Guitar World Verdict
The Hello Kitty Fuzz looks so cute. But don’t be fooled. Like many of her feline counterparts, animal passions stir within, with a sound so mean you worry this fuzz will walk off your ‘board one night and return with a songbird in its mouth.
Pros
- +
Cute design, wild tones, and versatile.
- +
Compact, easy to use and just $99.
- +
The enclosure is built like a tank.
Cons
- –
It doesn’t have the octave mode of Fender’s Hammertone Fuzz.
- –
Wild and woolly: too much woof for some cats?
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What is it?
It is one of the tropes of guitar effects pedal culture that designers look to the animal kingdom when naming their fuzz pedal, and we are fully onboard with this.
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| Test | Results | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Build quality | Pleasingly hefty, cute but rugged. | ★★★★½ |
| Usability | Lacking an octave mode but very easy to use. | ★★★★☆ |
| Sounds | Can get woolly, but there’s plenty of gain and cleans up nicely. | ★★★★☆ |
| Overall | Don’t let the friendly look fool you – this fuzz can get fierce. | ★★★★☆ |
$79/£65/€79
Built similarly tough, similarly compact, this silicon fuzz has a fun switchable octave mode.
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$149/£115 /€135
The Big F’s big fuzz is a classic-sounding silicon fuzz with the controls to tame its wilder sounds. It was an early triumph for Fender’s refreshed pedal lineup.
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Electro-Harmonix Op-Amp Big Muff
$96/£75 /€85
It’s the evergreen orange box for creating wall of sound grunge and punk tones. Affordable, musical, and fun.
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Jonathan Horsley has been writing about guitars since 2005, playing them since 1990, and regularly contributes to publications including Guitar World, MusicRadar and Total Guitar. He uses Jazz III nylon picks, 10s during the week, 9s at the weekend, and shamefully still struggles with rhythm figure one of Van Halen’s Panama.
