TC Electronic RUSTY FUZZ Silicon-Based Transistor Fuzz with Vintage Gated and Velcro-Like Fuzz Tones

Sounds like the psychedelic sixties! Great pedal, great price!

this is great fuzz sound. I would say its more tasteful than the normal fuzz sound. It adds the desired fuzz sound to your tone but it is highly controllable and you can adjust it to fit your desires. True bypass for a good price. Definitely recommend.

The TC Electronic "Rusty Fuzz" is one of 13 new budget effects pedals released as part of a limited release they have referred to informally as the "Smorgasbord of Tones". What they actually represent is a set of re-branded (and somewhat upgraded) Behringer pedals re-housed in what appears to be an original design enclosure. In fact, the build quality-to-price ratio is the major draw here - these things are built incredibly tough, and it's almost hard to believe you're getting "this much pedal" for $50. The "Smorgasbord" line isn't really meant to compete with high-end gear (including TC Electronic's popular models like the Flashback Delay and Hall of Fame Reverb) - it's meant as a Guitar Center exclusive in the U.S. and has been slowly rolled out to other online vendors in Europe and the U.S. in early 2017.I was excited for a number of the dirt pedals and the reverb pedals, though upon trying several of them out, most of the dirt pedal offerings were somewhat disappointing. The "Rusty Fuzz", however, was one of the exceptions to that rule, and I thought it offered a nice blend of popular fuzz tones. For example, it has the low end for power chords similar to a Big Muff, but can also be set up for singing, raspy lead tones, similar to a Fuzz Face. It wasn't my favorite representation of either, but for a $50 fuzz pedal, I thought it was entirely worth playing. Describing "good" fuzz tone in words is extremely difficult, and getting everyone to agree on what makes a good fuzz pedal is even harder, but I don't think most people would be disappointed with what they hear in this affordable fuzz.A couple things to note about the build quality and setup. The I/O jacks are top-mounted - this is a recent trend that a lot of people favor for side-to-side mounting for those with crowded pedal boards, but I find it slightly more annoying to work with for everyone else. The bypass switch looks like an "MXR"-style, but is actually a soft switch and does not click when you depress it. Actually, if I recall correctly, it switches on or off when you release the depressed switch, which is different from many other designs. Since I find a lot of TC Electronic's switches on higher end gear to feel somewhat dodgy and unreliable, however, I welcome the change. Finally, tone knobs are often ineffective (or omitted altogether) with fuzz due to the amount of compression/clipping involved in the effect, but I felt like the Rusty Fuzz's tone knob was more useful than most in dialing in the pedal to my preferences.

This review is for the Rusty Fuzz. There is a reason why it has such a low price. This is the only pedal I own that I want to sell because it is not useful to me. Even with the level on full, it has a lower output than any of my other pedals. There is not much difference in the amount of fuzz on the fuzz dial--left is a little less, right is a little more. And the fuzz sound just isn't that great compared to any other quality fuzz pedal I've heard. It is fine for amateurs, but if you care about tone I would recommend spending a bit more and getting something better. I don't use it.