The Great Eastern Focus Fuzz is a Germanium, and now also Silicon-based pedal by the UK company whose two first releases (the Design-a-Drive and the Smal Speaker Overdrive) were very well received by the community of stompbox lovers. It’s also their first foray into fuzz territory.
Company owner and engineer David Greeves has by now built a reputation for rather simple dirt boxes that do something quite unique and useful. In the case of this release, the simplicity is in the three-knob layout, and the unique usefulness in the Focus knob, which is stressed in the pedal’s name.
While the other two knobs, with unexceptional names as Level and Fuzz do what we all expect them to do, the Focus control progressively adds more gain, bite, and aggression to your signal.
At lower Focus settings, the circuit delivers tones closer to a distortion pedal rather than a fuzz, with a warmer, less compressed sound, but when cranked up the amount of distortion intensifies into a progressively tighter and thicker fuzz reminiscent of a Tone Bender.
To overcome issues related to the availability of Germanium transistors, in July 2023 the company unveiled a Silicon version of this pedal that’s remarkably similar in tone to its older sibling.
Check out the videos of the Great Eastern Focus, below.
Silicon Version Below
Germanium Version Below
Great Eastern FX Focus Fuzz, Builder’s Notes
The FOCUS FUZZ is a very special pedal, strictly limited to just 250 units worldwide.
Built around the unique FOCUS control, the Focus Fuzz effortlessly covers both distortion and fuzz territory, delivering everything from crunchy drive to full-on fuzz.
The FOCUS knob takes things one step further, progressively adding more gain, bite and aggression to push the guitar firmly to the front of the mix.
