Hand-Wired Like a Sculpture | Reeves Electro Tone Bender MKI Fuzz

Messy. Vocal. Unhinged — but musical. The Reeves Electro Black Hat Sound Fuzz is a brutally expressive, vintage-inspired fuzz for players who live on the edge of breakup and beyond. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.

The Reeves Electro Black Hat Sound Fuzz pairs with the Gronlund Guitars SC18 — TV Jones TV Classic Filter'Trons, Treble Bleed — into the Greer Amps Mini Chief and Smallblock 1x12" cab with a Scumback S75-PVC Alnico speaker, via the Boss Waza Tube Amp Expander. The Effectrode Tube Vibe joins from 09:19.

Based on the 183Sound Fuzz but pushed further, the Black Hat Sound Fuzz adds an external bias control that sweeps from smooth, flowing sustain to spitty, buckling, voltage-starved chaos — without ever losing low-end authority or midrange cut. At its heart is a matched pair of ultra-rare NOS ME4003 "Black Hat" silicon transistors from the 1970s, housed in TO-106 metal cans. The result is a fuzz that feels genuinely alive under the fingers — insanely pick-sensitive, highly responsive to the guitar's volume knob, and packed with grainy, vocal character reminiscent of early MKI-style circuits.

With the Bass switch engaged, the low end stays tight and massive rather than flabby — explored from 05:26 (cut) and 06:56 (engaged, with higher amp gain and more fuzz compression). Flip the output cap switch and the fuzz tightens up for a more nasal, cutting character that recalls early FZ-style fuzz textures, especially when the Bias is pushed into its final gated range. The last 20% of the Bias sweep gets wonderfully unstable — broken, saggy, squelchy, and gloriously rude, explored from 02:50 through 04:25 and revisited with cleanup from 12:36.

This circuit especially lifts humbucker-equipped guitars, adding attack, presence, and articulation without smearing the low strings — chewy and fractured down low, blooming and sweet higher up the neck while still slicing through a mix. The TV Jones TV Classic Filter'Trons in the Gronlund SC18 give it a Filter'Tron character to cut through with, tested here at length.

Every Black Hat Sound Fuzz is entirely hand-built in a garden workshop in Northamptonshire, UK — drilled, painted, and acid-etched with true point-to-point construction, no PCB, no traces, no shortcuts. Each pedal is played and signed off by ear, not by meters or tone generators, and no two acid-etched gunmetal enclosures look exactly alike. Boss-style 2.1mm center-negative DC jack only, no battery.

Volume knob cleanup explored extensively from 10:22, with amp volume pushed harder from 11:26.

If you like your fuzz messy, squelchy, vocal, and unapologetically raw — but still tight where it counts — this one might be dangerous for your wallet.

🎛️ Reeves Electro Black Hat Sound Fuzz: https://reeveselectro.co.uk 🎸 Gronlund Guitars: https://www.gronlundguitars.com 🔊 Greer Amps: https://www.greeramps.com

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🎸 Gronlund Guitars SC18 | TV Jones TV Classic Filter'Trons | Treble Bleed 🎛️ Reeves Electro Black Hat Sound Fuzz | NOS ME4003 "Black Hat" Si (TO-106, 1970s) | External Bias | Bass Switch | Output Cap Switch | Point-to-Point | Effectrode Tube Vibe 🔊 Greer Amps Mini Chief | Greer Smallblock 1x12" | Scumback S75-PVC Alnico | Boss Waza TAE