RiftOctave Fuzz

From the vendor

A classic untamed fuzz from the 1970s that adds an octave-up overtone, famous for its use by Pete Townshend of The Who.

The Rift Octave Fuzz is a recreation of the Univox Superfuzz, originally developed by the Shin-ei company in Japan in the late 1960s and called the FY-6. Shin-ei rebadged the circuit for over a dozen other brands such as Apollo, Electra and Hohner. However, the Univox Superfuzz was the most well-known of the brands and today is considered the definitive version of the circuit.

The Superfuzz uses a phase splitter followed by a differential pair to emphasize the upper octave. It’s very similar in concept to something like the fOXX Tone Machine, but with the major difference of using active transistors instead of diodes to rectify the signal.

The Rift includes one modification to lend more flexibility to the circuit. While the original unit only had a tone switch to go between two presets, this project provides the option of using a potentiometer to blend between them so it’s not just full-on one way or the other.

The new 125B version of the Rift is identical to the previous one, except that the diode clipping switch has been removed in favor of a simpler layout that is easier to build. The previous version of the Rift is still available if you want that option.