The Astra Silicon Fuzz is a vintage fuzz pedal that was originally released in 1966 as the Astrotone Fuzz and later rebranded as the Sam Ash Fuzzz Boxx. It was manufactured by the Universal Amplifier Company in New York City from 1966 to 1968.

At the time of its release, the Astrotone was one of the first fuzz pedals to utilize silicon transistors, as germanium transistors were more commonly used in that era. It was also one of the earliest pedals to feature a tone control, although the effectiveness of the tone knob in the original circuit was limited without modifications. Later fuzz pedals, such as the 3-knob Tone Bender, improved upon the concept of tone control.

Analogman, a renowned pedal builder, released their own version of the Astrotone called the Astrotone. While it shares the same circuit topology as the original, Analogman made several component value changes to enhance the tone and address the thinness of the original pedal. Although not an exact clone, the Analogman Astrotone is highly regarded by guitarists.

The updated version of the Astra Silicon Fuzz includes a toggle switch that allows users to select between three different sets of clipping diodes. Since the circuit employs hard clipping without a volume recovery stage, the choice of clipping diodes directly affects the maximum available volume of the pedal.

Summary created by AI from the original source.