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Noaidi Darlington Fuzz

Noaidi Fuzz Close

In my ongoing experiments with Darlington Transistors a few variations have now been created using this substitution:  The Cauldron, Allora, and the Noaidi.  Think of these early versions as the Titans that ruled the primordial earth before the Olympians.  Maybe not fully realized, a little weird, but still very powerful.

Originally these experiments were born from requests from guitarists who use single-coils, gold-foils, or lower output pickups asking to get a little more oomph than the Black Spiral Fuzz has stock.  But it has now morphed into something else entirely.  The Noaidi utilizes two Darlington Transistors in Q1 and Q2, as well as a multitude of part changes to accommodate and control the gain.  I’ve also modified the Detail control to allow it to get darker and thicker than the Black, it also now works more like a “Shift Control” that changes the upper mids.  I like this change a lot and it will be incorporated into the production version of the Allora. 

The name Noaidi was chosen by the customer, and it is the ancient title given to Nordic Nature Shamans.  The Noaidi has cool silver sparkle custom knobs made by Dawn Atkin, that compliment the engine-turned top.  The top was meant to bring to mind raindrops on a glacial lake.

Noaidi Fuzz Tilted

For the Texture Toggle I chose to mix the Nanolog N2 with three other clipping options:  Silicon, LED, and Germanium.  The Silicon selection is my favorite with this fuzz, mixed with the Nanolog N2 it creates a very aggressive wooly fuzz with some spitty top-end.  This specific mix is another change that I really dig and will carry over into the production Allora.  This is not a fuzz for the faint-of-heart, it is wild, unpredictable, noisy, and aggressive.

  • Darlington high-gain transistors in Q1 and Q2
  • Bias tuned to narrower, sweeter range
  • Detail tuned to go darker, to help tame the gain
  • Focus Toggle to tame low-end
  • Very aggressive “hot” sounding fuzz

Texture Toggle has the Nanolog N2 mixed with:

1. Silicon

2. LED

3. Germanium

 

  • True Bypass
  • 100% Analog
  • Engine-Turned Top
  • Laser-Glased Graphics
  • High-Quality Parts Throughout
  • Mix of classic and high-tech in both aesthetics and sonics