Pro Tone Monster Fuzz Reviewed

Dennis at Pro Tone is an interesting guy and makes interesting pedals, with both visual and sonic properties that usually put them over the competition and the Monster Fuzz is no exception. It has a unique visual appeal and would stand out on your pedal board (the knobs are sometimes just knobs but are also sometimes EYES to the fuzz monster) and in the mix.

Dennis is also responsible for the oddest of revelations, two of which I stumbled on using this pedal:

1) Fuzz makes me play sloppy BUT also allows me to have some amazingly great fun.

2) I have to play barefoot.

That sounds weird, but don't worry, we'll tackle this and it will all make sense in the end.

So beginning with the second revelation (see that? I'm just keeping you on your toes) let me explain. The pedal has three knobs: volume, tone and fuzz and once you set your volume you're free to experiment with the tone and fuzz and both knobs offer a ton of versatility and your TOES come in very handy for changing the tone because it minimizes the amount of time necessary to tweak the knobs.

Luckily, even with toes, the knobs are easily adjusted and this allowed me to change the tone mid riff. My favorite thing to do was play palm muted power chords with the tone knob turned down (more bass) and produce an insane, earth shaking kind of tone and then turn the tone knob up to about 3:00 (approximately - it's really tough to be accurate with your toes) for solos or little runs on the high notes. The bass becomes less and less as you turn the tone knob up and the highness of the notes was pleasant.

The TONES found in this box are everything that is good in the world of fuzz. The sound is raunchy, ratty, dangerous, and unpredictable. I like the level of unpredictability but after a while was picking up on trends like an awesome kind of choppiness to single notes when I let them ring. If I bent the note the choppiness went away so I started accentuating notes, refreshing boring scales, lingering on some notes letting that chop come in, bending some others to make a more smooth tone.

And the tones is what it all comes down to in the end, no matter how cool the packaging. I can move from bassy fuzz-tastic tones to higher fuzz-tastic tones and almost every tone I've come across I could use. You could go from vintage fuzz tones to Jack White-ish tones and everywhere between. You can really make some noise with this pedal AS WELL AS add some serious spice to your tone.

Speaking of noise, let's swing back around to point number one: fuzz makes me play sloppy but I have a good time doing that. In the movie Fuzz: The Sound That Changed The World, a builder said that all fuzz is, is a broken circuit or a circuit that isn't working well and the bassist from Beck said he wants to surrender to a pedal's unpredictability. At first I thought that was a little silly. Why would you want to surrender your tone?

I found out why: because it's FUN. Single notes ring through but when you start adding more notes that are ringing either by playing chords or just not muting a note when you move to the next, it doesn't make a joined sound like you may be used to but instead creates a wall of sound where the notes are all blended in a beautiful but unintelligible mess. There was a threat of feedback, there was amplified string noise, there was everything you would THINK you wouldn't want in your guitar tone but in practice open up all sorts of new doors for playing. At the VERY least it's a change from the routine.

The level of craziness is controlled by the fuzz knob, so if you want more articulation, you can turn it down and get great tones that aren't so in your face with plenty of definition.

Let's take a break here for a second for some video before we go any further:

So is the Monster Fuzz worth buying?

YES.

I already said it but it bears repeating: it's everything you know and love about fuzz in one convenient and awesome looking package. It's fun to constantly tweak the knobs and find new tones and... Well, I just love it. While I borrowed this one from a friend who is deployed (and will sanitize the pedal before he gets back), I'm giving serious thought to saving up for one of my own.

Of course, this ALSO makes me wonder what Pro Tone Pedals' OTHER fuzzes sound like.

If I were more of an authority on fuzz I would say we should have a shoot out but since I'm new to the fuzz game, I'll just say that this pedal is fun to use, has no bad or unmusical sounds that I can't use in writing and looks awesome. I have a good time playing with it and it's invigorating to play with. What more do you want in a pedal?

-Pappy