In Praise of the Sun Face

[Acwild]

I've had the Sun Face NKT 275 for years. It sat in my pedal drawer and was pulled out occasionally but it never stayed out. As I just got some Tone King preamps, I decided to see what pedals/guitars would work well with this setup. The Sun Face completely surprised me as it has the most pleasant clipping that I've ever heard from it. I guess it wasn't the best match for some of my other amps and modelers but it's a perfect match with the Tone Kings. Another surprise is how well it took other drive pedals being fed into it.

It just goes to show that you should never sell your gear. :)

 

[DrewJD82]

Man, I’m anxious to start digging into Sun Faces, but I’m not allowing myself to do so until I spend time learning the Fuzz Face circuit first. When my gear fund is over the $1000 mark I start getting itchy looking at Sun Faces and custom Fuzz Faces, at some point I’ll buy something with NKT275’s just to experience them and likely move on.

That said, there’s a shitload of old British transistor radios on ebay for pretty cheap and it might be worth buying some up, you’ll never know when a $35 broken radio will turn into $3K worth of NKT275’s.

 

[Acwild]

The used prices are ridiculous! I don’t know the differences between the Sun Faces as the NKT 275 was the version he sold back when I bought it. Amp gain is what I usually prefer but this pedal is going to be used a lot for my lighter gain sounds. Volume rolloff is smooth with no sudden drop offs.
I wish I had your knowledge (being able to figure out where and how to work with transistors). My soldering skills are really terrible.

 

[Devin]

Sun Faces absolutely rule


A potentially cheaper alternative that sounds essentially exactly the same is the Sobbat Fuzzbreaker 1R, though even those seemed to have climbed in price since I bought mine

 

[Acwild]

I just looked on Reverb. Holy crap... the prices! What's up with the Sobbat? It looks like the new price is way less than the used. Is there a different circuit on the newer ones?
As much as I love my Sun Face, I don't think it's worth the price that people are asking. I feel like I have the Klon of fuzzes.

 

[Devin]

I just looked on Reverb. Holy crap... the prices! What's up with the Sobbat? It looks like the new price is way less than the used. Is there a different circuit on the newer ones?
As much as I love my Sun Face, I don't think it's worth the price that people are asking. I feel like I have the Klon of fuzzes.

I can't say for sure because I've probably had mine 10 years now and I think I may have bought it used then; I paid just around $100ish back then


Brought it over to my buddies house and we a/b'd it with his old Sunface (which I think was NKT275...maybe "white dot" or something?) and we were able to make them sound identical (and awesome)

I would guess that if they did change the circuit on the sobbat over the years in anyway it would probably be just the transistor, but that's pure speculation

 

[Acwild]

The soft clipping goodness is addictive! It's like a spice that I have to put in all my food now. I'm clueless to all the varieties of Sun Faces. At the time, I bought what was available (which happened to be an NKT 275) and I think I paired it with all the wrong guitars and amps.
You got me looking at Sobbat pedals on Reverb now.

 

[JasonE]

Love seeing the two Tone King preamps together. I have the Imperial. I don't think I will buy the Royalist. I have a Friedman IR-D that I really like and I think there is probably too much similarity in the two. If I didn't have the IR-D I would probably pick up a Royalist. I think those two together would make a great rig.

 

[Acwild]

The two pair very nicely together. I agree, if you have the Friedman, you're probably in the neighborhood. Have you hooked them up together?

 

[JasonE]

The two pair very nicely together. I agree, if you have the Friedman, you're probably in the neighborhood. Have you hooked them up together?

I have not. I want to. I just haven't had time. Life kind of got in the way these past few months.

 

[Acwild]

I hear ya and feel your pain.