The King’s Head is a three transistor fuzz which draws from the lineage of the Tone Bender series, but which has a unique voice all its own. Imagine the girth, compression, and sustain of a great MKII with a bit of the rasp from a nice MKI … now add a more focused midrange than either of those fuzzes and you have the King’s Head.

I cooked up three of these for Dia de Muertos : Large steel wedge enclosures are powder coated in a textured bubble gum pink, and graphics are etched into zinc, aged, and finished with a matte clear powder top coat. A hot pink LED gets the party started.

Built on a royal blue eyelet board, these use hand selected NOS Philips 2N1309 germanium transistors, carbon composition resistors, and Sprague & Philips caps in key spots. I selected transistors which are a little hotter than those found in the original small box run from years past, resulting in a beautiful note bloom, a bit more sustain, and a very smooth decay.