Keeley Electronics Electric Mudd Fuzz

Super Fuzz Tone

The Keeley Electric Mudd is a sticky, splatty, octavey fuzz.  It’s gonna do you right when you wanna get off on some fuzz.  If you want to stand out in the world of fuzz, it’s gonna happen with a fuzz like this. Based on the the old red case, big blue foot switch machine, the Electric Mudd adds an edge control that gives you some octave-up type sounds.  We use a hard clipping circuit with some germanium diodes to give that scratchy edge when you need it.

The Electric Mudd sports the Keeley favorite vintage transistor.  The 1960’s Fairchild Semicondutor transistors that have the block glob top and the gold legs. 2N3565 transistors haven’t been made in years.  These units are built with all  6 vintage transistors.  Why do vintage transistors mean so much to this unit?  Low gain and higher capacitance than modern units means that the gain sounds are smooth and warm.  Modern transistors in here would be too harsh.

At the heart of this pedal is a very interesting transistor configuration that has been used in some very special pedals.  It’s called a “differential pair”.  You also see it in the Keeley Fuzz Head and the Boss Blues Driver.  I find it particularly important in getting a great tone in certain circuits.

Volume, Fuzz, and Tone, make for simple adjustment in the pedal.  Start by setting the Edge control “Off” or all of the way down.  That’s going to be more of a classic sounding super fuzz.  As you turn up the Edge Control, turn down the Tone Control a bit to even out the balance.  As you raise the edge you’ll notice two things, maybe some more compression to the tone and the hint of octaves wanting to pop out.

Everyone from Pete Townshend of the Who to Kurt Cobain, Billy Corgan, Adam Yauch to Dan Auerbach has used vitnage pedals with similar tones to the Electric Mudd.