GS Wyllie Moonrock #16

Holy Grail Fuzz

from my personal collection.

The GS Wyllie Moonrock has three settings on one knob that blend from one to the next.

Swell, Fuzz, and Octave-Fuzz

This is an original circuit design by the late, great, Glen Wyllie.

He handmade the moon enclosure as he did with his early units.

I actually have compared it to another borrowed unit and the craters are in different locations.

This is a very early unit, #16 to be exact

It is my personal favorite Fuzz, I’ve tried FFaces, Zonk Machines, Tone Benders, and tons more. There is nothing like this out there.

It is in amazing condition.

You can see the original tooling marks from when he made the first cases himself, signed G.S. Wyllie 02′

The bottom plate indicates the production number #16

From the man himself:

“I began making pedals away back in the early ’60’s when the Gibson Maestro Fuzztone left its indelible mark on my ears with the Stones’ Satisfaction song.

My father was an electrical engineer and showed me how to read schematics from when I was 12 or so years old. We borrowed a Maestro from a music store and copied the circuit. (pirates!) We then drove to the electronics store for the Germanium transistors, caps, pots, etc. I took 18 gauge sheet steel, bent it with a hammer and vise into a similar shape as the Maestro, and soldered it together with a propane torch, flux, plumbers solder. Ran into a big problem with DPDT stomp switches. They could not be found anywhere, so I subbed a toggle for the first few I made, then came up with a solution. I could get SPDT on,on stompswitches, so I installed them very close together and soldered on a steel “cap” to bridge the 2 together. DPDT!

G.S. Wyllie is my name.

A funny story… When I first cast my pedal shells, I used plaster of Paris for the mold, modeling clay for the pattern. I was casting a shell with a smooth surface using molten pewter, but when pouring it into the mold, it erupted like a volcano, spewing molten pewter everywhere. I hadn’t dried the plaster enough, and when water turned to steam, BLAM!

When I cracked open the mold, I had what looked like a Moonrock, and named it so.

Nearly everything I make is designed and made by me. Exceptions are the Wylo, a mutated Tone Bender, and the Rising Sun, a Shin-ei Superfuzz with expanded controls.

The Fuzzmite, Moonrock and OzO are very different from other circuits and produce unique sounds. I spent more time developing the Moonrock circuit then I spent time with my girlfriend and she let me know it!

I used to cast my own enclosures, now the patterns are sent off to a foundry where they are cast using a match plate, making 4 shells at once. It takes a lot to make them into pedals, milling, drilling, grinding, sanding.”