Back in the late Sixties and early Seventies, when synthesizer technology was in its infancy and the electric guitar was in its adolescence, several ambitious products like the EMS Synthi Hi-Fli, Ludwig Phase II and Maestro USS-1, among a few others, attempted to merge synth-like sounds with the expressive freedom of the electric guitar. Basically, these devices were early multi-effects processors that combined effects like fuzz, filters and modulation in a single box to generate various unusual sounds that were more electronic than electric. As synth technology progressed, this approach was quickly forgotten, particularly since the earliest guitar synthesizer effects were quite outrageously expensive. Fortunately for those of us who love unusual effects and textures, several pedal designers have revisited these designs to offer players cool and unusual electronic sounds that still retain plenty of the electric guitar’s character. The Seymour Duncan Fooz is the latest entry into this growing category, offering a brilliant combination of fuzz, filter/envelope follower and LFO (low-frequency oscillation) effects that generate an impressive variety of analog synthesizer tones in addition to classic fuzz and envelope follower effects. For adventurous players looking for new tonal avenues to explore, Fooz is a cure for your blues. FEATURES The Fooz pedal’s top panel is divided into separate Fuzz, Filter and LFO sections that will look familiar to experienced synth programmers but aren’t totally foreign to more advanced pedal pushers and effects geeks either. The Fuzz section offers standard level and gain controls plus an on/off switch for using the LFO section for tremolo effects (on) or to modulate the Filter section (off). The Filter section provides frequency and resonance controls as well as a switch for selecting band-pass or low-pass filtering (or off) and another switch for modulating the filter with the LFO or engaging the envelope follower (or off).