Michael Klein Audio Design Black Mold Hybrid Fuzz

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From Michael Klein:

For years, I’ve wanted to have a fuzz that can be used in the same way as a boost/overdrive pedal. Dial an amp in and push it over the edge with your pedal du jour (“mmm...that sounds good. I’ll have that.”). Unfortunately, about any fuzz design is overkill like this, at least for what I wanted. Most fuzzes, including the Bone Breaker germanium fuzz, work best with less amp distortion.

Some time back, I unintentionally breadboarded a Harmonic Percolator wrong, and surprising tones happened. From there, the circuit just needed modest coaxing.... I then started to go through some of my old parts to see what sounded best. For the final version, I’ve concluded that an RCA 2N414, Fairchild NPN, old Phillips caps and semiconductors, and some cool polyester film orange drop caps sounded best in this simple circuit.

Black Mold was quite a learning experience for me, as I had been trying ground up fuzz designs with good (but not great) success. But the mistakes that led to Black Mold, and it’s later refinements nailed what I was after sonically. It melds with the amp’s gain well, holds together, chugs EXTREMELY well, and has a bit of spitting in long sustained notes and chords.

Controls

OUTPUT controls the volume of the Black Mold. When using it as a boost, I recommend starting with this control at least halfway up, and then pushing higher from there. Because Black Mold also makes a great standalone fuzz, you can use also use this to balance with your amplifier’s natural character and headroom.

BASS controls the low-end in the Black Mold’s sound. This is incredibly helpful when dialing in the pedal as a traditional boost, and I recommend listening to both palm mutes and sustained chords to help tune this control. At minimum, the sound is as lean as desired. As the control is increased, the low end gradually fills out. For the nerds, this unique control is highly interactive with the INPUT control, which was intentional. Just because there’s only 3 controls doesn’t mean it’s pigeonholed in sound.

INPUT controls the strength of the signal hitting the fuzz circuit. You can think of it like a fuzz or drive control. Note that at minimum, there will be no sound output. As the INPUT is increased, the amount of fuzz becomes more prominent.

For a very simple design and control layout, there is a lot of interaction and versatility in its controls. I hope you’ll find a wide variety of sonic sileage in this little box!