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 An exhausting house move (goodbye ‘burbs, hello inner city) over, GEARED sits down to examine two recent additions to his pedalboard – the KEELEY JAVA BOOST and BIYANG FZ-10 FUZZ STAR.
Every now and then, a guitarist with a single-channel valve amp will need to dirty up their sound without having to twist the gain knob mid-song. The ubiquitous overdrive/distortion boxes serve their due purpose there – however this week, we won’t be extolling the virtues of Tubescreamers, Rats and their ilk. Instead, we’re going to give some love to the oft-overlooked boost and the good old fuzz.
An invention that’s as British as the steak & kidney pie, the treble boost has been around since the 1960s when UK guitarists strove to match the bright tone produced by US-made Fender amplifiers that not everyone back then could afford. The UK-made amps of the time (eg Selmer, Truvoice and early Vox models) tended to be somewhat murky-sounding, with a lot of midrange and not quite enough treble or edge. Enter the Dallas Rangemaster – and with it the famed “British top boost”. Originally a heavy, clunky metal box, the unit’s impact was momentary and the now-iconic sparky jangle, chime and cutting treble all duly sprung up. In the ‘70s, Brian May made the upgraded Rangemaster his weapon of choice with Queen and the source of his trademark singing hi-end sustain (as emitted by his legendary homemade axe through a wall of stacked AC30s), adding yet another page to the classic rock tone bible. As time went on and valve distortion became a customary amp feature, MXR introduced the most simplistic volume/frequencies booster – the industry-standard Micro Amp, which the presently Jim Dunlop-owned company produce to this day. During the boutique heyday of the late ‘90s/early ‘00s, cult stompboxes like Klon Centaur and Zvex Super Hard-On (best pedal name EVAR – Geared Ed.) gained a large number of fervent fans and even more recently, the instant-classic Keeley Java Boost popped up.
A veritable US effect pedal whiz, Robert Keeley needs no introduction as the father of the lauded Keeley Compressor and the person responsible for the multitude of “Keeley-modded” Boss and Ibanez pedals adorning players’ rigs. The man KNOWS his tone; even more importantly, he knows how to accentuate it – and the Java Boost will definitely pep up your sound like a hot cup of fair trade coffee. Visually attractive and sonically outstanding, the ultra-compact unit is capable of pushing the amp’s natural overdrive all the way up – in other words, it drives the thing pretty damn hard. Upon watching a particular YouTube clip where one lucky owner was showing off his decimating, Java Boost-ed Vox AC30, I knew what was missing from my arsenal all this time and duly embarked on an intensive eBay search. A few weeks and a couple lost bidding wars later, I was a happy owner of a sparkling blue box. Here’s how we first met in real life, so to speak.
As soon as I unpacked my near-mint Java Boost, I grabbed my Gibson, ran the pedal into my old Orange AD15, turned the gain on the amp halfway up for some light grit, stomped on the footswitch and duly obtained a sizzling Rockerverb crunch. When I cranked the gain further up, the amp gradually took on a full-throat Plexi roar with the hint of Jimmy Page, then circa-Live And Dangerous Thin Lizzy and finally full-blown ‘80s rock tone – it was like seeing your single 12” combo grow three extra speakers and morph into a stack. The experience was so profound I even temporarily removed my trusty modded Tubescreamer from the board (to be reinstalled later). Boosted, overdriven valve amp = best.
Now to the pedal’s specs. Dubbed the “ultimate Rangemaster clone”, the Java Boost is a germanium-based treble booster – as in NOT a clean boost. The controls are the Tone and Level knobs, a three-way selector switch and an on/off footswitch. The first switch position boosts the lows and mids, the second churns out classic British top boost that scoops out the bottom end like the abovementioned Rangemaster and the third ties the above two in one potent bundle. Best used with a tube amp, the pedal beefs up the chords and gives the solos a wailing edge while retaining a remarkably wide sonic range and working hassle-free with either single-coil or humbucker pickups. Just one sugar, please – it’s already really rather sweet.
 I’ve already mentioned many times how much I love fuzz pedals for their unmistakable waspishness, creaminess and sludginess. Continuing my well-documented fuzz quest, I parted company with my Fuzz Factory after three years of fond ownership and remained fuzzbox-less for a number of months before finally deciding to take a gamble on a cheaper unit in lieu of the excellent-sounding, yet pricey Hoof Fuzz. Once again, eBay was my best friend and soon I was the owner of a brand-new Biyang FZ-10 Fuzz Star.
Still little known at this stage, China’s Biyang make decent effects at very competitive prices – I was recently impressed by a YouTube demo of their analogue delay unit. The first fuzz box of the multicoloured Baby Boom! Series (featuring smaller casings than the previous Tonefancier line that included FZ-7), the Fuzz Star packs a sound that’s as rich and hearty as a good wonton noodle soup and at the same time charges like an angry buffalo. When I tried it with my Jap Jazzmaster, the single-note riffs thwacked like Dan Auerbach with The Black Keys and the licks took on a sweet, sustained quality. Result: one happy Geared.
The pedal’s three controls – Level, Tone and Fuzz and three fuzz modes – Normal (full-on Big Muff sound), Bright (less bottom end, more bite) and Warm (which takes you into the Jimi Hendrix/Santana territory) – give the player plenty of opportunity to tweak their sound and choose between a range of usable options. Rolling off the volume on the guitar gives it a warmer, smoother edge, but with the Fuzz cranked to the tilt, the grey stompbox ventures into the harsh, “industrial fuzz” territory, leaving the “vintage” fuzzboxes far behind.
A solid, no-frills construction and summarily superb sound mean the Fuzz Star fits neatly into the boutique bracket. My only possible complaint was perhaps the visual aspect – the loud “Baby Boom!” stamp is all fine and dandy, but the star graphics are a bit on the cheesy side. Nevertheless, the “LED will dim and distortion will be present when battery is depleted” disclaimer on the back of the pedal makes up for those and could have been a well-judged gag seeing as the Fuzz Star is, well, a distortion unit – and a brilliant one at that. Check it out.
RRP $249.95 (Java Boost), $69.95 (Fuzz Star). Check out www.keeley.com and www.biyang.com.cn for more information.
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