Rosac Nu-Fuzz - The Chaos of Order.

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The Nu-Fuzz holds a special place in pedal history for being the true successor of the legendary Fuzzrite. As the story goes, it was designed by Ed Sanner and originally intended for Mosrite as an updated version of their best/only stompbox. But when things began to get a little rocky in the Fall of 1968, Sanner decided to look for opportunities elsewhere.

Oddly enough a connection to the Sierra Bag Co. through Semie Moseley would be the perfect platform for Sanner to spread his perfectly soldered wings. Together with trumpet player Ralph Scaffidi, Sierra Electronics was born. Their first product was the Nu-Fuzz and it was released in the beginning of 1969. 

And even though that narrative has been consistent throughout the years, it's still a bit unclear exactly how and when it all happened. But with the help of some equally nerdy pedal friends, and after doing some heavy research of my own, I think we could potentially get a little closer to the full truth, and clear up (at least some of) the story of the Rosac Nu-Fuzz...

The first slice of new/concrete info I was able to find on the Nu-Fuzz is what appears to be its earliest mention in print, from February 26th 1969! But instead of being an ad for the Sierra Nu-Fuzz, it's actually an ad for what we believe to be an OEM partnership with Don Wehr's Music City in San Francisco.

The Wehr Fuzz-Tone was something of a modified version of the Sierra Nu-Fuzz (which you'll see in a minute). But otherwise, it was the same pedal but with the "Wehr" logo and branding.

And if introducing your new pedal company to the world immediately with a licensing deal sounds weird... I agree! But we'll try to tackle that a little later. For now, let's focus on this February start date. If it really is the true introduction of both Sierra Electronics and the Nu-Fuzz, then it's quite possible that the Wehr Fuzz-Tone is the very first version... 

But the "Sierra Electronics" labeled Nu-Fuzz, which has always been thought of as the initial Rosac product, most likely did come first. And in fact, I have found at least two examples of Sierra Nu-Fuzzes with a different style of knobs that are not found on any other Sierra/Rosac product. Also, if we take into account the circle graphic around the pots, it would seem very likely that the design was done specifically for these smaller knobs, as opposed to the typical skirted style you find on the vast majority of Nu-Fuzzes. This could possibly suggest that the pedals with these particular knobs were the very first units to roll off the production line (a theory I quite like); but it could also mean nothing. lol

The full history of Sierra/Rosac has been well documented in the past, due in large part to Bart from FXDB  (check it out). But as we stated above there are some updated and completely new pieces of the puzzle that have surfaced since 2009. 

So here's the quick abridged version before we really get in the weeds; in 1947 Ben Sacco and Morris Rosenberg started the Sierra Bag Company in Bakersfield, CA. With a few additional ventures already under the "Sierra" umbrella, they decided that they wanted to enter into the burgeoning electric guitar market (this was either in 1965 or 1968). It was then that "Sierra Electronics" was born; and while the details aren't quite clear, it's possible that there was even an early connection to fellow Bakersfield, CA instrument company, Mosrite; either through the fact that both companies were located only 3 miles from each other and their owners became friends, or deeper (yet unknown) business dealings.

 

New information from a former Rosac shop manager has revealed the possibilty that BEFORE making effects Sierra Electronics had originally focused on small solid state amps and guitars (but that has yet to be verified). And toward the end of 1968 Ed Sanner, designer of the Fuzzrite, was connected to Sierra owners Sacco and Rosenberg by a mutual friend, Ralph Scaffidi. Scaffidi and wife/legendary guitarist Mary Osborne had recently moved to Bakersfield from the East Coast and through a friendship with Semie Moseley became friends with Sacco. 

Sacco, who was head of the Bakersfield Italian Heritage Association, took a quick liking to Scaffidi. So when he and Sanner proposed adding effects pedals to Sierra's output and starting a new brand, Sacco was all in. The idea was to essentially fill the void that would be left in the wake of Mosrite's departure. This venture would take on the Sierra Electronics name, and as we noted earlier, their first product would be the Nu-Fuzz.

Well let's get back to the pedals themselves! One thing is for sure, since the very beginning they came in a variety of colors (Red, Gold, Green, and later, Silver), with the Sierra version coming in at least two different paint finishes, shiny and matte (although it's looking like only the very first Nu-Fuzzes produced used the matte paint).

The other thing we can say as fact, is the circuits in the first Nu-Fuzzes used silicon transistors and were constructed on eyelet boards covered in orange "goop". The Wehr Fuzz-Tone and the Sierra Nu-Fuzzes both featured this build-style.

*this is also a very similar construction to a pedal we highlighted on the blog a while back, the mysterious Pro Suzzzz Fuzzzz.

Another part of the Nu-Fuzz lore that you're most likely familiar with is that, according to Ed Sanner, some time in early 1969 Sierra Electronics was hit with a 'cease and desist' from fellow California-based Sierra Electronic Corp, out of Menlo Park.  

The resulting name-change is what you're probably most familiar with, "Rosac Electronics & MFG. Co.", taken from the combination of Rosenberg and Sacco, the owners of the company. (not unlike "Mosrite" that came from combining the names, Semie Moseley and Ray Boatright) 

Sanner has stated that it was only for a single month, but it is unclear precisely how long they were operating as Sierra Electronics. And of their full pedal lineup, only Nu-Fuzzes under that "Sierra" branding have ever surfaced (so far). This suggests that it was still fairly early on in 1969, as is evident from a newspaper ad I found from May of that year for a Nu-Wa, which potentially confirms that the Sierra name only lasted one or two months. And this could also be the reason we can't find anything in print regarding the name "Sierra Electronics".

Toward the middle of 1968 Mosrite decided to contract out the manufacturing of the Fuzzrite circuit to Massachusetts-based Sprague Electric. This was an agreement that seems to have been picked up by Sierra/Rosac and was used for their fuzz, wah, and even amp circuits. But in a funny turn of events, it would appear as though the first order for the circuit modules was made while the company was still called "Sierra Electronics" and unfortunately wasn't fulfilled until well after the name-change to Rosac, and even more unfortunate, it must have been a MASSIVE order.

So the first version of the "Rosac" branded Nu-Fuzz featured the "Sierra Electronics" Sprague modules, as did the Nu-Wa Fuzz and the Distortion Blender. All three were available by November of 1969, as is evident by this newspaper ad from the Santa Fe New Mexican:

I can only imagine that when it came to the Sprague modules they had bins of them at the manufacturing facility, all mixed together with both "Sierra" and "Rosac" labeled circuits. I say this because they appear almost at random throughout the rest of the Nu-Fuzz run (and inside the Distortion Blenders and Nu-Wa Fuzzes).

So from here on out things get weird, and the timeline just seems to dissolve into space dust...

With that in mind, the main point to focus on will be the graphics. For this version of the Nu-Fuzz they decided to slightly tweak the Sierra layout, keeping the knobs on the front with the jacks on the sides, and also continuing with the "smile" Nu-Fuzz logo.

And at first glance it looks like they literally just switched out the branding from "Sierra" to "Rosac". But if you look a bit closer there are three other differences; 1, is the font on both the control labels and the logo itself changed, 2, is the small lines above the words "Tone" and "Level" in the Sierra version have been moved to above the knob, and the circle around the pot is completely gone, and 3, is the word "Off" and the little arrow next to it are different! In the Sierra version there is a line at a sharp angle coming from the bottom of the word "Off", and in the Rosac version both the arrow and the word "Off" are curved (this is also seen on Distortion Blenders).

For what is possibly the next version of the Nu-Fuzz, Rosac moved to a straight-line logo and a layout that seems to be adapted from the Wehr Fuzz-Tone. With the knobs located on the top of the pedal, it's much more reminiscent of a Fuzzrite (the point maybe?).

The biggest difference to the Wehr Fuzz is the pot and jack labeling; going from "Volume" to "Level", "Input" to "Instrument", and "Output" to "Amplifier".

This tends to be the most prevalent version of the Nu-Fuzz you'll come across. And I have gone back and forth about where it appears in the timeline. It's confusing enough that the possibility they were being made simultaneously with the Smile logo version is strong. Did these only exist because of a canceled contract with Don Wehr's Music City? I honestly have no clue, but it's definitely a question I have considered.

The straight-line logo Nu-Fuzzes also featured both "Sierra" and "Rosac" labeled Sprague modules. And even the pot dates are of little help, as they range from 1968-1969, just like the other versions.

And to make things even more convoluted, Rosac, the sadists they were, threw in a couple more curveballs, most likely just to mess with nerds in the future who try to do what we're doing right now.

First is the example below. It's clearly a Sierra Nu-Fuzz enclosure, as it has the right graphics and layout. But it's completely missing the branding and it uses a Sprague module instead of an eyelet board circuit (I've actually found two units exactly like this).

There's probably a few reasons why these exist, but one could be that it was either used for a local OEM deal, or it was intended to be used for an OEM deal that fell through. Another reason, that comes from seeing an example of an unbranded one that does have the eyelet board construction, is that these were a short run of transitional units that came between the "Sierra" branded pedals and the "Rosac" branded ones. Either way, they're a cool oddity.

Next, and going in the complete opposite direction, is the Nu-Fuzz below, that has the straight-line logo but features a Sierra style eyelet board circuit!

This one is super perplexing because all of the early Rosac dealer ads I have found show the smile logo version. Additionally in those ads is the earliest version of the Nu-Wa, the Nu-Wa-Fuzz, and the Distortion Blender. Suggesting the straight-line logo came last. So what the hell is up with this???

It's a total head scratcher, and I could only come with two possible reasons for its existence; 1, is that maybe it was originally built to be a Wehr Fuzz but something happened to cause it to be put aside until later? or 2, and this could explain all of the exceptions, is that many of the pedals came back in for repairs or were returned completely because of malfunctioning components. And as an ex-employee has stated, they had bins of returned pedals and parts at the factory. So maybe instead of wasting a good circuit, they simply installed it into a later-run pedal?

Another pedal that puts just a small dent in my awesomely solid timeline is the Wehr Fuzz-Tone below. The graphics are all identical to the version we talked about earlier, but the big difference is that it uses a Sprague module! 

Now the logical conclusion is that they made the Wehr Fuzz longer than we originally thought. But when I look back through my favorite internet databases, the last ad for them I've been able to find is just from March of 1969. So from February to the end of March they advertised their new Fuzz-Tone loud and prominently. And they continued advertising in the local San Fran papers for the next two years but would never again mentioned the fuzz, at all...

And while these inconsistencies with the Wehr Fuzz most likely have a simple reason behind them, I'd like to postulate an option that could tie this all together with a nice little bow:

It's late 1968 and Ed Sanner sees the writing on the wall with the coming bankruptcy of Mosrite. So he contacts a couple of like-minded acquaintances (Ralph Scaffidi & Mary Osborne) with success in the music industry and ties to potential corporate backers. After some discussion with Sacco and Rosenberg they all decide to go in together and start Sierra Electronics, wasting no time building their first product, the "Nu-Fuzz" (most Sierra Nu-Fuzzes have pot date codes of November 1968).

During this time they acquire their first OEM deal with Bob Wehr's Music City, and start creating Nu-Fuzzes specifically for them as the Wehr Fuzz-Tone (I've even thought about the possibility that the Wehr contract was originally made with Mosrite but never had a chance to be fulfilled). 

Mosrite officially goes bankrupt in February of 1969 and Sierra Electronics releases the Nu-Fuzz and the Wehr Fuzz-Tone immediately afterwards, using the stock they had been building the previous few months. And because Wehr's Music City's original deal is for X amount of fuzzes, by the time the 2nd part of the order is ready, Sierra has turned into "Rosac" and they begin using the Sprague modules that have finally arrived. Unfortunately sales are poor and the Wehr Fuzz-Tone is a bust, causing the Music City to quickly abandoned the pedal upon receiving this (final) order.

This is all just pure speculation, so please don't quote the above musings as fact. But I do like to throw my best guesses up on here to get the conversation going, if nothing else :)

 

Some time in 1971/72 Ed Sanner decided to start his own business with Rosac plant manager, Ken Gilstrap, both leaving the company as a result. This was also after Rosac decided to abandon the standalone Nu-Fuzz pedals, as they saw them to be inferior and a costly redundancy of the popular Nu-Wa Fuzz. 

This was a decision that would mark the beginning of the end for the Rosac effects line, as they were plagued with customer complaints about the quality of the wah pedals and inundated with returns. This ultimately pushed them to focus solely on amplifiers through to their end, around 1979.

I have tried to find more information to confirm exactly how long they made the pedals, but nothing solid has come up. So as of now, the true end-date of the Nu-Fuzz will remain unknown.

So! If you happen to have any version of the Nu-Fuzz and would like to do me a huge favor :) :) :) All I am looking for are potcode dates and any photos of other weird/inconsistent ones hiding out there.

And obviously if you have any additional info on Rosac please, shoot me a message via Email or Instagram.

Thanks for reading,
-ed

*Big thank you to Nick from Fuzzboxes.org, Bart from Effects Database, Jerms, and Chris Martin for your photos and your help in doing much of the research legwork long before I got anywhere close to writing this!

Mystery of the Japanese Wedge Fuzz...

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Back in March a pedal that I easily recognized as the classic Sekova Wedge Fuzz came up for sale on ebay, but a couple things immediately stuck out as odd; one was that it had clearly been modified where the original circuit was replaced with what looked like a delay (?), and the other, which was way more surprising, was that it looked like the pedal originally had a tone control!

If you know the Sekova Wedge Fuzz (aka the No. 59 Distortion Box), then you know that all three versions have the same 2-knob configuration for Volume and Attack. The only other known example that was probably related (but varied from the rest), was a pedal we featured here a few years ago, the equally mysterious Fuzz Master.

But after staring for days at the sad state of this once rare wedge fuzz variant, I realized that I'd actually seen one before... but where!?

So I went through all of my hard drives, and nothing. Next I tried a few different image searches, again, nothing. Then I went back through all the various websites and nerd forums, and still, nothing. Finally I checked every internet database, going through magazine after magazine and newspaper article after newspaper article, aaaaaaaaaand nothing.

I was starting to feel crazy (and yes, this is typically the process I go through before every article on here, lol) because I knew I had seen this pedal before. So I tried one last trick, which was to go to Japanese resale sites and see what I could find. And after a few days of digging, THERE IT WAS!!!

Hiding away in the middle of a 1981 special issue of Player magazine called "Output" I found this Maxon ad featuring our mystery wedge fuzz! And it answered a few questions I had, like "Was the third knob simply a modification?", "Did it come with hardwired input/output cable like the Sekovas?", and "Were those the original knobs?".

But in addition to the handful of resolutions it did provide, it also created about 50 new avenues for me to explore. And the first glaring one to tackle was, 1957??? 

Unfortunately the photo I had was just too pixelated to translate, but luckily friend of the blog, Pablo Japan did me a huge favor and purchased a copy of the original magazine! 🙏

So here it is, the (google) translated version. Kind of vague, and doesn't really address the actual pedal in the photo, but it is interesting that they are claiming the first fuzz box was created in the late 1950s, and a different one was used in a Screaming Lord Sutch recording from 1960.

Sadly that got us nowhere, but at least we don't have to completely upend all of fuzz history and start telling people that Japan actually had the first fuzz box in 1957.

The next question I had was in regards to the pedal appearing in a Maxon ad at all. Before being known as "Maxon" they were a Japanese manufacturing plant called Nisshin Onpa, and had been around as early as the mid 1960s. Their first major client was Greco, supplying pickups for the majority of their guitars at the time.

Now what makes the Greco connection interesting is this ad from the November 1967 issue of Japan Music Trades magazine. It features the No. 35 Fuzz Booster, which is clearly the same as the Sekova Wedge Fuzz.  

And we know that Nisshin Onpa would go on to become Maxon, and would not only be responsible for their effects, but also every classic Ibanez pedal you can think of! 

But what we don't know is; were they already manufacturing pedals as early as 1967?

In all of my searches I have never come across an original ad for a Sekova wedge fuzz. But knowing some rough history of Sekova as a "company", they did not seem to make any of their own products after the mid 60s. 

To make matters even more confusing, there are at least 3 different circuits used during the production of the Sekova wedge fuzzes; a true 1.5v FZ-1A type fuzz, a heavily modified 9v Fuzzrite style fuzz (the most common version), and another 1.5v FZ-1A style that uses the exact same board you'll find in an LRE Fuzz Sound.

And while I do believe that the LRE version was manufactured by a different company, I am not sure at all of the origin (or chronology) of the other two, except that I'm almost certain neither were made by Shin-ei.

So that brings us back to our mysterious 3-knobber...

Before we go into any similarities, let's talk about the standout differences. First, and I almost missed it, the front jack is labeled as "Input" instead of "Amplifier" like it is on every other version (and like it is on an actual Maestro FZ-1A). 

Next, as we mentioned before, there is no hardwired cable. I'm not sure if this was done because there wasn't enough room with all the added components, or if it's related to the swapped Input/Output holes, but it's noteworthy nonetheless.

Then, we have the matter of that third knob/tone control. I was originally thinking that it might be an added tone booster circuit but there are no extra transistors to be found here. So it truly is a simple tone control, which would normally be of little significance, but in this case it's a feature that doesn't exist on any other version of this fuzz (that I have seen at least).

And lastly, it runs off a 9v battery! And while I have not yet mapped it out, my assumption is that it's roughly the same germanium FZ-1A style circuit but with added electronics for the tone knob. There is a somewhat lower output on this than my Sekova, so it's possible that they chose 9v to beef it up a bit? The result is a higher gain, thicker sounding fuzz, that sits somewhere between an FZ-1 and a MKI Tone Bender (but much closer to the FZ-1 side of that spectrum, for sure).

One of the theories that floats around when it comes to vintage Japanese pedals is that even when different brands look identical, it could mean that they were manufactured by two completely different companies who just happened to use the same generic enclosures and parts supplier.

So these wedge fuzzes always come down to a bit of an educated guess, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't use comparisons as a part of that education. That all being said, it's obviously the same enclosure, uses the same knobs, same classic Japanese footswitch, same embossed labeling with white paint, and the bottom plates are identical to the ones used on many of the Sekovas.

 

All of that is great, but none of it really addresses the possibility that the same enclosures were used by different builders. But when we compare the insides of the pedals, it becomes pretty clear this was all done under one roof.

The two photos above show an FZ-1A style Sekova No. 59 Distortion Box (top) and the mystery 3-knob fuzz (bottom). The build style is almost identical, the resistors are the same, the combination of capacitors are the same (minus the two replacement caps in the mystery fuzz), the transistors (Matsushita 2SB175) are the same, the on/off pots are the same, and even the wire colors used are (almost) all the same.

With this mountain of evidence I feel like it's at least safe to assume that those two pedals were made by the same people. So there you have it! Mystery solved ;)

But for real, was it Nisshin Onpa (Maxon) who made these? And if so, which other 60s/70s Japanese pedals were they responsible for? The consensus in the vintage pedal community is pretty clear that the classic Ibanez Standard Fuzz was manufactured by Nisshin Onpa in 1974 (originally introduced as the Mac-Tone Fuzz Machine in 1971). 

And something I had never thought about until right now is the number designations given to the Ibanez line; like the No. 83 Fuzz, the No. 57 Wau-Wau, and the Standard Fuzz itself which was "No. 59". Well if you think back just a few paragraphs ago, remember the names of the Greco Fuzz Booster and the Sekova Distortion Box? They were also assigned "No. 35" and "No. 59".

And sure, that could easily be a coincidence, but let's also remember that there were Greco versions of a few of this same Ibanez line from 1974; like the Double Sound Fuzz Wah, the Fuzz, and the Phase Tone (which would later get a true Maxon rebranding).

So while this all feels conclusive that at the very least Nisshin Onpa manufactured the early-mid 70s Greco and Ibanez effects (among other OEMs), it still leaves the question if they were also responsible for any of the wedge fuzzes, let alone our mystery 3-knob pedal.

Another question I have is, when and in what order did the wedge fuzzes come out? We know that there are at least four versions now, with the earliest most likely coming out some time in 1967 (placing it among the first few pedals commercially available in Japan). But when did they each come out?

For pretty much as long as there have been vintage pedal internet forums it has been thought that the 1.5v version came first, especially when we consider it's build style. And then it was followed by the 9v version. And not until recently did we realize that the other 1.5v version was actually the LRE Fuzz Sound, which was being produced under one branding or another until the mid 1970s! So it is very likely that this is the final version of the Sekova wedge fuzz.

We also know that there was a Treble/Bass Booster pedal that has an nearly identical build style to the 9v wedge fuzz, but appears to use a Super Fuzz style enclosure. Like the Sekovas, this enclosure is chrome and uses the same hinge style bottom plate design we see throughout all of the wedge fuzzes. And I would say this is more than enough evidence to allow us assume it was also built by the same people, but we have to leave at least a 5% chance that it wasn't, for the sake of unknown unknowns.

There is one other small detail that would be easy to gloss over when it comes to the Treble Bass Booster, and that's the "Made in Japan" sticker. 

It stood out to me because nearly all of the other wedge fuzzes have the words embossed right into the plate. But then it stood out even more because I recognized that sticker and knew I had seen it before...

On the bottom of an Ibanez Standard Fuzz!

So with all of that, we will leave you here. The exact order the wedge fuzzes were built, currently unknown. The true origin of the 1.5v Sekova Fuzz and the 3-knob wedge fuzz, still a mystery. But if we go all the way to the beginning of the article, and consider that the pedal appeared in an ad for MAXON, then it is very likely that it was in fact Nisshin Onpa who was responsible for these pedals all along.

As always, if you happen to have any additional information or details you think might help solve this mystery please reach out to me via Email or Instagram.

thanks for reading,

-ed

The Berko Fuzz (AUL Foxey Lady)...

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As you probably know by now, the history of Electro Harmonix goes all the way back to the late 60's, with a pedal that collector nerds have dubbed the "AUL Fuzz" or the "AUL Foxey Lady". And while this story has been told and retold for decades, there are a few incorrect and even untold pieces of the puzzle that I think are worth exploring.

As the narrative goes, William (Bill) Berko had his own electronics shop, ABCO Sound, in Manhattan on 48th Street in the mid-60s (which would have put him directly in the center of Music Row, among stores like Sam Ash and Manny's Music). Having previously (and then later again) worked at the Ampeg factory in New Jersey, Berko was very familiar with the technology of amplifiers, so this type of repair became his main occupation. But in addition to amps, he would get visits from local guitar players who wanted to modify or fix their new fuzz tones. And this happened enough that it eventually drove him to start building his own fuzz boxes to sell directly out of the shop. 

What came next has two conflicting accounts (both from Mike Matthews 😂):

-Either; Berko contacted Mike because he was doing well selling his fuzzes and wanted some help. But unfortunately, Berko stepped away from both the shop and the new fuzz partnership almost immediately after it began. Leaving Mike in a most unfamiliar position, having to build fuzz boxes himself. So to remedy this problem Matthews went to a local large-scale electronics factory called AUL Instruments and contracted them to build the pedals instead. This new version of the fuzz began to do very well, and based on that success word got out to Guild Guitars owner Al Dronge, who made a deal with them to start supplying Guild with the newly dubbed "Foxey Lady" fuzzes. 

-Or; At some point before Matthews was involved, Berko connected with Dronge and agreed to build fuzzes for Guild directly, as they wanted to capitalize on the hot new trend as well. And faced with an order from a major guitar brand, and attempting to simultaneously run his repair shop, Berko reached out to Mike Matthews and proposed that the two go into business together building and expanding on his new fuzz box venture. Mike agreed, and took on the task even though he was still working full-time at IBM.

*side note; although it has been written differently over the years, it was actually Dronge who came up with the name "Foxey Lady".

The story comes back together here, where Mike states that he would drive out to AUL, pick up the orders and deliver them directly to the Guild factory in Hoboken, NJ every few weeks. He has also stated that the "Guild branded" versions were only brought to Guild and not sold directly to dealers. The implication here could explain the blank AUL units we typically see that have residue left over from what appears to be a Manny's Music sticker (*see first image above).

Well this is where the things start to get even more convoluted, as Guild apparently made a similar deal with Mosrite to also build their version of the Foxey Lady pedals, either concurrently with the deal Mike had or very shortly afterwards. It is unknown why this happened, but the most common theory is that Mike was simply unable to keep up with the orders that Guild had requested.

This would not turn out to be a great decision though, as Mosrite had run into financial troubles, and by 1969 went bankrupt. In the meantime, Mike had decided to go all-in on guitar effects and started Electro Harmonix with engineer Bob Myer in the Fall of 1968. Shortly afterwards he picked up where he left off with Guild, and began producing the Foxey Lady pedals with EHX.

So that's it! That's the story we all know and love, and not just for the history of the Foxey Lady fuzz, but also for the genesis of Electro Harmonix. But if you were reading through all of that and had tons of questions; yeah! me too! But the one I want to focus on today goes back to the very beginning, where everyone just glosses over the fact that Bill Berko was building fuzz pedals and selling them out of his shop. 

This means that there were/are, somewhere out there, pre-Guild, pre-AUL, pre-Mike Matthews, Berko Fuzz boxes! This idea has my collector brain going crazy. Was it the same circuit as the Foxey Lady fuzz? What did it look like? Did it have some kind of label on it? Was it called the "ABCO Sound Fuzz", or a ridiculous hyperbolic 60s name like, "Berko's Wild Fractured Sound Box" or something? I have so many questions.

If we are at the complete speculation part of this article, then let me throw out a guess that it WAS the same modified Fuzzrite circuit. And if it is the same, then all we would have to do is find a really old looking, seemingly home-made pedal, with a silicon Fuzzrite-ish circuit in it. And MAYBE, just MAYBE, this could be an original Berko Fuzz???

So be on the lookout friends! And who knows, YOU might have potential fuzzy gold just sitting in a box in your basement at this very moment. 

There are plenty of other points about this story that I want to touch on in later posts; like the possible reason Berko just disappeared shortly after teaming up with Mike, the potential sequence of Foxey Lady builds, Berko working for Ampeg and the possible connection to the Manny's Fuzz, and so much more. But for now, just let it sink in that somewhere out there is an unknown fuzz box that was essentially the beginning of Electro Harmonix, and no one has ever seen it before...

thanks for reading!
-ed

Ace Tone FM-2 Fuzz Master - A Deep Dive

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In the late 2000's my pedal hoarding was getting a bit out of hand, and it was time to make a change. So I decided to pair down the collection and go for only pedals that were obscure or typically harder to find. And while that was great for freeing up closet space, it did cause me to skip right over some historically significant pedals that I've had to go back and acquire over the last couple of years (and for 5X the price). 

One of these was the Ace Tone FM-2 Fuzz Master. Built by the thousands, I was always more drawn to its significantly rarer brothers, the FM-1 and FM-3. But over the last couple of years as I starting digging deeper into the true history of the Super Fuzz, the FM-2 kept coming up as one of the earliest "copies" to exist. 

So now that I finally landed my first Ace Tone FM-2, I decided it was time to put together a post with all the info I have collected, and hopefully we can smash our brains together and fill in the missing pieces...

For as long as I've known about the FM-2, I have seen a production date range from roughly 1969-1971. So the first thing I wanted to do was confirm how true (or not) that was.

1969 would have put the FM-2 right there with the Royal Fuzz Box as one of the first commercially available Super Fuzz copies . And we do know that there was an Ace Tone FM-3 that's a Big Muff copy, so 1971 is certainly plausible as an ending date.

All we have to do now, is prove it!

So to the magazine and newspaper archives we went, and in not much time, we had the answer:

The first mention I found of the FM-2 came out of this ad from the Vancouver Sun, May 1968. And I know what you might be thinking, "It only says 'Fuzz Masters', that could mean anything in 1968!", and I thought that as well. So I went through a decade's worth of ads from the same newspaper and not only found an ad from the previous year that just said "Fuzz Master", which would have been the FM-1, but also found an ad from 1971 that included a photo of an FM-2.

The other bit of information to notice here is that it also includes the "Wah Master", which Ace Tone released at the same time as the FM-2.

But I totally understand if you're still not convinced, so what about this:

From the June 1968 issue of Music Trades magazine, we get a full page ad for all of the new Ace Tone products, including the Wah Master and the FM-2 Fuzz Master!

Interestingly, what is not in the picture, is the Ace Tone FM-1. And if they did discontinue it by June of 1968, that would mean just about a year's worth of production time. But we'll dig more into that at some point in the future.

In addition to this ad, I found 4 more from 1968, all confirming that the Ace Tone FM-2 Fuzz Master was available that early! Which puts it as not only the first known Super Fuzz copy, but May of 1968 is also the (estimated) date that Univox began to sell the Super Fuzz themselves!

*Update: So recently my friend Marcelo, over at the Guitar Restos website, purchased a stack of original Ace Tone catalogs, dating from 1966-1969. And what was cool is that they were apparently printed monthly! So we were able to pinpoint the exact month the FM-2 Fuzz Master was released... March of 1968! (see above) Which is super early, and less than a year after the Honey Baby Crying Fuzz was released. Another cool thing to note here, is that it shows the FM-1 and FM-2 being sold side-by-side, which is something I had speculated about for a while.

Ok so now we have a pretty solid start date for the FM-2, but what about that end date? There are tons of these out there, which would either mean that Ace Tone was making them by the thousands for just a handful of years, or they made them for much longer than that original 3 year period we all thought.

Luckily the internet provided yet again, as many of the 70s era Ace Tone catalogs are available through various sites. So starting at 1971 I went through each year until the FM-2 was gone, and it actually appeared in every catalog I could find until 1979! Additionally I found out, that for at least six years it was being sold alongside the FM-3 Fuzz Master, as Ace Electronics introduced that devastatingly heavy pedal in 1974.

So at the very least, we can assume that they were selling the FM-2 for eleven years. They may have stopped building them much earlier, but either way, our newly discovered production run of 1968-1979 makes a bit more sense when you consider the shear number of FM-2's in the vintage guitar pedal world.

Well a nearly 11 year run should mean that there are differences in how the FM-2 was built during that time. As we saw in our last post on how to date a Super Fuzz/ FY-6, there were plenty of indicators of "era" both in and outside the pedals. So would this also ring true with the FM-2?

Unfortunately, after examining hundreds of them, I can't find one single difference in the enclosures, at all. Ace Tone seemed to really have this part of the process down from day 1. Every logo, sticker, knob, bottom plate, and even the rubber feet were all identical from pedal to pedal.

So I had to look inward.

The only (big) problem, was that Ace Tone built the FM-2 so that the component-side of the board is facing away from us; and not only that, but one of the foot switches is soldered almost directly to the PCB. And all of this is to say, that in the hundreds of examples I have looked through, only 3 owners were brave enough to disassemble their pedals and take that precious gut shot.

But it's ok, for now we can work with what we do have.

When looking inside the FM-2 there are a couple of things that immediately stand out as possible differences to help us create a timeline. The first is the On/Off pot. As you can see above there are two colors that were used; Red and Black. The red was my first potential clue, because it happens to be the same On/Off pot that they used in the Ace Tone FM-1 from the previous year.

*and a side note, but these pots are conveniently dated. So this FM-1 is at most "June of 1967" years old.

Sadly anything we can glean from comparing both pedals ends here. And while it doesn't necessarily equate to the Red Pot FM-2's being first, it's not something to just overlook either.

Ok, so now look back at the comparison photo above, and another thing you may notice is the difference between the two Black On/Off pots, in that they appear to be two different brands with different labeling.

The next clue is that weird stereo jack that you see in the upper two examples. If for no other reason, it may help us establish an order; so if the red pot is first, that would make the black pot with the weird stereo jack second, and the other black pot with the plastic jacks last. But again, for now this is just all a guess!

Alright, let's zoom in a bit for the next observation:

Something that you may have missed above is what's going on over at the second pot. Through each example we see a mixture of date stamp/no date stamp, a single resistor/no resistor, and a ceramic capacitor/a film capacitor. 

The first pedal with the red pot appears to have a date stamp of June 1968, while the next pedal has no visible date stamp at all, and the third pedal has a stamp that says "831D" that I'm not too sure what to make of (31st month of 1968?). I also noticed that all three pots appear to be from different manufacturers, and the third pot is a totally different value from the other two. I would guess this could potentially be related to that missing resistor?

So again, none of these details on their own will tell us how old or the order that they were released, but I feel like it is getting us closer! So let's take a look at the trace-side of the PCB next and see what we can find there (...this is where it gets weird).

When we take a closer look at the PCB's used in the FM-2 throughout its run, they all seem to be exactly the same. What is not the same however, is the wiring. 

Above are the three variations I was able to find just within the Red Pot units alone. I am definitely not versed in any kind of electronics, so I couldn't tell you what would cause something like this, especially in a circuit that should theoretically be identical from pedal to pedal. 

And while our photos don't help much in determining what is going on, we might as well point it out here for future dissection. 

Next is the Black Pot version. I only found two variations here, but there definitely could be more. 

When looking at these, I wonder if there was any real rhyme or reason to it all? I also wonder if it has any correspondence to a timeline, or am I just wasting everyone's energy with this part... 😁  

And lastly, the Plastic Jacks version gets a whopping four variations! And again, I can only speculate what any of it means. 

What I can say is that it does seem odd, knowing that the rest of Ace Tone's output appears to be very streamlined. Even the fact that they never updated the enclosure make the wiring variances all the more strange.

But who knows! It could easily be something that my tiny non-engineering brain can't pick up on.

Well at this point there is only one way to proceed, and that is to turn the board over and take a look at what's going on inside.

 

Let's start with the only circuit photos that had been available online for over a decade. This comes from the classic Uzzfay Fuzz Guts site. The version here is a Black Pot with the type of wiring seen in the top-left photo above.

The first thing that sticks out to me is that it uses silicon clipping diodes, as opposed to germanium like the Super Fuzz/ Baby Crying/ FY-6. 

Next, this particular unit runs off of five 2SC369 transistors, as opposed to the six transistors that you find in any Super Fuzz, including the Royal Fuzz.

Another thing that jumps out to me, is the rest of the component brands and styles seem to match up perfectly with ones you will find in an FM-1 Fuzz Master. So it's possible that this particular unit is somewhat early on in the run?

The next gut shot comes to us from our good friends at Soulman Vintage. This unit is a Plastic Jacks version and has a completely different mixture of transistors; four 2SC733's and a single CDC13000. 

We can also see that it uses different cap and diode brands from the previous unit. So I am curious how, or if, any of that affects the tone at all?

But let's take a look at another Plastic Jacks version and see if there's any more variances we can spot.

For the third available gut shot, we have this interesting unit from longtime friend of the blog, Humphrey Barclay. 

Again I am drawn to the transistors, but after messaging him I have confirmed that they are the same exact mixture as the unit above.

The clipping diodes though, do appear to be a third brand and possible value, but still silicon. 

Alright, finally we have a pair of photos from my personal pedal! I decided to bite the bullet and brave the task of taking it apart. And amazingly, I seem to have broken my longstanding curse of accidentally messing up everything I touch.

The very first thing I noticed was that it used a combination of three 2SC369 and two 2SC372 transistors. Unfortunately I don't have access to any other photos of a Red Pot unit, but this transistor combo appears to be as unique as the others.

Another thing that stands out is that it uses a different type of silicon diode. Instead of the glass versions, it uses two black plastic clipping diodes, similar to what you would find on the original Jordan Bosstone from 1966. 

Both pots date to July of 1968, but I have seen them as early as March of that year, although again this doesn't necessarily correspond to when they were made.

For the last entry, I put together this comparison of all four boards. Each one has the same set of open slots in the PCB at the top left, and the upper right side. But there are some differences for sure.

The upper two images are from the Plastic Jacks versions, and at first glance they look the same. But when I went component to component, there was one big difference, and that would be the large blue cap on the bottom right! In the first photo it's not there at all, and in the second photo it's very much present.

If we continue on to the photo right below, we notice again that the cap is there on the bottom right, but appears to be smaller (and probably a lesser value). Additionally we also see a gray cap directly under the large green film capacitor that is not present at all in the Plastic Jacks versions. From what I understand, the missing cap on the bottom portion has more to do with power regulation, and might not be totally necessary for the actual fuzzing going on. But this other missing cap does affect the overall gain. And I will say, that from demos I have heard, there are some with a discernable difference from my personal pedal. And I wonder if this is the culprit...

As for the odd open slots on the PCB, that was a fairly common practice in Japan at this time and throughout the 70s. Pedals like the Ibanez Standard Fuzz, the Guyatone FS-6, and the Aria Distortion Sustainer all have similarly unused holes. There are even examples like the Yack YF-1 and YF-2, that used the same PCB even though the circuits themselves were completely different. Which I assume was some sort of cost/time cutting measure. 

Is it possible then that Ace Tone had another fuzz pedal in the works that utilized the board layout differently? Or is there some completely unrelated piece of Ace Tone gear that uses this exact PCB for a different purpose and I've just never noticed? Possibly their Wah Master, something from one of their drum machines, or even this board from their Echo Mixer...

For the sake of not sounding completely ignorant, we'll move back to the outside of the FM-2 and focus on things that I can clearly observe with my own eyes. 😊 

A handful of examples out there have the serial number sticker still intact. What actually drew me to buying the one that I did was the fact that it actually had a serial sticker WITH the earliest serial number I have ever seen!

If the order of the numbers correspond to the order they were made, then it appears as though my assumptive timeline could be correct!

So look back at the photo above, the lowest number 60969 is a Red Pot version. The next sticker, 62877 is a Black Pot version. The sticker with 72373 has yet to be seen internally, but the 74876 unit is definitely a Plastic Jacks version. And finally we come to the odd one out; a completely different sticker with the Multivox name on it and the number 888. This particular unit has pot date codes from Fall of 1974, so it is very possible that by this time they were changing small details like serial number stickers.

*I promise we're almost done here. I applaud any of you who have read this far!

Well as I dug a bit more I came across this little Ace Tone brochure and price list from 1971. And one thing immediately jumped out as odd. 

Do you see it?

So on both sheets the FM-2 is not referred to as the "Fuzz Master", but instead the "Brazz Master"!

What's going on here? Well this paperwork comes from Sorkin, who was their North American distro. So it's possible that they just got a bad translation from Japan, and printed it. But there is a 1968 Sorkin ad where they clearly label the pedal as the "Fuzz Master".

And while I honestly have no idea why there was an apparent name change, one thing I do know is that in 1970 Shin-ei released the Companion FY-6 Fuzz Master. So is it possible Sorkin renamed the pedal on their order forms just to avoid confusion? Maybe they distributed both effects and were worried that some small Midwest shop owners couldn't tell the difference? Who knows! But I thought that was a cool little piece of the puzzle to throw in here.

*I know we're going way long on this one, and halfway through I even thought that I probably should have just made this a video instead, but here we are. And I promise we're about to wrap up.

As is with many of the Japanese effects from the 60s, we sadly do not know who designed this circuit. There are rumors that an engineer who had worked for Honey left the company to join Ace Tone and brought with him the Baby Crying Fuzz schematic; which ultimately lead to the creation of the Fuzz Master FM-2! And while that sounds like 2008 Harmony Central forum lore, there is actually a pretty compelling quote from the founder of Ace Tone, Ikutaro Kakehashi, published in the May 2003 issue of Guitar Magazine: 

"The person who designed for Honey later joined Ace-Tone and Roland, so I've heard about that, but Honey added an edge to the distorted sound and differentiated it... in other words, it was a circuit that suppressed the low range and emphasized the middle to upper range sounds, and it was a new kind of sound at the time."

He went on to note that the FM-2 is NOT simply a copy of the Baby Crying Fuzz though, just that this same engineer designed both circuits.

Well as you can see, there is a lot we do know about the FM-2, but also quite a bit we do not! So as always this is where I will ask if any of you have additional information, or if you feel so inclined to send me more gut shots, I would be forever grateful! Please message me via Email or Instagram.

In addition to everyone mentioned above, I also want to send a huge Thank YOU! to Nick from the great Fuzzboxes.org, Bart from FXDB, and fellow vintage collector and great guy, SirHC, who have all been a huge help with this research.

Thanks for reading,

-ed