JHS 3 Series Fuzz Pedal Reviews

First I'll describe what this pedal doesn't do. Then I'll describe what it does do, how it sounds, how it works, and why you need it (you need it). Last I'll go through my other gear for reference.

If you want an octave fuzz, this is not an octave fuzz. If you want a smooth, violin-style fuzz, this is not that. You want a Big Muff. This pedal is a take on a Fuzz Face style design, and Josh Scott knocked it out of the park.

What this pedal does do it a nasty tearing fuzz. It is unwieldy and crazy and honestly, that's the best thing in a fuzz. It makes your tone big and mean, and in the coolest way.

The volume pedal allows you to use it as a dirty boost, which I think sounds great hitting lighter gain overdrives. The fat/normal switch is great in a mix. Flip it to normal, and it thins out your low end which makes it work better with a busy bass or kick drum. I always have an EQ after the fact when I record, so I leave the fat switch on to keep the low end in case I need it. The fuzz knob goes from a crazy overdrive to absolutely broken. All the way down, it sounds like a totally broken amp. All the way up, it distorts so heavily that power chords on my humbuckers just choke and die, which sounds awful but I kinda love. With the fuzz lower you still get clarity which is awesome. Roll off the volume on your guitar and it will clean up, but not to glassy cleans. It's still pretty dirty. In short, you can all sorts of sounds.

The bias control, when all the way down, allows the sound to be full and open and rich. Turn it up and it starts to cut the weaker parts of your signal, until it's all the way closed and everything is a glitchy square wave.

Basically, I love it!

It WILL react differently to single coils vs humbuckers. I personally keep the fuzz lower with my humbuckers because up too high and the humbuckers overload it and it freaks out (see "turning the fuzz knob all the way up" above). Humbuckers also hit it hard enough that I don't even bother rolling off the volume. On single coils, it thickens them up and gives you a classic sound which I think is just great. Completely, completely different pedal with different pickups.

Five stars. If you want a fuzz you need this. Check out Ryan's review on YouTube, 60 Cycle Hum, I watched that video before I asked for this (Christmas gift).

My main guitar is a semi-hollow and I live on the neck humbucker; I also frequently use a downtuned super strat and I use the neck single coil almost exclusively. I use light overdrives after this, if I want to stack dirt pedals, and I play through clean solid state amps (I know, I'm a disgrace). Like most fuzzes, I tend to wipe off the top end during recording.

Great sounding pedal. Love the bias knob, it adds an impeccable gating effect. Can be a little thin with single coils. Much more tweak-able then a fuzz face. Highly recommend for anyone looking for a simple fuzz.

In general JHS makes incredible and affordable pedals. Josh's attention to detail shines through when it comes to the little details that make a effect great. With the 3 series JHS covers most all the pedals one would need on there board, and all for $99! One look at the JHS catalog and your guaranteed to find a pedal you'll love at a price point you can afford.

This sounds best when closer to your guitar in the signal chain. When behind other od/distortions it thins out the tone too much for my liking. So, to me, the real bread and butter is bias and fuzz at 3 o'clock (super sputtery/gated) and then gain and reverb/delays. Without other pedals, these settings will be very thin and NO sustain. The gate is crazy. But add gain and space pedals and you've got something special. Otherwise, bias at 0 is a usable stock fuzz tone on its own. Fat switch always enabled. I'd hate to say bad things about when it's disabled, so maybe I just don't like that flavor. With that being said, there's really a huge range of sound you can get from 4 very simple controls.

Super fun and versatile modded fuzz face. Does a full range of normal fuzz tones with the bias turned all the way to the left. The fat toggle chunks things up. And the bias knob… takes it through velcro ripping gated broken mayhem. The bias knob starves voltage to part of the circuit, so the more you turn it up the more glitchy it sounds. I pretty much use it with the bias between all the way off and 1/3. Oh and also, it is pretty picky with power supplies. I have a 1spot 12 and it works great, but when I first got it I plugged it into an individual cheaper 9v power supply and it had a crazy hum making it unusable. Worked great with a boss supply though.

If you need a versatile fuzz pedal and want to venture into the gated Velcro territory, definitely get this!

Super fun and versatile modded fuzz face. Does a full range of normal fuzz tones with the bias turned all the way to the left. The fat toggle chunks things up. And the bias knob… takes it through velcro ripping gated broken mayhem. The bias knob starves voltage to part of the circuit, so the more you turn it up the more glitchy it sounds. I pretty much use it with the bias between all the way off and 1/3. Oh and also, it is pretty picky with power supplies. I have a 1spot 12 and it works great, but when I first got it I plugged it into an individual cheaper 9v power supply and it had a crazy hum making it unusable. Worked great with a boss supply though.

If you need a versatile fuzz pedal and want to venture into the gated Velcro territory, definitely get this!

Fuzz isn't for everybody and it takes a special kind of player to justify spending $200 + for one. This is by far the best all around fuzz..it somehow houses the many different flavors of fuzz we all know and like..and for only 100 bucks, you can't beat it.

I've been searching for the right fuzz for bass for years. They're usually too beefy, or too 8bit sounding. This one is just right. If you want to sound like the world is coming to an end, a la the Big Muff, this isn't your pedal. If you want glitchy weirdness, pass on this. If you want a perfect, right in the middle of those two sound, this is what you want.

I'm not a Fuzz expert, but I can tell you I love this pedal.

It's so versatile and simple, you can go from a pretty classic untamed Fuzz sound to wild, glitchy, sputtery, velcro-rip freak outs with just a couple knob twists. Needless to say, it's a lot of fun.

Josh designs pedals that sound good. This is a fact. They sound good with the knobs wherever the hell. Its like he thought, "Well, I could add some crap sounds to this but... naaaah."

I played this in a shop plugged into an Orange practice amp with single coils, buckers, and P90s and all were glorious.

The bias knob is not subtle, its FUN. It dials from a practical and functional noise gate right on through to broken silliness.

Thank you JHS, you're becoming my favorite pedal company.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit this is my first fuzz pedal. However, it does everything I need it to do and it sounds great. I have a few JHS products now and I know I can always count on top quality when I buy a JHS pedal.

Really great in parallel on drum machines!

I've played a few fuzz pedals but this by far is my favorite. Great sounds, best silicon fuzz ever made. Very useable throughout its entire fuzz span. You need one on your board

Now it's my favourite fuzz!
To many different tones in one small box.
I love that I can chose between classical low-gain and modern hi-gain glitchy fuzz.
And that bias knob - it's magic

Sounds absolutely killer. Fuzz is useable throughout the whole range and the bias control gives a lot of flexibility. Great pedal at a great price!

I love this fuzz. It's so fuzzy when you need fuzz. And when you don't, you just turn some knobs and guess what? Less fuzz. Wouldn't be surprised if I opened it up and a wizard fell out.

Huge amount of range with this pedal. With the gain turned down it's a good fat boost or you can crank it for super distorted fuzz goodness.

The control over how much or how little fuzz you want is amazing. I love the way you can control how much or little feedback because I like to play loud but not necessarily with unwanted feedback. This is the best fuzz pedal ever made. I can't explain how cool this sounds. John

Awesome fuzz pedal. Great tone and I love the bias control to get that gated, spitty fuzz tone.

I love Fuzz! And I was looking for a more versatile Fuzz Face style pedal. This ain't it! I was so disappointed but, this pedal sounds great. I would categorize this pedal as a Tone Bender style Fuzz. I'm surprised at how good this pedal sounds for the money. It cleans up while rolling back the volume knob but it not the glassy sound you get with a Fuzz Face. More like an overdrive style clean up. And it has a useable gain control through the entire sweep of the pot. I'm going to keep it because I like Fuzz but, it not what I was after. Great sounding pedal though.

I want to just say I was a little skeptical at first of how this was going to fit in my sound and tone I like as it came down to this or a distortion pedal. Well let me tell you I have in with analog delay and Univibe all I can say it is one bitching fuzz box for the price is unreal as well . Pumping through Supro blues King 12 with my early to mid seventies Strat and just rip away. Nice job with this one be Josh and thank you sweetwater.

This is possibly the best sounding fuzz I have ever played. The one downfall though is that the casing makes a nasty noise when touched. I don't think it's normal, so I may have to return it even though I don't want to.

This is a Fuzz face type pedal, and it sounds awesome, as a fuzz face should.
Very well built, comes with a gravity pick like all JHS pedals - nice addition for a $ pedal if you ask me.
The bias control lets you starve the circuit for that scratchy velcro sound - really cool if you like that sort of thing.
In addition, it cleans up really well when taking the volume control down on the guitar (or the fuzz control down on the pedal)
Hours of fun and mayhem garanteed!

Having than been bitten by the Fuzz bug awhile back I went a little fuzz crazy and bought up an array of 30 odd fuzz pedals of make, model and price point. Every fuzz has a different story to tell, a new character to play, an undiscovered country to traverse. Did I need another fuzz-- only if I wanna do some more exploring, and I do. Priced this side of tempting and featuring the, oddly rare, Bias control-- I plunked down on the unassuming, naked little Klondike Bar. This box contains multiple personalities. Each knob is indispensable in coaxing out another voice, color or texture. Sorry for the other guy who either got a bad one (JHS would fix it) or didn't see or experience the variety therein. From searing to molten to crusty, and plenty of gain, this JHS B-level is bringing nothing but A-game. This is a legit series and this fuzz still had something new to offer to my expansive and slowly expanding collection. It's a great, versatile and distinctive purchase. In fuzz we trust.

This is a boutique pedal at a budget price. Had to be disappointed with this purchase. The fuzz is usable at all over the dial. My critique is the bias can be extreme beyond 12 o clock.

Was excited to receive this pedal due to YouTube video describing it. It feels cheaply built and when I turned it on it made to much noise and when I turned the bias knob past 12:00 no sound would come out. I was very disappointed I was expecting more from JHS. Ended up just returning it and getting something else.