Review: Dr. Scientist Frazz Dazzler

Sorry for the long delay everyone, I finally have a new review for you all: The Dr. Scientist Frazz Dazzler. I have no pictures of the exact unit as it is a demo unit, not a production unit. Instead I'll be showing off all the cool finishes Ryan has done for the production models!

The Frazz Dazzler is a high gain fuzz with a few unique features and a very unique and aggressive tone. Not to mention it has soft touch switching, which is so much better than your standard 3PDT true bypass footswitch if you ask me. Read on to hear more about Dr. Scientist's fuzz creation.




Hardware


The Frazz comes in a standard enclosure, with a variety of finishes. It has controls for mix, volume, sizzle and gain, as well as a switch to activate or deactivate the high gain/gate mode. Mix is very beneficial for bassist who would like to retain the low end thump of their tone while adding some aggressive fuzz. The sizzle controls the treble and volume and gain control volume and gain obviously! There's also an expression pedal jack that allows you to control the mix value with an expression pedal of your choosing. Normally I don't rave about the footswitch of a pedal but this one is great! It has soft touch switching which means just a light tap and the pedal is activated, no clicks or pops here! I wish all my pedals had these...

Overall I can say that every Dr. Scientist pedal I have seen is constructed with great care and is super durable inside and out. There's a reason Ryan puts a lifetime warranty on his work.


How does it sound?


The Frazz Dazzler has many applications as both a low-mid gain fuzz that's great for pushing your amp or stacking with other fuzz pedals. It also can be turned into a high gain monster with the flick of a switch. My preference was the high gain side simply because it fits my style of playing best. A friend of mine was playing on it for a while and he loved it just as much as I did and he plays mostly surf-pop stuff while I play rock and doom metal. This just goes to show how versatile the pedal really is! I found the Frazz to have a very aggressive top end bite to it. The low end is solid, it's not going to punch you in the gut with heaps of bass and low mids, but your not going to miss them really either. Sometimes I felt it needed a little bump in the mids and a little extra presence, but those could easily be fixed using the EQ of your amp or a boost (My VHT Special 6 only has a tone control). This thing does also get a bit noisy, but I love it! You can get lots of cool feedback out of this box! I can definitely say the Frazz has a more distinguishable high gain tone than my other high gain fuzz boxes and could easily be a worthy addition to your sonic arsenal. Enough rambling though, see how this thing sounds for your self!

Frazz Dazzler Demo by Mike Fetting

This clip is split into two different sections, the first was recorded by Jordan Gatesmith (check out his band) using a strat mixing in some of his clean signal with the distortion of the Frazz in the low gain mode. The second part (the high gain stuff) was me playing me Schecter Omen 6 in drop D with a Dimarzio X2N in the bridge. I was using the Frazz in the high gain, gated mode. All this was through a Fender Twin Reverb, recorded using a condenser mic.

Sorry about the lack of clips, right as I was recording more, my laptop's hard drive died. I'm glad I at least got something!


Final Words


Overall I feel the Dr. Scientist Frazz Dazzler is an impressive fuzz and definitely has a unique sound that sets itself apart. The lower gain settings provide a great overdrive-like tone and the high gain tone can get absolutely brutal. I just wish there was a control for the mids on this thing and I'd be set.
All of Dr Scientist's finishes look great and the pedals are built with an extremely high standard of reliability and quality. Even if something does go wrong, just ship it out to Ryan and he'd be happy to fix it for you. Ryan is easily one of the nicest guys in the pedal building world, he won't hesitate to answer any of your questions! Check out this thread on I Love Fuzz for more Frazz demos as well as plenty of kind words for the fuzz. Also check out the Dr. Scientist website for more info.

With that said, if you're looking for a versatile fuzz pedal that not only sounds great but looks great as well, look no further than the Dr. Scientist Frazz Dazzler!