Moon Unit - Dark Side of the Fuzz

Silly name. Serious fuzz.

Nail the classic tone of Dave G's solo from "Time", with all the tweaking you could possibly desire across five knobs.

As well as the obvious Volume and Fuzz pots this box also gives you:

Body - how much bass you're pushing into the circuit - has a huge bearing on the nature of the fuzz rather than just the frequency range
Brite - as it says, brighten up the tone. Huge range from dark and murky to brilliant
Range - choose how much gain you want the first fuzzy transistor to have, which has a knock-on effect on the rest of the circuit.

It's a beast, but it can also be a pussycat with the right settings.

The kit is supplied with vertical-mount pots which have round shafts, so you'll need set-screw fitting knobs. Spacing is tight (17.5mm apart), so you'll need small knobs.

Note: The PCB layout has been slightly revised compared to the images in the document. The BOM is identical.

If you want the PCB without parts there's a link for that at the bottom of the page.

Partial kit: PCB, all board-mounted components, pots.

Full kit: As above, plus footswitch and appropriate daughterboard/components for your selected bypass type (see Downloads section for details of those), jack sockets, DC socket, battery snap, hook-up wire, LED.

Enclosure (pre-drilled) is available as an option with full kits, and will not take a battery. Knobs are not included.

Builds are only available with full kits including enclosures. Please choose appropriate knobs.

Inspired by: Lunar Module

Difficulty: Medium

PCB size: 50 x 36mm

Knobs required: 5

Enclosure: 1590B

Direct Connect compatible (4-way)

Download the INSTRUCTION PDF

Product Code: MoonUnit

Brand: Pedal Parts

Product Condition: New

Kit type* Ribbon connector?* Pre-built (UK Only)?*

£36.00 inc. tax

£30.00 ex. tax

? Tax based on United Kingdom.

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Customer Reviews

5 review(s) posted (write review)

Far more versatile than you think.
"I am a complete Floyd head but mostly use digital kit. Over the last few years I have been building a pedal board to compliment my Line 6 helix as it doesn t cover all bases. I am now moderately experienced at the building process. The kit came in a flash and I banged it together and it didn t work. Gutted. After some solid communication and Dog doing a test build it turned out a couple of resistors in the kit were the wrong value. Ordered a pack off Amazon, stuck them in (pain in the bum getting the other out) and boom, fuzzy wonderfullness. If you are looking for DSOTM fuzz it does it, if you re looking for Echoes it does it. It also does so much more dependant on how you set the fuzz and pre. Take a look here at the pedal that inspired it http://www.kitrae.net/music/Music_mp3_Lunar_Module_Sound.html. 10 out of 10 for customer service, ethics and values. What next ?" Matt - 21 October 2022

Reply From FuzzDog

thanks for your patience on this one Matt. Glad we got there in the end.

Adequate
"This my second build using fuzzdog kits and while I cannot fault the circuit designs or service overall I'm left a bit underwhelmed with the performance of either unit. Buying a clone kit in this form is actually quite expensive compared to constructing on strip board and considering the sheer number of pretty decent budget pedals available nowadays. You are kind of hoping for something special. Components are fickle to say the least particularly semiconductors so you never know the quality until you start testing the build and when you only have the exact number you cannot swap out dodgy diodes transistors or pots until you source and buy replacements. So you tend to either put up with the limitations or leave it in a drawer. No home build is likely to receive the sort of quality assurance a factory built pedal does. I've come to realise that I'm not a fan of onboard pots or bypass daughter boards as fault tracing becomes a pain and flush fitting knobs for the solid shafts are pricey. Undeniably a nice tidy build but unfortunately I found the pedal uninspiring, sorry." Steve Connochie - 26 December 2021

Reply From FuzzDog

Thanks for taking the time to review, and clarifying that it’s not down to the quality of the kits being the issue. Naturally the enjoyment of any build is going to be down to the suitability of the circuit for your needs. We can only assume you’d be equally as disappointed if you’d bought the original it is based on, as they’re identical. To be clear, noone will ever receive dodgy transistors or diodes. Almost all of our parts are sourced from large, reputable electronics suppliers and are top, industry standard quality. Any that can’t be, such as germanium transistors and diodes, are thoroughly tested before being included in a kit. No duds. Ever. Cheers.

Flexible Fuzz Face
"I have built and tried enough fuzz pedals to know that silicon Fuzz Faces are not my favourite. But this pedal is different. The extra knobs give it lots of versatility and it's earned a place on my board. If you haven't found a Fuzz Face you like yet, you should definitely try this one!" Vance - 13 July 2020

Give in to the Dark Side of the Moon
"Yeap...it's an animal! Built within a couple of hours, pretty simple even for beginners and as usual everything you need is included. The knobs are very responsive and the effect can produce a wide variety of tones, indeed from mild fuzz to gilmourish distorted tones. I changed the Q1 to a BC108C to "restrain" the overall aggression, it sounded better to my gear / taste, you can try it as well and keep whichever transistor you like the most. Turn the body all way up and octave harmonics shows up (not too much, but definitely audible!). It works well with wah and booster / overdrives before it, as well with booster and effects after it. If do not crank up everything to 11 it is also quite "quiet" for a fuzz!!! Enjoy!!!!" Dimitrios Kligkopoulos - 01 September 2018

Dark and fuzzy, with just a hint of moon...
"Interesting fuzz with lots of tonal controls. The body and bright controls have a good range, and being able to control the bass and treble independently makes dialling in the tone you want much easier. Not as much gain on tap as you might expect, so if you're looking for a heavily saturated tone then this is probably not the fuzz for you. What it does have is chiming upper mid range bite, making it perfect for giving your solos an edge to cut through the mix and add sustain whilst still retaining all of your playing dynamics. It's also good at lower gain settings as a slightly fuzzy overdrive, which sounds great pushing lower gain amps to add more in the way of saturation. My only real gripe is that unity gain is very high (just shy of full volume), which is a bit of a shame. The build was pretty straight forward (only the 2nd build I'd ever done), instructions were very easy to read." Ben Miles - 12 June 2016