Ever wanted a Fuzz but don’t know where to start? Ever wanted to replicate tones for your favourite songs but don’t want masses of pedals specific for each one?
The Flattley DG Fuzz is for you!
I’ve been given the great opportunity to have a play with this pedal by the guys over at Flattley, and let me tell you, what an eye opener it’s been! On my setup, I’ve normally got the standards for a pedal board. Tuner, Wah, some distortion or overdrive and then my modulation. Always wanting a Fuzz to fit into the mix but never found the right one. When I tell you this is now one of my main stays for the setup… that means something!
Being part of Flattley’s ‘’Platinum’’ Range, there’s a certain standard to be expected in not only the tonal qualities, but the build and packaging quality too! In my opinion, they do not disappoint! Straight out the box you are greeted with this sparkling, intricate design of sugar skulls seemingly inspired by The Grateful Dead. Hidden under the pedal you’ve got the instructions, and a goodie bag filled with Flattley stickers and a plectrum engraved with the Flattleys skull design.
Utilising their superior process to get a hard wearing, solid finish, I’ve been stamping on this stomp box for weeks every day and not a blemish in sight. Their triple lacquered finish keeps their signature ‘’Flattley Sparkle’’ alive, allowing for this to always be a thing of beauty on the board. And their chosen method of power lighting being around the button is sublime! Even though it’s truly a workhorse on the board, it doesn’t hurt for it to look the part as well!
But enough about the aesthetics, on to the good stuff!
As guitarists we all chop and change gear, sub things in and out for the new thing or the gear you’ve played at your mates house, that’s’ the beauty of pedalboards, right? And just like your pedal board, this fuzz does everything! Need a thin tone, just dial the Grunt knob down and the Fuzz knob up. Want a big creamy tone, roll it back up and knock the Fuzz down. I’ve even used it as a signal boost! The applications of this pedal are endless as far as fuzz goes, it’s definitely an extremley versatile piece of kit!
I went to Pauls to collect this and we couldn’t resist plugging it in! We were running it through a clean amp, extremely rare in my house being a Rock and Metal guitarist but not for Paul.
Everything was set to 12 O’clock, and it sounded GREAT! As I began to play I would tweak the settings, shocked at how much just a slight turn would totally alter the tonal qualities of this pedal. Eventually I did what I had to and ran it flat out. Everything to 11 and just wailed on it, riffing Black Sabbath, Hendrix, Cream and noodling in between. Slightly changing the tone knob to allow for more attack and more of a mellow laid back fuzz. What really impressed me was the dynamics this pedal allows you to play with, dig in and you can really drive it, but play softly and it almost mimics a tube amp, cleaning up and sounding bright with just a touch of crunch to allow for some real nice rhythm playing.
After getting this home I did my usual thing, set up my guitar and board ready to go, and then proceeded to see what made this pedal tick. Opening it up is easy, having 4 countersunk screws on the back and then removing the backplate is all there is to it! Inside you find a very neat and perfectly mounted PCB with the Flattley logo etched on (nice touch guys). You can then access all the different components if so desired however I didn’t get that far as I did still want to keep this a mystery as to how they get this to sound this good! This does bring me to the singular fault I found in this great piece of kit, there isn’t an option to run this on a battery! However I do understand that having this quality of gear, you’d be expected to have a pretty decent power supply to run it on!
I then continued my testing, reassembled the pedal and kranked the amp and jammed out, pushing the fuzz through an already dirty amp really opened up its possibilities, driving the valves and pushing them past the point of an already pretty gainey breakup, this fuzz helped tighten up the mids and allow for some really nice lead tones, stacked with my usual wah, delay, and modulation, the DG coped with everything I threw at it!
Overall, the Flattley DG Fuzz has to be the best fuzz I’ve ever played through my guitar rig, handling different effects with ease and allowing me to play whatever I need without too much adjustment. She now sits firmly on my pedalboard ready for the next show!
Look out for more reviews on Flattley pedals in our future issues. We may be looking at the Delay pedal next whick is exciting Paul being the crusty old ‘Surf’ guitarist he is. In the meantime, check out their range on their website:
https://flattleyguitarpedals.com