How to Date Your Super Fuzz

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Last year I wrote this article on deciphering Shin-ei date stamps. And while that's probably still the best way to determine your pedal's true age, by no means is it the only way.

So this time around, my main focus will be on the legendary Super Fuzz (Baby Crying, FY-6) circuit and how it evolved over its decade-long production run. Luckily Shin-ei did us all a favor of not only putting date stamps on their pedals, but also making changes in a typically linear and chronological fashion. So I put together this list of the most easily identifiable "rules" and what to look for. There are a few others that will not be mentioned here, but trust me, this should be more than satisfactory. 

*we are going to jump around a bit in the timeline, but know that everything you see here has been determined by going through hundreds of photos of hundreds of Super Fuzzes and organizing each nerdy detail into an even nerdier database...

Alright, let's go.

In 1970 Shin-ei created their own house brand called Companion and introduced an updated version of the Super Fuzz, they called the FY-6 Fuzz Master. 

In addition to the name change, Shin-ei also redesigned the signature brick-wedge enclosure by adding an indented slot for the logo badge.

This only lasted two years, and I would guess that going back to a flat surface to limit production costs was the main reason. 

One of the coolest and most recognizable things about vintage Shin-ei pedals is that Shin-ei labeled footswitch.

What most people don't know is that they didn't start using them until May of 1973. Now while you will see these on a lot of Shin-ei pedals through to 1979, they're not the only switches they used in that time.

In 1967 Honey introduced the Baby Crying Fuzz, and with it, the circuit we came to know as the Super Fuzz. Most likely taking a cue from the Maestro Fuzz Tone, the original version featured an "Expander" pot that also doubled as an On/Off switch. 

As of now, the only version I have found that was definitely made in 1967 was the Honey, but in 1968 we saw the Univox and LRE Super Fuzz OEM's arrive to the US market, both containing the pot/switch.

A common site on vintage Shin-ei pedals is this classically misspelled battery sticker on the bottom plate. But it wasn't introduced until the latter half of 1972.

It would stay around until the end of Shin-ei's run in 1979. But you won't necessarily see them on every pedal.

In 1975 Shin-ei changed the PCB that had been in use since 1969. This new version featured slots for the wiring that were lined up straight across the top of the board. Additionally there was no trimpot or open slots for a trimpot, like in the previous version.

Another interesting fact, is that Shin-ei had been using this same exact board in their (v3) Psychedelic Machines since at least 1972 (and possibly earlier. I have to do a bit more research). So it's likely that again to save money, they just streamlined using the same PCB for each.

For a very brief period, before introducing the Shin-ei labeled footswitch, they used a Companion labeled version.

It was introduced in January of 1973, the same moment they changed the brand's name from "Companion" to "Shin-ei Companion". And most likely as a result, just 5 months later this version of the switch would be gone.

In 1970, with the introduction of Companion as a brand, another lesser known detail they added was this basic Battery sticker.

The previous versions had no indicators for battery usage, but instead featured a small black "Made In Japan" sticker in the same spot. 

The earliest versions of the Super Fuzz used two TS (mono) jacks instead of what would come later, the combination TRS and TS jacks.

This was because these early units had the on/off Expander pot, while the later versions utilized a TRS (stereo) jack to kill the power from the battery until a cable was inserted.

The trimpot is one of the more interesting additions to the circuit. From what I have gathered (so far) the first version of the PCB featured no trimpot or slots for a trimpot. 

The 2nd version of the PCB, that you see above, has the trimpot and I believe was possibly created in 1968 for biasing the fuzz portion of the original Honey Psychedelic Machine.

The 3rd (and most common) version of the PCB has the empty slots where a trimpot would be, and also an extra green film capacitor further down on the board. 

On thing to note about this, is that the three different PCB's, while I do believe were created in order, seem to have all been used concurrently with each other from 1967 - 1969. So for now, this should not be taken an indicator of date purely on its own. 

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As I stated above, this is by no means all of the "rules" for dating your Super Fuzzes. Circuit-based details like types and values of every component also changed over time, as did manufacturer labeling on the bottom of the PCB's.

Another important thing to note, is that you will see pedals that violate these rules. And virtually 99% of them are from some type of repair; switched out bottom plates with the wrong date codes, replaced footswitches from the wrong time period, replaced circuit boards from a less desirable branding to a previously non-working more desirable branding, etc. 

Luckily though, the vast majority will have two or more of these hallmarks and confirm for sure the round-about year it was made. And this is the hope here; that future you will come across a Super Fuzz for sale and with only a couple poorly shot photos, will be able to determine which version you are looking at. 

Now if that version means it's "better" or not, is purely up to you. 😁

*if you'd like to dig even deeper into Super Fuzz land, check out this post from a while back that highlights the various OEM brandings throughout the years.

Thanks for reading,
-ed