Hiwatt Custom Filter Fuzz

The Custom Filter Fuzz is the Hiwatt Custom Shop's version of the classic 1960s fuzz, all-analog, with more gain and a wider frequency range than the circuits it descends from. Two Custom Shop builders worked on it together.

The filter section is the part that sets it apart: a three-way rotary switch selects one of three hand-picked low-cut filters, footswitchable independently of the effect, which takes the pedal from a mid-pushed parked-wah voice into gating and octave-like behaviour depending on how it lands against the Fuzz and Master Volume. The Thick control shapes low frequencies before the gain stage, from thundering and subby one way to bright and biting the other, and a trim pot inside sets the bias.