Inside The Fuzz Factory

Jamie Dickson talks to maverick pedal-maker Zachary Vex about his most famous creation, 25 years on

- Jamie Dickson

This year effects maker ZVEX celebrates its 25th anniversary. The company is the creation of Zachary Vex, a Minneapolis sound engineer who got the bug for making effects during the grunge era – becoming a godfather of the indie stompbox scene in the process. Many of Zachary’s designs are rightly regarded as classics, from the brutal Super Hard On booster to the Plexi-style Box Of Rock distortion. His masterpiece, however, is the Fuzz Factory. Intuitive to use but near-infinite in its tone-sculpting potential, the five-knob design of this iconic fuzz pedal still cuts plenty of ice today. In fact, rising maker Chase Bliss Audio and ZVEX have just collaborated on an evolved, digitally controlled version called the Bliss Factory, offering yet another spin on Zachary Vex’s apparently ageless design.

When I called Zachary to talk to him about a quartercentury of ZVEX Effects, I asked about the Fuzz Factory, assuming that it was a mature design he’d worked up to after a few years of building pedals. Surprisingly, perhaps, he told me it was in fact only the second pedal he’d ever built, the first being an octave fuzz called the Octane, which made its low-key debut in a Minneapolis guitar store called Willie’s American Guitars. The store’s owner, Nate Westgor, bought Zachary’s first batch of Octane pedals sight unseen, trusting his sound engineering background, and they sold out almost immediately. Nate ordered more – leaving Zachary charged up with excitement about his future as a pedal maker. Local demand for the Octane was soon exhausted, however, and Nate told Zachary he didn’t need any more. This is where we pick up the extraordinary story of how Vex’s most famous creation, the Fuzz Factory, came to be designed literally overnight.