Darkglass Electronics Duality Dual Fuzz Engine

A few months ago, we reviewed a little pedal from Finland called the Microtubes Vintage Overdrive, made by a company called Darkglass Electronics. That was a fun pedal to test, for sure, but the fuzz we’re going to look at today is a completely different animal, in the best of ways. Let’s check out the Duality Dual Fuzz Engine, shall we?

For starters, the Duality features four control knobs, and one of them has a truly special and uncommon characteristic to it: The Duality knob represents the uniqueness of this pedal, and why it sounds different than a lot of fuzzes on the market. This fuzz is comprised of two different circuits: a gated saw-tooth wave and a raunchy high-gain sound. This creates the “Dual” effect coming from just one lone pedal, and is controlled entirely by the Duality knob. This control lets you blend the 2 circuits together, or to choose one or the other entirely, depending on which way you turn the knob. This way, you can control exactly how much of each side you want present in you path, creating a multitude of sonic options.

Blend mixes in the effect with your guitar’s dry signal, which is fairly common in fuzzes, as are Level and Filter (Tone) controls. The range of the Filter is broad and sweeping, allowing the player to cover a lot of ground musically with simple and slight variations of this knob’s setting placement. The soft switches that Darkglass Electronics uses are so nice and quiet, you can stomp all over them barefoot and not even feel it, definitely one of my favorite parts of their pedal line. Plus, they don’t even give you the option to use batteries, for environmental reasons, a concept I am fully behind.

Hey, I totally forgot to mention the sound! This is one of the nicest-sounding, rough-but-smooth, ballsy, organic and warm fuzzes I have come across. As soon as I plugged it in, my amp came alive and started to sing fuzzy glory. Check out the video for a taste of the tones you can conjure up from the Duality, as they are vast and varying. An excellent addition to any pedalboard, this pedal will not disappoint.

Thanks to Franco and all the crew at Darkglass Electronics for allowing us the pleasure to test this shiny little puppy out, it truly was a blast sitting down and seeing what this fuzz could do. Be sure to check out their website for more awesome gear, and stay tuned for some more reviews of their gear coming in the near future!