Earthquaker Park Fuzz is randomly super muffled??

[omfg51]

So I know this pedal uses germanium transistors, which are known for being less sonically stable than silicon in reference to temperature, but today I was rearranging pedals, unplugged and re-plugged this bad boy, and it just sounds totally different.

No brightness, absolutely raspy and throaty in a way completely unlike what it was before I unplugged it, and I can't even get close to that same sound even playing with the knobs.

I always had the knobs set as seen below, and this produced a lovely mild OD tone that was very light in breakup and super clean and clear with plenty of brightness and chunk.

Now it just sounds like somebody threw a huge blanket over everything.

I've tried multiple power supply options, as well as multiple batteries, and nothing changed it. Any ideas?

 

[guitarslinger21]

Mine is very temperature sensitive. It turned to mush in the summer sun, but still sounded cool.

 

[PhuzzphayzZ]

it's like a Fuzz horror movie... wow... stick it in the fridge? Obviously contact if it persists... I'd be in a tither

 

[zombiwoof]

Check to see if it has an internal bias trimmer pot. If so, try tweaking it to see if you can get your previous sound. Many modern germanium fuzzes have bias pots to dial in the germ transistors.
Al

 

[jddub440]

Did you move it around in your pedal chain?

 

[omfg51]

Couldn't find any internal controls, and I initially put it in the exact same spot in the chain, but tried it in a couple places, as well as isolated.

 

[dlsmusic]

Could be a bad solder joint that was intermittent and went bad. You can look for these visually, they'll look dull or grainy as opposed to shiny. Are the transistors in sockets? If so, make sure they are securely inserted. Could also be a dirty pot. I use Deoxit to clean my pots. Hope you can find out what ails your pedal! That's super frustrating!

 

[monkeybrains]

Could be the switch.

 

[drbob1]

Ah, trouble shooting pedals... The switch is unlikely, since failure there tends to be a "can't turn on or can't turn off" situation. Power jack is also unlikely for the same reason. A poor solder joint in the signal path might do it by introducing a lot of extra capacitance, and plugging/unplugging could have stressed one. You could reflow all the solder joints (just heat them up enough to melt with the iron, them move on). If that doesn't work, then I'd start thinking about a dead component-most likely a cap in that application. If a cap is being used as a high pass filter (bass to ground) and the cap fails closed, or a low pass filter and it fails open, then you might get those symptoms. Maybe contact EQD and see what they suggest, often they'll repair the pedal for cost of shipping.