Nysiad SiliconFuzz

From the vendor

A variable-bias silicon fuzz designed to emulate “imminent amp death”, the sound of a blown power tube or output transformer right before it all goes up in smoke.

The Nysiad Silicon Fuzz is adapted from the Cornish NG-3, first released in 2010 as the successor to the NG-2 and N.G. Fuzz, both favorites of Lou Reed who owned several of each, and also used by John Mayer on his version of Crossroads. Aion FX traced the NG-3 in 2023.

The NG-3 is designed to simulate “imminent amp death”, the sound of a bad output transformer or power tube right before the fuse blows (or worse). You can get some fairly traditional sounds from it if the bias knob is all the way up, but once you start to dial it down, the tone quickly turns into a glitchy mess, complete with gating, sag, feedback, velcro, instability, and anything else you’d associate with a misbiased fuzz.

The closest comparison is probably the ZVEX Fuzz Factory. They’re different animals, but if you like the sounds you can get from that circuit then you’ll probably like this one too.

The NG-3 is the same as the NG-2 except that the internal bias control has been made into an external knob and the germanium transistor pair of the NG-2 has been replaced with a single silicon transistor.

The Nysiad Silicon is a direct clone of the original Cornish pedal based on our trace, with the one addition that buffered bypass can be changed to true bypass with a slide switch, as with our other Cornish circuit adaptations.