Arbiter Fuzz Face

The famous Arbiter (later, Dallas-Arbiter) Fuzz Face was originally developed by J & I Arbiter Ltd., and was presented in August 1966 at the British Musical Instrument Industries trade fair. Date codes on the potentiometers of surviving examples suggest that production was only properly ramped up by September of that year (units with pot codes earlier than September are particularly uncommon), and the Fuzz Face was already available in the shops by November 1966, when Jimi Hendrix was photographed performing with one.

Enclosures for the early Fuzz Faces came finished in options of either red, silver or dark grey Hammerite, and they were printed with one of two different sets of silkscreened graphics. Some early Fuzz Faces were fitted with black ‘top hat’ shaped knobs, and others were fitted with dial knobs. There is currently no consensus among collectors about how to ascertain which version of the early Fuzz Faces came first, or indeed, how to identify a particularly early Fuzz Face that might have been built in 1966 (as opposed to one from 1967).