Waterslide Guitars and R2R Electric spent two years figuring out how to turn a 1960s darkroom timer into a fuzz pedal without just bolting new knobs onto it. The result is exactly as weird and wonderful as that sounds.
Each unit starts with a vintage Time-O-Lite timer chassis. The existing controls are converted—not replaced—using concentric potentiometers so the original pointer knobs still work. Volume is the lower, larger pointer. Fuzz is the small red one on top. Inside, it’s a two-transistor germanium Fuzz Face circuit built with NOS Philips AC107 black glass transistors, CTS pots from 1966 and 1983, Allen-Bradley carbon comp resistors, and Philips chicklet capacitors. There’s an internal trimpot to bias the fuzz from gated and spitty to wide open.
True bypass. Jewel light indicator. And because these are converted from actual industrial timers that have been sitting around for fifty-plus years, every single one looks different. Aged. Worn. Unique. You pick the one that speaks to you.
€299 gets you a piece of photographic history rewired to sound like 1969. That’s not a pedal. That’s a conversation starter that also happens to rip.
