The Fredric Effects DuoFace puts silicon and germanium vintage fuzz on the menu

Picking out a new fuzz pedal can be a painful business. There are all kinds of questions you ask yourself. Retro or modern? Octave or plain old fuzz? No matter how the process goes, you always end up at the same point: germanium or silicon?

Why not have both? That's what North London-based pedal company Fredric Effects is offering with its DuoFace Dual Vintage Fuzz pedal. Once your eyes adjust to the enclosure's crazy paint job, you'll be presented with a straightforward but very tweakable fuzz format, and compact, too.

There are controls for Gain and Volume, a toggle switch for selecting the germanium circuit or the silicon, with two individual trim pots to adjust the bias on each circuit. These Bias controls will affect how the transistors react, allowing you to go from smooth and fuzzy and nice to gated, splutter. 

Which side of this Janus-faced Fuzz Face clone would you choose? Well, if you're looking to take the paint off the wall, the more aggressive silicon might be your speed. But that germanium Fuzz Face circuit might be just the thing for that Hendrix vibe. Either way, these should play nice and old-school, cleaning up nicely when you roll the volume back on your guitar.

Best of all, the DuoFace is not crazily expensive – just £140, which is 70 bucks per fuzz. For more details, see Fredric Effects.