Jake E. Lee has given fans a peek behind his tonal curtain in a new rig rundown video, but one pedal has caught the eye above the rest. It’s a fuzz pedal with mysterious origins and a famous previous owner.
After making his name in Ratt, Lee would succeed the late Randy Rhoads as Ozzy Osbourne’s second full-time guitarist, getting the job over George Lynch in brutal fashion. He played on two records – Bark At The Moon (1983) and The Ultimate Sin (1986) – before his relationship with the Prince of Darkness began to erode.
He’s recently stated that his attempts to broaden the singer’s sound were quashed with Ozzy saying, “That’s not Ozzy, that’s jazz. Go back and write me something else!”
Now touring with his band, Red Dragon Cartel, Lee has two fuzzes on his pedalboard, with the first, Prescription Electronics Experience pedal, in place for wild, Hendrix-like fuzz tones. Paired with his infamous "Whitey" Charvel Super Strat, it sounds like Velcro on gravel. That pedal boasts a colorful, hippie-coded orange-and-blue aesthetic that nods to its ‘60s origins, with a modified Fuzz Face circuit.
Its stablemate, in that respect, couldn't be more different. It's free of any swish design elements, with a rough metal casing and stick-on labels for its Volume, Blend, and Drive dials. There also looks to be what's left of an old sticker or label beneath its sole footswitch.
“I don't know a lot about that one,” he tells Premier Guitar. “I don't know who made it. I remember I was in Cowtown Guitars in Las Vegas, I saw it, and I said, ‘What the hell is that?’ and they said, ‘Paul Gilbert traded that in for something else.’”
Then, with a nonchalant shrug, he says, “It's a fuzz... it does a lot of weird stuff.”
Buying it was an impulse purchase, that much he admits. Yet it's found a home on his pedalboard, between the Experience fuzz and a Boss tuner.
“I like that it's a mystery,” he returns. “Sometimes it'll do something I don't expect, and I like that. [If you want more information] Paul Gilbert's gonna have to tell you, and I bet even he doesn't remember. But both fuzz pedals are germanium transistor-based, which is why I place them before my tuner, which acts as a buffer [to boost the signal].
“When you buffer germanium fuzzes, they sound like crap; they don't react the same to your volume.”
So what pedal is it? A user in the comments section for the video says they made the pedal and that it’s actually called the P.G. Spectron Fuzz.
The commenter is Shinichi Suzuki (not to be confused with the violinist of the same name), a Japanese engineer and CEO of Shin's Music. By the looks of it, he gives all his pedals the same sticky label treatment. Although the pedal isn't listed on his website, its name likely refers to Gilbert himself, suggesting it might have been a custom order.
In related news, Lee has opened up on his appearance at Back to the Beginning, a show which saw him bury the hatchet with Ozzy after nearly 40 years apart. Ozzy, though, was quick to send his love when news of Lee being shot in Las Vegas in 2024 broke, and Lee had jumped through hoops to recover in time for the gig.
