A Vintage Darkroom Timer Became a NOS Germanium Fuzz Face! | R2R Electric into a Vintage ’65 Deluxe

A dedicated deep dive into the R2R Electric x Waterslide Guitars Time-O-Lite Fuzz — rare NOS OC44 black glass germanium transistors from the 1950s and '60s in a genuinely inspiring modern fuzz build. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.

The R2R Electric x Waterslide Guitars Time-O-Lite Fuzz pairs with the Gronlund Guitars T-Style — McNelly A5 Telecaster Pickups — into a vintage 1965 Fender Deluxe Reverb pushing a Fat Jimmy 1225 speaker.

The Time-O-Lite is a collaboration between Chris Vincent (@djlavalamp) and Waterslide Guitars — a run of just 25 units built into genuine vintage darkroom photographic light timer enclosures, filled with NOS OC44 black glass germanium transistors from the 1950s and '60s. This circuit captures everything that made the earliest Fuzz Face-style fuzz so compelling — rich harmonic bloom, touch-sensitive cleanup, complex midrange grind — with the consistency and reliability of a modern boutique build.

Fuzz gain at max with amp at unity volume on the bridge pickup opens the demo, moving to the neck pickup with volume knob cleanup from 01:30. Bridge cleanup from 02:46 and neck cleanup from 03:05 are compared directly, with both pickups stacked in serial from 03:16 showing a genuinely thick, combined tonal option. Guitar volume back to 10 on the bridge closes the demo from 03:31.

The Gronlund T-Style's McNelly A5 Telecaster pickups give the Time-O-Lite exactly the kind of articulate pick attack and Tele snap that lets a vintage fuzz circuit breathe rather than collapsing into mush — wide dynamic range from clean twang through fully saturated fuzz. The 1965 Fender Deluxe Reverb's original blackface circuit, paired with the Fat Jimmy 1225 speaker, gives the fuzz real air movement and dimensional breakup with authentic edge-of-breakup compression.

Also watch: the full five-fuzz R2R Electric showcase featuring the Time-O-Lite, PKIII, Replica Series MK1.5 and MKII, and Supa MKI Fuzz.

🎛️ R2R Electric: https://www.r2relectric.com 🎸 Gronlund Guitars: https://www.gronlundguitars.com 🎸 McNelly Pickups: https://mcnellypickups.com

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🎸 Gronlund Guitars T-Style | McNelly A5 Telecaster Pickups 🎛️ R2R Electric x Waterslide Guitars Time-O-Lite Fuzz | NOS OC44 Black Glass Ge ('50s-'60s) | 25 Units Only 🔊 Vintage 1965 Fender Deluxe Reverb | Fat Jimmy 1225 Speaker