The Fuzz You Don't Have
A new breed of octave fuzz based on a lost circuit that belongs to no known lineage. Three effects all contained across one knob. A tribute to an unknown pioneer who deserved to be famous.
JHS Coyote Octave Fuzz Pedal Features:
- An octave fuzz topology that has never been replicated for production — until now
- One knob sweeps through three distinct effects: swell, fuzz, and octave
- Exceptional touch sensitivity and volume-knob cleanup — rare for any fuzz, unheard of in an octave fuzz
- Swell with a gated, reversed-tape quality & natural bloom
- Fuzz with rich low end & aggressive mids that can handle chords
- Octave effect that’s pure Hendrix with a snarling octave-up sound
- Octave effect most pronounced on the neck pickup above the 12th fret
- Touch sensitive & dynamic response when the guitar volume is rolled down
- Recommended to go 1st in the chain, followed by overdrive/overdriven amp
Every octave fuzz you've ever played traces back to just a handful of circuits: the Octavia, the Super Fuzz, and the Tone Machine. The Coyote doesn't originate from any of these classic topologies. The Coyote is a complete replication of the obscure and very difficult to find Moonrock Fuzz by G.S. Wyllie, a reclusive North Carolina builder who sandcast his own enclosures, etched his own boards, and designed a unique fuzz utilizing a transformer in an unconventional way that sounds like nothing else — the product of wild experimentation combined with solid electrical engineering fundamentals. Here's what makes it strange: the circuit has a transformer, but it's not doing what transformers do in other octave fuzzes. It's not creating the octave at all. Glenn put it somewhere else entirely, where it acts more like an inductive element, shaping how the fuzz stage responds and contributing to the swell, fuzz, and octave character of the control. We've never seen anyone do this. The result is a texture and feel that doesn't exist anywhere else. He never mass-produced them. He passed away in 2014, still building. This is our tribute to Glenn and the wily circuit he left behind.
One Knob. Three Worlds.
The Swell / Fuzz / Octave control is the heart of this pedal. It sweeps continuously through three distinct zones — each one a different effect.
Swell
At its lowest setting, notes bloom in with a gated, reversed-tape quality. A slow, breathing attack that rises up from silence. The final stage of the circuit is allowed to turn on gradually, easing the signal in and creating a natural bloom that responds to your picking dynamics. We've only ever seen one other pedal attempt this — a thousand-dollar vintage piece with a dedicated footswitch for it. Glenn built it into a portion of the controls sweep.
Fuzz
At noon, a fully realized fuzz tone. Not a Fuzz Face. Not a Big Muff. The texture sits in Tone Bender territory — rich low end, aggressive mids, the kind of fuzz that handles chords. Shoegaze. Psychedelic rock. Full and powerful.
Octave
Fully clockwise, the circuit shifts into aggressive octave-up territory. Intentionally uneven clipping emphasizes even-order harmonics, especially the second harmonic, pushing it above the fundamental to produce that snarling octave-up sound. This is pure Hendrix territory — and Glenn, who met Jimi several times in Greenwich Village, was always pointing here. He landed on it perfectly, his own way.
The transitions between zones are continuous. Explore everything in between.
What Surprised Us
Roll back your guitar's volume knob and this pedal transforms. At lower settings on the Swell / Fuzz / Octave control, the Coyote becomes remarkably touch-sensitive — light picking gives you warm, controlled fuzz while digging in triggers the swell. It cleans up better than any octave fuzz we've ever played. That kind of dynamic response is almost unheard of in this category.
How To Use It
Put it first in your chain. Play it into another overdrive or an overdriven amp — that's how almost every iconic octave fuzz tone was created. Clean amps work, but the sound in your head usually has some overdrive after the fuzz.
Neck pickup, above the twelfth fret — that's where the octave effect is most pronounced. Humbuckers push the swell and octave harder. Single coils give more clarity. Both sound great.
Who This Is For
This pedal isn't for everyone, and we're good with that. If you love Hendrix, Jack White, Gary Clark Jr., Beck, Black Keys, or the octave fuzz on John Mayer's "Belief" — you already know you want this. If you're a doom player, a riff rocker, a blues explorer. If you've tried every fuzz on the market and you're still looking for the one you haven't played — you're the Coyote. You're the fuzz scavenger. We found something for you.
The Builder
Glenn S. Wyllie grew up in New Jersey, learned to read schematics from his electrical-engineer father by age twelve, and built his first fuzz pedal at seventeen after hearing "Satisfaction." He met Jimi Hendrix several times in Greenwich Village during that era — and never stopped chasing that sound.
He settled in the Appalachian foothills of North Carolina — woodstove heat, a dog named Simon, a Hendrix poster on the door, and metal guitar shapes hanging from the trees in his driveway. He worked at a local music store, played guitar in a band called Muletrain, and built pedals one at a time for anyone who found him.
His work ended up on recordings and stages with Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, David Byrne, Joan Baez, and dozens more — played by NYC guitarist Mark Stewart, who called Glenn an "unacknowledged American master." Glenn should be talked about alongside Mike Fuller, Paul Cochrane, Analog Mike, Zachary Vex, and Dave Barber — the pioneers of boutique. But nobody knows his name.
We couldn't find his family to tell them about this project. We tried. He's as elusive in death as he was in life. A true coyote.
Controls
- Volume: Controls the output volume. Left is less, right is more.
- Swell / Fuzz / Octave: Sweeps through three distinct zones. Fully counterclockwise: gated swell with blooming, reversed-tape character. Noon: full, rich fuzz. Fully clockwise: aggressive octave-up with snarling harmonics.
