Stromer-Mutroniks Jazz Fuzz

A handmade New York fuzz built from Sonny Sharrock's own '70s Ram's Head, with a range from creamy sustain to raw distortion.

Sonny Sharrock came to the guitar wanting to be a saxophone player, and you can hear it. As one of the few guitarists in the first wave of free jazz, he built his sound on big, heavily chorded attacks, feedback, and distorted lines that moved like a tenor horn. Fuzz was part of his voice, and the Stromer Mutroniks Jazz Fuzz comes straight from it.

The story is a good one. The builder behind Stromer Mutroniks was asked to repair Sharrock's own '70s Ram's Head Big Muff, and once it was working again, it sounded too good to hand back without building one for himself. Then a friend wanted one, then a friend of that friend, and the Jazz Fuzz grew from there. Each one is handmade in New York City with Alpha potentiometers and NOS carbon resistors, built to capture the voice of that particular pedal.

Despite the name, this is a big fuzz. It covers everything from smooth, creamy sustain to raw, aggressive distortion, and it has plenty of volume on tap to push your amp harder. Roll your guitar's volume back for chords that stay thick but articulate, or dig in for singing, horn-like leads in the spirit of the man who inspired it.