This is a review of Snow White Fuzz (SWF) #014 provided by huckleboogie. As outlined by BJ above, the SWF is now being transitioned to the Arctic White Fuzz (AWF) during which the "circuit will remain the same" but the tone control "will be just a tad brighter". Given this transition and given the number of reviews already in this thread I thought that I would take a slightly different approach with my review. Instead of reviewing the SWF in isolation I will instead compare it with the Folk Fuzz 3,5% (FF). BJ has released the FF schema into the public domain and therefore an implementation is only a soldering iron away. So, by comparing the SWF to the readily-available FF I hope more people will be able to appreciated the profile of the SWF.
The enclosure pretty much follows the "Construction Philosophy" outlined by Donner in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=648. One aspect that I did not appreciate from other photos of the SWF is that the white paint incorporates silver glitter giving the SWF the "sparkle" look. As noted above, the SWF also uses different shaft pots than other BJFE pedals resulting in the selection of knobs that are not the same as the "standard" BJFE knobs.
As with my previous reviews, I connected the pedal to numerous amps and guitars. In all cases the pedal was the only device in the signal chain, that is guitar->SWF->amp, and I was using Evidence Audio cables to ensure that the signal was very clean. My first impressions were "this definitely sounds like a Fuzz Face" and "in fact, this sounds and operates a lot like my AC128 Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face but is a lot fuller with a decent tone control". Now, there are obvious differences but at least this initial impression will give you a broad indication of where the SWF fits in the pedal world.
Next it was onto comparing the SWF side-by-side with the FF. The SWF operates unity volume at somewhere around 11 O'clock on the Volume control, as does the FF (measured with the Fuzz control set to zero). However, the SWF appears considerably louder than the FF once you increase the Volume control. I had no way of providing an accurate measurement but it certainly sounded like the SWF was 50% louder than the FF. I did not measure as to whether this was apparent volume increase (caused by a different tone profile) or actual volume increase. Regardless, the SWF "seemed" louder. One thing I noticed is that SWF pedal had a bit more hiss than I was used to. I have an extremely clean environment so any noise is immediately noticeable. A side-by-side comparison with my Analog Man NK275 and BC108 Sun Face pedals showed that the SWF seemed to exhibit a lot more hiss than the Analog Man pedals. However, it must also be noted that the SWF provides a lot more volume increase than the Analog Man pedals and of course with increased volume you get increased hiss. However, to me, the SWF definitely provided a bit more hiss than I was normally used to from my Fuzz Face type pedals. However, the hiss on the SWF was nothing compared to the FF; the FF has considerably more hiss than the SWF and can be very, very noticeable. The hiss was evident even when the Fuzz control is set at zero.
The first thing you notice between the SWF and the FF is the voicing. The SWF sounds big with strong mids and the FF sounds bright, thinner and is a bit "buzzy" by comparison. The SWF sounds more like a slightly overdriven big amp with a big fuzz added to it whereas the FF sounds like a much simpler straight '60s-'70s fuzz pedal. The SWF sounds like one of BJ's pedals that does fuzz whereas the FF sounds less like a BJFE pedal and more like a straight fuzz pedal. When the Tone control on the SWF is set to zero it sounds a bit muddy and a bit muffled; the tone and the fuzz just don't seem to have as much definition. By comparison, when the Tone control on the FF is set to zero it still sounds defined and quite clear. The FF sounds immediately useful when the Tone control is set to zero whereas the SWF doesn't quite make it. On the other end of the scale, when the Tone control on the FF is set to full it is bright, biting and will remove all the lining on the inside of your ears, like the Tone Benders used to do in the mid '60s. The FF is also noticeably hissy when the tone is on full; it sounds like a lot of top is being exposed. On the other hand, when the Tone control on the SWF is set to full the sound was still round and big and had not developed anything near the brightness of the FF. The Tone control on the SWF didn't seem to make much of an impact from zero to 50%, in fact the tonal changes were not really that wide overall. The SWF also seems to roll off some of the high frequency and keeps all the boom in the bass whereas the FF is kind of focused on being the brighter of the two. The SWF definitely protects and supports the low end a bit better. Of the two, the FF has a greater range of tone control and "bright" is its second name; the SWF is a big, round fuzz and is kind of the big brother of the two.
With regards to the fuzz, both pedals are kind of middle-of-the-road. By that I mean that they are not fire breathing spitters that splutter molten metal with huge amounts of gain but they are not low-gain fuzz pedals either. Both pedals give you the nasty fuzz you are looking for in a fuzz pedal but in a nice controlled, even kind of way. Both pedals are definitely proper fuzz pedals for fuzz aficionados but they are not venom spitters. If you want something like that get one of the Gary Hurst Tone Bender reissues or something similar. Both pedals also don't have an awful amount of "unnatural" sustain either. They have very nice fuzz-based sustain but it neither (a) dies quickly like the MKI Tone Benders or (b) goes on forever like some of the later Big Muffs. The sustain on both is balanced and just seems to taper off naturally like an amp on mild overdrive. The FF is slightly different in that you can hear a small amount of secondary harmonics at the end of the sustain decay.
Earlier reviews stated that the SWF responded very well to dynamic changes in picking strength, a feature which is common to a number of other BJFE pedals. However, contrary to these reviews, on my SWF I did not find this a particularly strong feature of the SWF at all. It seemed to me that the fuzz was somewhat more constant to both picking strength and guitar volume change than I was expecting. That is, I did not notice that it was particularly dynamic or particularly responsive to guitar volume changes or string picking strength. The SWF did respond to these dynamic changes but the response was relatively minor and not really a stand-out feature for me; there still seemed to be a lot of fuzz even when I was picking lightly or when I reduced the guitar volume. The SWF did not seem to "clean up" in the same way that some other fuzz pedals do; for example, I found the Analog Man Sun Face to be more responsive in both these areas. This was a bit of a surprise to me, considering all the reviews I have read. Conversely, I found that the FF was very dynamic and totally lived up to the tag of "dynamic"; changing the picking strength changed the fuzz intensity and changing the guitar volume helped clean the fuzz up a bit. It may be my particular pedal but the SWF was only slightly dynamic and this was not really a strong feature. In my experience, my SWF was a lot more "constant" and the FF was definitely a lot more dynamic. If you notice in my summary below I actually took out the word "dynamic" when describing the SWF but definitely kept it in with the FF.
I tried the SWF with a number of guitars and it seemed to perform very well with them all. However, I definitely liked it with humbuckers. For some reason the pedal really came alive and lived up to its full potential. Humbuckers definitely open it up and the pedal becomes lots more fun; this pedal definitely likes Humbuckers better than single-coils. The SWF works very well with single-coils it just seems to work a lot better with humbuckers. By comparison, I think that the FF was a little less defined in this area; it seemed to like both equally.
The SWF undertook a dramatic transformation when I changed the power adapter from 9V to 18V; the muddiness was gone, the clarity improved dramatically and fuzz became very pronounced. The SWF totally came alive and the transformation was quite dramatic. In fact, when I switched back to a 9V power adapter the pedal actually sounded anemic in comparison; I was a bit shocked actually. An 18V power adapter just seems to give the SWF the juice it needs to fulfill all its potential; the difference was like night and day. Something that surprised me even more was that the SWF suddenly became much more dynamic. It was still not as dynamic as the FF but it was a very big improvement. So, I would definitely recommend people use a 18V adapter with this pedal rather than the 9V, you will be very pleased indeed.
I don't normally undertake any pedal-stacking tests when I complete these reviews; the reason being that there are so many options you could be doing this forever. However, one can make the following simple observations about the SWF. Firstly, if you want to increase the gain and spit of the SWF feed a booster into it. This will provide you with a whole new palette of gain, fuzz and clarity that you will love. Given the comments above about the 9V vs 18V power supply and the humbuckers it seems that the SWF loves to be pushed in order to bring out its character. A SWF running at 18V with a booster pedal and a humbucker-based guitar in front is a completely different beast from a SWF running at 9V with just a single-coil guitar in front. Secondly, as stated above, I felt that the SWF was an amp-like pedal that provided fuzz. Therefore, it works as a nice little additive to other pedals that may follow. The FF is bright and can kind of dominate in its own way. However, the SWF is somewhat milder and therefore can be a very good tool to provide a slight fuzz flavor to other pedals.
So, the summary is: the FF is a bright, reasonably straight forward dynamic fuzz pedal with a wide tone range whereas the SWF is a bigger, louder, rounder, fuller fuzz pedal that is not as bright as the FF and has less tonal range than the FF but it gives a lot more punch. Whatever you do, run the SWF using an 18V power adapter. Personally, I love each because they are so different. The Folk Fuzz can produce sounds from the '60s, such as stuff done by the The Beatles and Rolling Stones etc. However, the SWF sounds like the next decade of fuzz where you are in stadiums and you need big, round fuzz pedals that are a lot fuller - stadium fuzz. There seems to be a place for both and hence I love both the SWF and the FF
. Hopefully I will also be able to get a AWF and review that as well
