Foxrox Electronics CC Hybrid Fuzz

CC Hybrid is a stand-alone pedal that contains the same Silcon/Germainum fuzz face circuit as the original Captain Coconut and Captain Coconut2. Since 2000, I've had people asking for custom pedals made with this circuit and now it's finally available as a standard Foxrox product.

Why Si/Ge hybrid? Back in 2000 when i was designing the original Captain Coconut (Octavia/Univibe/Fuzzface in one pedal), I had to make a choice - make the fuzz face circuit the NPN Silicon version, or the PNP Germanium version. I couldn't make up my mind - both have their strong and weak points, and to be honest, I'm not 100% pleased with either one. The PNP Ge version doesn't have the amount of gain that I like but it does have a warm tone that cleans up well with the volume knob on my guitar. But still a little too dark and almost whimpy for my liking. The NPN Si version has a bright, high gain sound that sings, but it's a little too sharp-toned for my liking and a little brittle sounding when trying to get the guitar volume knob clean up sound. The logical choice would be to use the Silicon NPN version because that's what Jimi used mostly (as far as I know) when he was using a Univibe. But even though Captain Coconut has been called "Jimi in a box" and I named it after a Jimi song (It's really MLK, but I thought Captain Coconut sounded cool), the pedal was really fine tuned around what I want to hear - not what Jimi used. That would be like shooting at a moving target because he was changing things around a lot, different recordings had different sounds, etc.. So I experimented and tried building a Fuzz Face with one Silicon transistor and one Germanium transistor. It required some experimenting with different transistors, with different amounts of gain, tweaking various bias resistor values, and other things, but I basically stayed with the same Fuzz Face circuit. The result was a fuzz I fell in love with. A fuzz with the gain that I like, the right balance of brightness and warmth, and the ability to clean up nicely with the guitar volume knob. The best of both worlds, with the worst of neither, at least in my opinion. So the original CC got the new Hybrid circuit. But youknow how it is with Fuzz faces - you want the one that feels most comfortable. When I designed Captain Coconut 2 I decided to offered some options. (keep reading)

When I introduced Captain Coconut 2, I decided to come up with "Fuzzcards". This way people could have the fuzz they want in their pedal. The default FuzzCard was the Si/Ge Hybrid card. Most people stuck with that circuit, but the ones with strong preferences had the option of swapping it out with either the "Vintage Germanium PNP" or the "Hot Silicon NPN". I still stock those FuzzCards for CC2 owners who want to experiment. Back to CC Hybrid - CC2 was a big success for Foxrox but it wasn't for everyone. I started getting a lot of requests for the individual effects - people wanted a stand-alone vibe pedal, or a stand alone Octave pedal, or a stand alone fuzz. Over the years I did some custom jobs but they're too time consuming, so I decided to design some pedals to satisfy the demand. At this time I offer the Octron (and Octron2), which does a great Octave up effect (and octave down). I also make the Aquavibe, which is a rich sounding, versatile vibe pedal. And in addition to that I've been making the Hot Silicon Fuzz wich harkens back to my days at Crest Audio / Dallas Music Industries in the mid/late 1980's, when I headed up the Fuzz Face reissue. Then there's the CC Hybrid... I was getting requests for a stand alone Hybrid pedal and I built a bunch of them into little Hammond enclosures. I don't really like drilling metal and using those enclosures, so I decided to have my metalwork fabricator make up a batch of black Foxrox-style boxes. I've had those boxes in stock for about 4-5 years now, but I got so busy with other things that I never got around to introducing the pedals. Not until now.. So if this is something you want, I have a bunch built up and in stock. If you're into Fuzz Faces but haven't settled on one you love, this just might be it. It's the one I always come back to. Since I made the Hybrid circuit in the original Captain Coconuts, a number of other builders have ran with the idea, but this is the original. I don't know of anyone who made a Fuzz Face variation like this before me.