A vintage 70's fuzz box. There are have
two "clones" of this box put out
commercially on the market. The
Danelectro French Toast and, most
recently a reissue which matches the
originally cosmetically and potentially
sonically. I have not had the pleasure to
test the Foxxpedals reissue, but I look
forward to it. Here I'll mainly compare an
original Foxx Tone Machine to a French
Toast. There is no comparision! Well,
actually there are some similiarities. The
French Toast is able to capture the most
extreme sounds of the Foxx Tone. That
is, the Foxx Tone at it's most wild. A very
sizzling and wild fuzz, with an emphasis
on higher frequencies. You can dial down
to tone of the French Toast to achieve a
richer sound sound, but it never reaches
the range of sounds you can achieve with
an original Foxx Tone. After great
searching and expense, I bought an
original Foxx Tone just to make this
comparision. After much testing, here is
my verdict. The French Toast captures
about 70% of the tones you can get from
a Foxx original. But the French Toast
craps out because it lacks the gain of the
original. If you try to dial down the "DIST"
and "EQ" knobs on the French Toast, it
literally vanishes. The output drops and
you'd assume it's an unusable setting.
NOW, this is where the Foxx Tone
Machine becomes the rare and unique
beast is deservedly is sought-after as.
But dialing down the "Bright/Mellow"
knob and the "Sustain" knob, you can
reach a wonder Fuzz Face like subdued
fuzz - not unlike my MJM London Fuzz.
And there is still HUGE gain! Until I
owned an original Foxx tone, I had no
idea this was possible. In the sense, the
French Toast is a complete failure as a
copy of an original. Again, I have not
auditioned one of the new cosmetically
copied Foxx Tone Machines, I can only
hope their circuit manages the same
trick! All in all the Foxx Tone Machine is
an amazing vintage pedal, well deserving
of the mystique surrounding it!
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| Price Paid: |
US$150 |
| Purchased At: |
ebay |
| Good Points: |
From the mellow to all out madness, the
Foxx Tone Machine is probably my
favorite fuzz of all time (followed by the
the perennial Bigg Muff). But the Foxx
Tone offer a greater range of tones and
even more flat out fuzz. |
| Bad Points : |
Hard to find! Next, I'll get my hands on a
FoxxPedals reissue and review it. |
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