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Poor Man's Indie Bass Fuzz Guide

W

Wacc00n

Aug 22, 2025
15
26
#1
The Guide!
I have the terrible combination of loving obscure bass fuzzes and being poor, so I put together this Google document that showcases every bass fuzz at 150 USD or less that I can find (outside of Shopify).

Hopefully, this list can help my fellow poor bassists locate the perfect bass fuzz for their needs without having to spend too much, and keep these builders producing cool pedals for as long as possible.

I'm not sponsored by or associated with any of these builders. I haven't even bought a pedal from any of them. I have interacted with Sketchy Sounds, Guptech, Spruce, and Fuzzrocious previously.

If anything is wrong, please, let me know!
 
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#2
Great effort! I've bookmarked it for further study. Your last list should include Idiotbox for their Blowerbox Deluxe. Too bad Devi Ever are no longer, they had some great bass friendly pedals like The Ruiner. My only quibble about a product is the graphic on the Acadia. I've photographed all over Acadia Natnl Park (it's like shooting fish in a barrel there are great shots everywhere you point a camera) and they could have used an actual emblematic scene like The Bubbles at Jordan Pond instead of inventing a fictional one (it looks like a cliff from the park loop road cliff-walk but nowhere is there a left and right facing cliffs forming a harbor) they are much more spread apart, and the bird looks like a Southern bird, (but I am no bird expert) they could have used a Puffin. The pine trees are accurate. The Bubbles - Mountains in Acadia Atlantic Puffin
 
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#8
BassBrass said:
Great effort! I've bookmarked it for further study. Your last list should include Idiotbox for their Blowerbox Deluxe. Too bad Devi Ever are no longer, they had some great bass friendly pedals like The Ruiner. My only quibble about a product is the graphic on the Acadia. I've photographed all over Acadia Natnl Park (it's like shooting fish in a barrel there are great shots everywhere you point a camera) and they could have used an actual emblematic scene like The Bubbles at Jordan Pond instead of inventing a fictional one (it looks like a cliff from the park loop road cliff-walk but nowhere is there a left and right facing cliffs forming a harbor) they are much more spread apart, and the bird looks like a Southern bird, (but I am no bird expert) they could have used a Puffin. The pine trees are accurate. The Bubbles - Mountains in Acadia Atlantic Puffin
Click to expand...
Devi actually is back selling new pedals on Reverb.

https://reverb.com/shop/devieverfx
 
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#9
BassBrass said:
Great effort! I've bookmarked it for further study. Your last list should include Idiotbox for their Blowerbox Deluxe. Too bad Devi Ever are no longer, they had some great bass friendly pedals like The Ruiner. My only quibble about a product is the graphic on the Acadia. I've photographed all over Acadia Natnl Park (it's like shooting fish in a barrel there are great shots everywhere you point a camera) and they could have used an actual emblematic scene like The Bubbles at Jordan Pond instead of inventing a fictional one (it looks like a cliff from the park loop road cliff-walk but nowhere is there a left and right facing cliffs forming a harbor) they are much more spread apart, and the bird looks like a Southern bird, (but I am no bird expert) they could have used a Puffin. The pine trees are accurate. The Bubbles - Mountains in Acadia Atlantic Puffin
Click to expand...
Devi Ever is actually who I was referring to when I said "haven't messaged me back yet," they're back on reverb. Love the sounds, no idea which pedal to call. I can check on Idiotbox and the Ruiner though.

I think the scenes are supposed to be inspired by, and let's be real, national park themed pedals is a really unique idea that lets the Spruce stuff stand out.
 
#13
Cool stuff. For me, it all start with what circuit is it based on. Because really there are 3 designs and everything is a riff on that. Fuzz face, big muff, and tonebender. I recommend trying one of each of those and see which style you like best. One you have that narrowed down, find all the variants of that to try.

For me I’m a fuzz face guy. Big muff has no definition and for what I do that doesn’t work. Tone bender doesn’t have enough bottom end for me. I found a fuzz face variant with oodles of low end, I’m happy.

Best of luck searching
 
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#14
miikee90 said:
I've been trying to buy a Ruiner for a long time, now is the time!
Click to expand...
OMG! I'll be getting a Dark Boost asap! I've been trying to get that sound since. Apparently, the Ruiner is 2 Dark Boost circuits running into each other. I still have mine in a plastic box where it can't get away. I used to run it in it's own bypass loop, use the loop switch to let it out. Talk about out of control sputter, total ruination! Devi just ruined the aftermarket by reappearing but i'd rather that than selling them one day for $400... Her Karaoke Party was my overdrive of record for a long time, excellent mid presence for bass...only issue was keeping the output DOWN around 8:30 as it was a guitar pedal "with plenty of volume on tap" which on bass means Too Much volume on tap... here it is being used, heard clearly, on the "bass solo" in a recording project that didn't go anywhere, on the one cover we did because of the vocalist's (Adam) insistence, the guitarist came up with a music mechanique version of Aint No Sunshine, sans copyright clearance but NO Money was made from this, it was fun and vanity for old guys, I also did the graphics from a photo by the drummer's daughter:
 
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#15
Wacc00n said:
I think the scenes are supposed to be inspired by, and let's be real, national park themed pedals is a really unique idea that lets the Spruce stuff stand out.
Click to expand...
I shouldn't quibble, not now that the National Parks are under attack and have lost half their staff, historical signage is under review in our own version of Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.
I didn't own one but I wonder how much Devi's circuit Torn's Peaker (a cute name) is in EH's Ripped Speaker (a literal name)
 
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#16
markjazzbassist said:
Cool stuff. For me, it all start with what circuit is it based on. Because really there are 3 designs and everything is a riff on that. Fuzz face, big muff, and tonebender. I recommend trying one of each of those and see which style you like best. One you have that narrowed down, find all the variants of that to try.

For me I’m a fuzz face guy. Big muff has no definition and for what I do that doesn’t work. Tone bender doesn’t have enough bottom end for me. I found a fuzz face variant with oodles of low end, I’m happy.

Best of luck searching
Click to expand...
I haven't checked personally, but I think that I am more of a tone bender guy, hence my love of blend knobs.
 
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#18
bassbrad said:
Interesting pedals, you might pickup a few more options if you raised your ceiling to $200 if only to include one of my favorites Moody Sound Hjart Muller Overdrive an update of the Lo|Fat Bass overdrive.
Click to expand...
My reason for 150 is simple- at 200, you can get most of the "trend darlings," for example, the understandably hyped Way Huge Pork and Pickle. People can find a used Muff for under 100, I wanted options that weren't double that. If you're spending 200, you are definitely going to see an option you like- at 150 below, it's harder to find.
 
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