MXR® Super Badass® Variac Fuzz

I like this a lot! So many adjustments you can get all different kids of fuzz from broken dead battery to mild to crazy to dark. It has a bright blue led so you know if it’s on or not. It comes with four rubber foot pads you can stick on it. Or use your own Velcro for a pedal board. It’s true bypass from the website. The instructions are generic. A product specific one is on the Dunlop website. Over all after a ton of you tube videos I’m very happy with choosing it. I put a lithium battery in it. It’s four screws to change the battery so I didn’t want to worry about it for a while. It can be left in place when using a power supply too. Not included. It does not say made in America anywhere but I believe it is. Even the circuit board has English on it. I bought it to get Hendrix fuzz sounds and it works. Also found a Nirvana Teen Spirit sounding setting. You could lean over this thing all day tweaking the knobs and getting different sounds. I just got the thing. I’ll update if there are durability issues. It seems very solid though and I’d definitely recommend it.Update: I’ve had this a while now. Have some more opinions on it. It is dark and has a really low end sound for a deep dark metal sound. You can’t make the pedal itself sound bright. It’s kinda a great sound for a strat with bright steel strings instead of vintage all nickel.It has a great sensitivity to volume. You can clean up your tone quite a bit by raising your volume in the guitar or make it more gritty by increasing the volume. Even with the gain all the way down and your guitar volume low it will not sound clean like an OCD distortion. But hey it’s a fuzz!I have since gotten a Metal Muff which is really affordable. For a Metallica Mesa Boogie sound the Metal Muff has the perfect Metallica sound to me. This pedal is great for many great sounds as it is so adjustable. But it cannot get a scooped mods sound as the treble is always kinda low.Paired with a pitchfork on an octave up gets you an even better Hendrix tone. But if that’s what you’re going for an octave fuzz would probably be a cheaper alternative. On the other hand Purple Haze is one of my favorite riffs to noodle around on and this can make it sound really good.If you want a great volume sensitive dark sounding fuzz I’d definitely recommend this still. I don’t regret buying it at all. It is a great pedal overall.I have since moved it to the front of my chain. I think it sounded better. Not sure if it’s in my head or what. It’s very negligible though if it’s really there. It sounded great behind my buffered tuner and a true bypass wah as well.The bright led started getting in my nerves as all my pedals with bright blue leds have. I cut a circle of blue masking tape and stuck it on all my blue pedal leds. They are all now the perfect brightness for me.I have aStrat with two single coils and a bridge humbucker. And a Les Paul with EMG’s. It sounds great with both.It is a super quiet pedal. Obviously it will amplify noise. My strat with single coils makes more noise on an OCD that has way less distortion than this as an example. That’s really surprising to me. I never even needed a noise gate with this pedal alone. The OCD on the other hand did.Hope all this information helps you all. Feels like I’ve been typing forever. Good thing we have calluses!

Gibson Les Paul BFG with phat cat p90s into this pedal into a slightly dirty amp is a truly massive sound. It does that boosted low end/low mids doom grind really, really well and almost feels suited to doom/sludge given how dark the pedal is. The 15V headroom is extremely useful if you are using this fuzz with a dirty amp. I honestly think this pedal was made for doom even if not intentional.

It’s ok, I’m not a big fuz fan I’m learning. Don’t know till you try one. Pedal is well made like all MXR pedals, it’s fuzzy

From the start, I knew this would be good, because MXR is a name you can trust. But when I actually plugged it in, and started playing - I realized this was the "missing ingredient" i've been seeking for a few years.PROSThe tone shaping, sustain, and that awesome variac knob helps me dial in exactly what I need and hear in my head when I think of fuzz. I can get anything from a late 70s to a mid 90s sound. Easily able to get a Bush sound, grunge sounds, classic rock sounds -- this is a great sound shaper and distortion effect!CONSAs with many MXR pedals, the back plate has 4 small screws, not a giant easy to use screw (like TC Electronics)I don't like the power outlet being on the side (would rather it be on the top)

Great pedal, per my hubby!

Love it. Great punchy fuzz sound and a broad range of fuzz tones including the almost dead 9v battery sound with the variac dial. Best new all around fuzz pedal in my opinion. Replaced my nano big muff Pi which is only 2D compared to the 3D super badass! If you love fuzz this one is for you...

MXR makes really good pedals, the only thing I (and everyone else I know) don't care for is placement of the dc input It is most inconvenient especially if you are actually planning to use the pedal on a board where it is in a chain with other pedal. Other than that this a very nice pedal, I have gone through several Fuzz Pedals lately and none of them are really a fuzz pedal they are all fizzy pedals, not enough grind or square wave if that makes any sense. I had one from the 60's (that is buried in a box somewhere) that cost $25 and was a real fuzz pedal (orange and blue the size of three or four standard pedals of today's size.

I like the pedal, but truly, I like it more as an overdrive than a fuzz. To me it doesn't seem to get as fuzzy as I'd hoped it would. Maybe I just haven't found the right combination yet on the knobs. I'll keep the pedal but I'm still going to be searching for a good fuzz pedal.