NPD: Zoom Ultra Fuzz

[bluesholyman]

Found this recently - interesting pedal. Has a lot of versatility to it - everything from mild overdrive to self-oscillating pig squeals. Haven't had a lot of time to play with it yet, but it has some really good sounds, and some interesting ones. An article over at Catalinbread here praises it as a very worthy fuzz. It weighs more than a proco rat - very solid case.

Didn't find any references at TDPRI except one from 2013 where @blowtorch talked about having one - rather short-lived thread though.

If any of you all have thoughts on it, do tell. No one even claims to use one over on equipboard, but there does seem to be some respect in the shadows for this pedal. I can't resist a unique and good fuzz for the tool box - this one definitely seems to answer the mail there.

 

[RetroTeleRod]

Congrats! Happy NPD.

 

[schenkadere]

That was a really great, underrated line of pedals. Enjoy that. I may look for one myself.

 

[blowtorch]

Didn't find any references at TDPRI except one from 2013 where @blowtorch talked about having one - rather short-lived thread though.

yep. Still have it. It's surprisingly awesome and very versatile
It can do the velcro-spitty thing, which back in the day it was actually very challenging to find a fuzz that could do that without spending a ton. These days 40 bucks will get you a TC E Rusty Fuzz that does that just fine
But it does much more than that
I also have this one from that series, it was touted as a "poor man's Klon" back before the market was flooded with em

 

[Whateverdude]

Congrats I had one years ago, it’s a great fuzz. Wish I kept it!

 

[CirrusBand]

Nice! I've got one on my board. It's the only Fuzz I've had that I feel works really well with an AC30 - with the tone rolled down to a quarter and colour rolled up to 3/4, it gets a nice EQ shape that's somehow got an angry big muff style upper mid scoop while having some great low mids that stop it sounding thin. And yeah, the case is heavy duty! The reso knob doesn't work if it's behind a buffer, which is a bit of a shame.

 

[Sleepyscholar]

Nice! I've got one on my board. It's the only Fuzz I've had that I feel works really well with an AC30 - with the tone rolled down to a quarter and colour rolled up to 3/4, it gets a nice EQ shape that's somehow got an angry big muff style upper mid scoop while having some great low mids that stop it sounding thin. And yeah, the case is heavy duty! The reso knob doesn't work if it's behind a buffer, which is a bit of a shame.

Yeah, but it wouldn't be a proper fuzz if it didn't get shirty about being first in line!

I got one of these when they were being touted as a cheap alternative to the Fuzz Factory, and since I'm in Japan, that really did mean cheap. Lent it to our bassist shortly before the band ceased operating, but luckily managed to get it back a year or two later. I've since picked up a couple of other fuzzes of various descriptions, but I haven't really used them, and I kind of regret it: the UF-01 really is versatile enough for someone like me, who is not a dedicated fuzzhead.

The self-oscillation is really interesting, though, and reminded me of Joey Santiago unplugging his guitar and playing the input jack at the Pixies gig I went to a little while ago.