as cut-and-dry as we would hope (and just expect from vintage Japanese pedals at this point), but we at least have more to go off of than usual. It's also kind of relieving to know that even though the last one sold for over $4K, at its heart, the Guyatone FS-3 is a Super Fuzz. A very cool, and rare Super Fuzz... but a Super Fuzz nonetheless. :)

If you happen to have any additional information we missed here, or happen to have an FS-3 yourself, I would love to hear from you. Send me a message via Email or Instagram. 

thanks for reading,

-ed

Ideal Fuzz Master - A Mystery Solved!

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In 2023, after rediscovering some old photos buried deep in the recesses of an ancient portable hard drive, I decided to feature one of those photos right here on the blog. Pictured was a mysterious wedge-shaped pedal simply called the "Fuzz Master". I didn't have much to go off of because the image was insanely small and pixelated, but what I could see was that it had labels for "Attack" and "Volume" on the front, probably had knobs on either side, and that those knobs were very similar to ones used on other Japanese wedge fuzzes built in the late 60s.

Unfortunately there was no brand label (that I could see at least), and while it did share many characteristics of those classic Japanese wedge fuzzes, it was different enough that I couldn't confirm exactly what it was. So I made the post and waited, hoping someone who knew something would eventually come across it and message me...

Well two years later, and sadly, not one email. 

But! Just a few minutes ago, while looking for photos of a completely different pedal, I came across a long-finished auction on a Japanese site for an Ace Tone FM-1, and in the background was my mystery Fuzz Master! The photo was very blurry, but luckily, right there in the description was the name of the hidden gem: the IDEAL "Fuzz Master".

So obviously my very next step was to search online to see if I could find anything else about this pedal, and sitting right there for over a decade was an entry for the Ideal Fuzz Master in Effects Database!

I reached out to Bart, who runs the site, and he was able to track down the origin of the photos to an ebay auction from all the way back in 2012. But other than that, it doesn't look like any other Fuzz Masters have popped up since.

Something of note to point out, is if you compare the images above, three differences emerge from the pixelation; the bottom pedal has no brand label on it (which we even see in many of the classic Sekova wedge fuzzes), the Ideal pedal has two hardwired cables for both input and output, while the other pedal seems to have been modded at some point with jacks on the sides (I say this because it still has the graphics at the top for "Guitar" and "Amplifier"), and one pedal seems to have a rivet on the front plate, most likely for the battery holder (but again this could easily be a modification done some time after it was built). 

Well upon further inspection of all the Ideal photos I discovered that the build did indeed match what was inside the FZ-1A version of the Sekova Fuzz. Same PCB, same components, same bottom plate and more. 

So there's a pretty good chance these were made by the same people. One thing I still haven't been able to determine is if the FZ-1A style of Sekova fuzz was built by the same manufacturer who built the more Fuzzrite(ish) 9v version. Regardless, there's enough similarities between these two, and the odd one we highlighted in this article a couple of months ago, to say they all (probably) came from the same factory.

No doubt this "Fuzz Master" was another OEM situation, and probably exists under a few different brandings (hence the unbranded version I found photos of back in 2003). But to get a little closer to its history we still have to answer the question; who was Ideal? 

After a tiny bit of research it looks like they were manufacturing guitars as early as the 1930s and based in New York City. Not only that, but by the mid 30s they were either a division of, or distributed by Epiphone. (there was also a completely different "Ideal" guitar manufacturer from Chicago, but I have ruled them out)

At some point in the 50s it looks like they existed in name only, and instead had begun importing guitars from Japan. Some online sites state that they were made by Guyatone while others have stated it was Matsumoku. It's very possible both of these are true, but after looking over photos of more Ideal guitars, from what I believe to be the mid-late 60s, it seems very likely that this era at least was made by Matsumoku, as they appear to be identical in style to some others they were known to have manufactured at the time.

Now while I was able to find a lot of examples of Ideal branded guitars, there was little to no information beyond those photos. But what we do have is a thread that seems to run through many of the Sekova fuzzes and guitars, including the other brandings (Apollo, Greco, Tele-Star, etc.), and that connection is the infamous see-through knobs!

I do have a bit more research to do before I can confirm this, but as of now it does seem like three important details were true when it comes to unraveling this story; 

1. A lot of Matsumoku guitars from 1967-1969 seem to use these knobs.

2. Matsumoku also used Nisshin Onpa (Maxon) pickups in many (if not all) of those same guitars.

3. Of those guitars, a certain number of these brands also had Sekova style wedge fuzzes in their catalogs.

My working theory, and I know it's a bit flimsy, is that either Matsumoku, or Teisco, or Fujigen (or one of the other big Japanese guitar factories of the 60s)  had clients reaching out to them, most likely though a distributor, wanting a fuzz box for their brand (because it was 1967 and fuzz was HOT!). So the distributor asked these manufacturers to build fuzz boxes for the clients, and in turn they contacted a third-party (possibly a company like Maxon/Nisshin Onpa) who were adept at electronics and circuit design, to see if they would be up to the task. And the rest, is history! :) 

Again, totally and completely a guess, based on the info I currently have. But it's also totally plausible that it could have happened like this. So as of now, who knows?

At least we do know one thing, whoever built these pedals made multiple variations and they were built specifically for OEM contracts with mostly foreign distribution. Almost all of the brand logos you find on these wedge style pedals can be traced to an imported Japanese guitar made under the same branding. So if it didn't happen exactly like how I have speculated above, then I feel like it was some sort of package deal; 

"Buy a guitar from us, and for an extra $3 we will make you a fuzz pedal with your logo on it!" 

or something like that...

It's possible these companies, like Sekova, Greco, and Apollo, didn't even know who was involved in building their pedals. Apollo is actually a great example because by 1970 they had sold effects made by Honey, Shin-ei, Maxon, and (possibly) Melos. 

So there's a good chance that their Japan distributor simply handed them an order form full of effects to choose from, they checked some boxes, paid their dealer, and couple months later an order of guitars, accessories, and effects arrived via cargo ship?

 

However this all went down, finding the Ideal Fuzz Master does show how prevalent the mystery wedge fuzz maker really was. I do find it interesting that the odd variations we've found over the last year have all been different takes on the eyelet board/FZ-1A version of the pedal, as opposed to the 9v version.

So are we seeing an evolution of the pedal in chronological order, or were these all being made at the same time in a purely chaotic fashion? Whatever the answer, hopefully as we continue to go deeper we'll get closer to the truth. 

And with that, we'll end as we usually do... If you happen to own one of these "Fuzz Masters" please feel free to reach out via Email or Instagram. Additionally, if you know how these brands made their orders back in the 60s, I would love to hear all about it! 

Thanks for reading,

-ed