Among the most well-known vintage guitar pedals, the Shaftesbury Duo Fuzz has the distinction of being even more famous than its original branding. In 1967 the Japanese company Honey released two effects; the Crier Wah and the Baby Crying Fuzz. The following year a deal with the American company Unicord would lead to the very first OEM units that came from Honey; the Univox Super Fuzz and the LRE Super Fuzz. Shortly after a few more export contracts would be signed, Tempo (another branch of Unicord) and Crown would both get their very own Super Fuzz units, and by 1969 three more rebrandings of the effect would be on the market; the Apollo Deluxe Fuzz Tone Expander (US), the JH Experience Fuzz (Canada), and finally the Shaftesbury Duo Fuzz (UK).
Another thing that we know for sure is all of the original Shaftesbury products were imported from Japan. Ironically, this included a set of Rickenbacker knock-offs, which was funny because Rose-Morris was also a distributer for the actual Rickenbacker. lol
The top image above shows the front of the exact pedal you just saw a second ago. And if you don't immediately see how they did it, I'll just come out and tell you; they made the logo badge BIGGER than the indented area!
And it's precisely the Duo Fuzz that we're going to focus on today; partially because it's the longest running Super Fuzz ever made, and also because much of the current information out there is a bit... outdated.
So let's see what we can uncover about this savage British beast.
The Shaftesbury brand was born out of Rose-Morris, a longtime UK-based musical instrument distribution company. In 1967 they began opening showrooms in London to highlight their most popular brands; Marshall, Gibson, and Eko, among others. With the added dimension of a physical retail space they could begin to compete on a different level, and decided to create their own low-cost house brand, "Shaftesbury" (named after the street location of their flagship showroom).
Most online searches will return a date of "1968" as the inception of the brand, but as of now I have not been able to find any evidence of this. Rose-Morris ran advertisements in magazines like Beat Instrumental and Melody Maker pretty consistently from 1967 through to the early 80s, yet there was no mention of the Shaftesbury brand until the middle of 1969. So while we can't say for sure it was either year, it's still worth mentioning regardless.
The above catalog is consistently attributed to 1968, but there are no date marks on any of the pages, nor have I been able to find any of the products listed elsewhere prior to 1969. So my best guess is that this catalog simply came out a little later than we've always thought.
Another common piece of information that often gets passed around is that Pete Townshend played a Shaftesbury Duo Fuzz at the legendary Rolling Stones "Rock and Roll Circus" in December of 1968. I suppose this could be possible, but again, I have so far found zero evidence to corroborate the claim. I've watched the Who's performance multiple times, but they never even pan down to Pete's feet, let alone show the pedal he's using. I've also found two separate photos of his setup but unfortunately you can't see ANY pedals in either image. So I have no idea?
Could it be a Duo Fuzz, no fuzz at all, or is it maybe an early grey Univox Super Fuzz perchance? For now we'll have to leave that one up to debate, at least until someone finds solid photos from that night showing exactly what he did use.
So what do we know?
Well in June of 1969 Beat Instrumental magazine ran the earliest known ad for the Shaftesbury pedal line (*see above), and it prominently featured not the Duo Fuzz, but it's crazy sister effect, the Squall Pedal.
The Squall was another rebranded Honey invention, the Super Effect, which had just been released some time in 1968 (for a full history check out this article here). It was rather odd, as it functioned more like a sound effect machine than a stompbox. But maybe this novelty is exactly why it got top-billing over the Duo Fuzz in these early ads?
Both pedals were highlighted throughout the rest of 1969, showing up in Melody Maker, BI, and by early 1970 they even appeared alongside fellow Rose-Morris distributed items, like the Marshall Supa Fuzz, in the annual Henry's Radio Ltd. catalog. (*see below)
Rose-Morris were also the main UK distributor for Arai/Aria guitars at the time, which means they did have an established connection to the Japanese market prior to launching their own brand. But beyond this it has yet to be proven that Aria had anything to do with either their guitar or effects dealings.
So where/how did Rose-Morris come to partner with Honey (or whoever was manufacturing their pedals at the time)? The initial brands to do a similar OEM deal were all from the US, and were all associated with Unicord/Merson: Univox, LRE, and Tempo. This was followed quickly by the brand Crown, who themselves were already doing business with Japan, importing guitars affixed with their logo from Matsumoko. To me, this really only leaves two options for the Shaftesbury line; One is that Rose-Morris used their connection with Unicord/Merson that was established through Marshall. The other, is that there was possibly a third-party supplier that made package deals (if your brand wanted to import gear from Japan, instead of doing business directly with those manufacturers you got a pamphlet and simply circled what you wanted; guitars, amps, mics, effects, etc. Then the orders would be put through to the proper factories).
Everything I have seen in my research points to the 2nd option above as being the most common at the time. But I am still waiting to find the smoking gun in the form of an original Japanese supplier catalog...
For this specific case however, there was a legitimate and well documented connection between Rose-Morris and Unicord/Merson pre-Shaftesbury. Take the images above for instance.
These come from the June and July issues of Music Trades magazine (1968). They describe the NAMM convention that year, and the so-called "Britsh exhibit". There is mention of the already existing Marshall/Unicord deal (I have found mention of this as early as January 1968). The short article also discusses Rose-Morris' involvement, and even states that the exhibit is theirs (which I assume displayed all of the brands they represented?). But while they go on to describe the Rose-Morris house brand "R-M", with both their line of drums and and even a new pedal steel guitar, there is no mention at all of the Shaftesbury brand (which most likely did not exist yet).
This is all to say that the evidence might not be anywhere close to conclusive, but I think it's at least a 40% chance that the relationship between Rose-Morris and Unicord led (at least partially) to the creation of the Shaftesbury brand. But again, that is only a guess at this point!
One final bit on dating the earliest Duo Fuzzes; as we said above unfortunately there isn't clear enough photos or video from the Rock & Roll Circus performance to say that Pete Townshend used one that night. So what is the earliest evidence, and how good is it?
In 1969 the UK band Soft Machine released their album "The Soft Machine Volume 2". Fuzzy guitar tones are prominently featured throughout the album, mostly coming from the bassist Hugh Hopper. Since this time Hopper has been seen (and quoted as saying that he) used a Shaftesbury Duo Fuzz, and if you listen to the track above, it's very clearly a Super Fuzz circuit. According to what I've read the album was recorded between February and March of 1969. So if that is accurate, and if we WAS using a Duo Fuzz, then this would be the earliest known evidence currently out there.
Right now, if I had to put money on it, I would say my very best guess for the release of the Shaftesbury Duo Fuzz is somewhere between December 1968 - Spring 1969.
But how can you tell if you have one of those early, Honey-era Duo Fuzzes?
The unit you see above is an early one, most likely from 1969. And it has all the hallmarks of its fellow Honey-era brethren; the On/Off Expander pot, the small "Made in Japan" sticker on the back, and even the paint/rust patterns are consistent with other Honey Super Fuzzes.
I don't have photos of the inside, but I can guarantee that you would clearly see the on/off pot and one of three known Honey PCB's, along with the letters "HF" printed on the trace side.
But one thing that distinguished the Duo Fuzz from all other variants was that logo badge. It's the only one that leans to the left instead of the right. And it's precisely this distinction that allows us to easily, and quickly, determine if we're holding a Honey Duo Fuzz from the '60s, or a Shin-ei Duo Fuzz from the '70s.
In 1970, after Honey had gone out of business, Shin-ei began to manufacture their own version of the Super Fuzz, which they called the "FY-6". And one of the first things they did differently was to create an embossed enclosure, with an indented area for the logo badge to sit. (*see the example above)
These were made this way from 1970 - 1972. And if you're still unsure from looking at the outside, once you take a peak under the hood you will notice a clear spot that has been machine-pressed into the sheet metal. The unit directly above is a Duo Fuzz from February of 1972, and you can easily see that it too features the embossing.
But if you remember to a minute ago when we were discussing the unique left-leaning logo that Shaftesbury used, then maybe you're already questioning how they were able to stick there badge inside a space that's clearly made for a right-leaning one. And you would be very correct in wondering how they did it... And luckily for us, the solution is one of the main factors that separates a "late 60s" Duo Fuzz from a 1970s unit.
That's it!
That's how Shaftesbury was able to keep their unique look even though another manufacturer took over the project and changed the build-style on them. And honestly, it's a rather elegant solution to what could have otherwise been an embarrassing and janky rollout (hence the other image above that shows what happened when the Canadian brand, JH Experience, made the same journey from Honey to Shin-ei.)
Toward the middle of 1972 Shin-ei would abandon the embossed faceplate idea and go back to a flat one. And while I have yet to find an example, I would bet that for a while at least, the remaining indented enclosures became Duo Fuzzes... But again, this is totally a guess as of now. Either way, the logo badges stayed large throughout the rest of the run, and remain a recognizable calling card of the 70's/Shin-ei builds.
But actually, there's even one more distinction we haven't mentioned yet:
"Spot the Difference" was (and still is) one of my favorite games as a kid. I honestly think the hours I spent staring at the backs of Highlights magazine as an 8yr old prepared me for the years I've now spent staring at photos of guitar pedals. lol
Take a look above. At first you probably notice that the text on the bottom badge is a bit more fine and detailed than that one above it. You may also notice that it doesn't look quite as squished in its border either. But did you also notice the words "Rose-Morris"? The top badge comes from a Honey-era Duo Fuzz, while the bottom one obvioulsy comes from a Shin-ei pedal. Either through mistake or neglect, the Honey badges failed to add the hyphen between "Rose" and "Morris". But a year later this was fixed by Shin-ei to more accurately reflect the true RM logo.
So if you're ever having a hard time figuring out if the badge is larger than normal, and can't see if it has an on/off Expander pot, then feel confident you can always fall back on the old "Rose Morris" vs. "Rose-Morris" trick.
Another way you can tell what year your Duo Fuzz was made is by looking at the foot switch. Just like we discussed back in this post about dating Shin-ei pedals, from Jan-May of 1973 they introduced a new footswitch that featured the brand name "Companion" (*see the top image). Then they followed that up with the now classic "Shin-ei"-labeled footswitch, around the middle of 1973. So if all I know about the two pedals above is what I see, I know for sure that the top one was made in 1973, and the bottom one is no older than 1973 (and now you too know this super nerdy detail :)
The "Shin-ei" footswitches lasted throughout their run as a brand, around 1979, but I have yet to find a Duo Fuzz dated any later than December 1975. And if I am not mistaken, that would make them the longest running OEM branded Super Fuzzes ever made. So in addition to the variances we've discussed here, there are definitely other things that changed over time, like transistors, caps, switches, and jacks. Also, the 1975 units reflect the same change that the other brandings went through, with a new PCB, wiring style, and updated component selection.
The history of the Shaftesbury Duo Fuzz is both insignificant (as it's just one of many re-branded OEM Super Fuzzes), and also quite significant (as it was used by guitar legends like Pete Townshend and Steve Hackett). Being the only true UK-based import of the circuit, and being tied directly to one of the largest distros in England, it competed right up against giants like Sola Sound, Dallas/Arbiter, and Marshall. And because of its totally unique circuit, the Duo Fuzz stood out to anyone who wanted a little extra GNAR from their guitar tone.
In production for approximately seven years, and sold for possibly longer, the story can now be retold about this badass pedal. The Duo Fuzz is solidly a stompbox from the '70s, just as Nirvana is a band from the '90s. So if you take nothing else away from this, I hope at least you remember that much! Maybe some of this was helpful, and maybe you even found a few new pieces of info that you didn't already have. Either way the Duo Fuzz will remain an important part of fuzz history, and there's a reason why it's still one of the first vintage stompboxes most people learn about.
Thanks for reading, and as always if you have any additional info on Shaftesbury, Rose-Morris, or anything that's at all related, please feel free to comment below or send me a message via Email, Substack, or Instagram.
-ed
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