Reuss Repeater Fuzz MK III

Spacemen 3 is one of my all-time favourite bands, so I wanted to create a pedal to make that sound. And that sound comes from the quartet of built-in effects of vintage 1960s Vox guitars, like the Starstream and Ultrasonic (and more).

The Repeater Fuzz mk. III contains three original 1960s circuits of the Vox guitars (fuzz into treble/bass booster into repeat percussion), very faithfully recreated, plus a powerful clean boost to compensate for the inherent volume-loss of the unmodified old circuits (the treble/bass booster and repeat percussion barely keep unity level and with both on, you want to boost the level to compensate – or just to kick ass).

Some of the old Vox guitars also had a built-in wah effect, which you’d control by a lever at the guitar’s bridge. For obvious reasons, a palm-operated wah is not useful in a guitar pedal sitting on a pedal board, so what I have done with the Repeater Fuzz mk III, is that I made a send/return loop where you can connect a wah into the correct place in the signal chain, between the treble/bass booster and the repeat percussion effect. Now you’ve got the full line of effects of Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3’s Vox Starstream guitar – and a true ’Dreamweapon’ (Sonic Boom would modulate his sound by slowly sweeping the palm wah).

One compromise I had to make to keep the Repeater Fuzz mk III in the compact footprint, was to reduce the number of footswitches. Keep in mind, this is four effects in one small box. There’s obviously no room for four footswitches. What you have is a master bypass footswitch which turns the complete pedal on and off (regardless which individual effects is on or off). Each of the four individual effects have their own true bypass switching. The fuzz, treble/bass booster and clean boost are all assignable via toggle switches, and the idea is that you ’preset’ your sound using these. The repeat percussion effect is footswitchable, as this is the one I believe you are most likely to want to kick in and out while playing.