If a new fuzz is released call me interested! And when Fender releases a new Fuzz, call me even more interested.I needed to check it out!
The Hammertone Fuzz was released by Fender in 2022. They released it in a line-up of nine new stompboxes all carrying the Hammertone series name. Marketing the pedal into the real fuzz region with comments on the 60's vibe, the analogue circuit and the octave switch makes it a fuzz hard to pass by. And then there's the style with beautiful Fender like knobs. What not to like?
The circuit
The pedal comes in a beautiful metal enclosure with purple (Haze) elements. Purple words, purple knobs and a purple LED. The pedal looks great from the outside. The enclosure can easily be opened to replace the battery. Next to this the pedal can be run on a 9V adapter. The in and outputs are located at the top of the pedal and you can control the effect with parameters of 'Fuzz' (gain), 'Tone' (EQ) and 'Level' (volume of the pedal). On the inside is a small trimpot that acts as another tone knob. A switch on the front controls the 'Octave' function.
Opened up you can spot three PCB's (jacks, fuzz effect and bypass switch) that are connected by (shielded) wires. The PCB's are pretty well made with all SMD components. All SMD parts are of a rather small build making it impossible to take readings from the front.
I decided to trace the pedal. Some parts my multimeter couldn't measure so those are missing. I de-soldered a couple of caps to get the right value.
As you can spot the pedal starts with a buffer which then feeds into the octave circuit. A switch is used to switch between the normal, standard fuzz and the added octave. After this the audio enters the fuzz circuit which is made of NPN transistors and four silicon diodes. The EQ section starts with a 'Rat like' tone knob consisting of a potmeter and a single cap to ground. A trimpot let's you determine the amount of treble that is fed away through the cap.After this EQ section another EQ section is added that reminds me a bit of the Big Muff tone knob (but different).
The switching is done by a single DPDT switch. The LED is lit by a circuit that reminds me a lot of the Millennium bypass circuit that can also be found in Rat pedals. It is different though.
The Hello Kitty model
In 2024 Fender teamed up with Hello Kitty and released guitars and pedals with the Hello Kitty logo on. As these pedals were only available for a short amount of time. The pedals were available in pink and white and, compared to the Hammertone fuzz, didn't have an octave switch. Yet, they looked quite similar to the Hammertone fuzz.
In a recent post someone shared the PCB's of both the Hammertone Fuzz and the Hello Kitty fuzz. And from a distance they look really familiar and even have a place for the (unused) octave part.
As I need to do this only from pics, I can't really claim this. For now, I don't have a Hello Kitty fuzz available If I venture upon one, I'll add the extra info in this blog.For now, just assume both pedals are the same (minus the octave part).
The sound
Fender did claim it right! This pedal gets you easily into that 60's vibe with a nice touch of a dirty fuzz. This pedal isn't for the calm and beauty sounds in the fuzz world. This pedal is a gate-y and velcro-y kind of fuzz with a very wide gain region. In the normal to higher gain settings the pedal is gate-y and sounds between a misbiased and a Velcro like fuzz. On lower gains though the pedal cleans up well and works wonders with the guitar and bass. On these lower gained settings it can mimic the sound of more pushing fuzz pedals (like a fuzz face) without having too much of the Velcro sounds. To me this is where the pedal shines as it still has enough volume and a very adjustable tone knob. The trimpot on the inside determines the amount of high end still available in the output audio and the official tone knob is there to change the character of the fuzz. The EQ is so wide you can get deep bass-low fuzz gains but also sits in the higher regions of the fuzz tone.
The octave switch adds a whole different kind of character to the fuzz by now adding a very apparent and in-your-face octave effect. And although the octave works fine all over the fretboard, the added octave is most heard by using the neck pickup and played above the 12th fret.
The pedal works slightly better with single coil guitars compared to humbucker guitars. With humbucker guitars the pedal gets even more Velcro-y fast; with a single coil guitar the pedal even added some dynamic to the playing style and stays 'cleaner' on the gain dial.
I did enjoy this pedal. It works wonders on single coil guitars as basses. The octave works well and adds a known character to the pedal. I'd recommend this pedal for people looking for a 60's vibe on fuzz pedals.
The links
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