Incoming NPD - my first "real" fuzz

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marqueemoon
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Incoming NPD - my first "real" fuzz

Post by marqueemoon » Thu Feb 01, 2018 10:39 pm

My my count I've been playing guitar for 26 years. My first pedal was a Rat (which I still own) which I guess a lot of people consider to be a fuzz. I also owned a Blue Box for a while which was mildly fun on bass and utter shit on guitar, but I don't really count that either. About 5 months ago I got interested in the idea of adding a dedicated fuzz, and in that time I tried several pedals and watched/listened to a ton of demos. While I never got to play one the flavor that I consistently liked was the Colorsound one knob circuit. Smooth and mid-centric without being boring. There are some modern variants on the circuit, but to my ears they kind of toss out what's good about it in the process of bulking up the gain and low end. Though they look really cool the idea of paying a ton of money for a huge 90's one didn't excite me either. The Vick Audio clone seemed like the best choice for trueness to the original, cost, and pedalboard-friendliness and today I finally bought one.

Image

I have no idea how I'll use this in my current musical context, but one thing I've noticed in my encounters with fuzz is it forces me to play differently, and I think that will be a good thing. I guess I'll know in about a week when it gets here.

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Re: Incoming NPD - my first "real" fuzz

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Fri Feb 02, 2018 8:24 am

Oh hell yes! I didn't know Vick did a clone of those! I had one of his Muff clones and it was killer. Mr. Vick makes VERY nice pedals. That's a great sounding circuit. I first heard it in the TheGigRig Ed O'Brien pedalboard build. Stopped me dead in my tracks. Definitely let us know how it sounds!!
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http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=104282&p=1438384#p1438384

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marqueemoon
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Re: Incoming NPD - my first "real" fuzz

Post by marqueemoon » Fri Feb 02, 2018 9:28 am

Shadoweclipse13 wrote:
Fri Feb 02, 2018 8:24 am
Oh hell yes! I didn't know Vick did a clone of those! I had one of his Muff clones and it was killer. Mr. Vick makes VERY nice pedals. That's a great sounding circuit. I first heard it in the TheGigRig Ed O'Brien pedalboard build. Stopped me dead in my tracks. Definitely let us know how it sounds!!
Yeah. My first instrument was violin, and this
circuit to my ears has a lot of those qualities.

Maybe I'll post some shitty phone footage after I have some time with it.

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Re: Incoming NPD - my first "real" fuzz

Post by fuzzjunkie » Fri Feb 02, 2018 10:01 am

I've been meaning to build a One Knob clone for a while now. Have the parts but not the time. One of my favorite fuzz tones.

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Re: Incoming NPD - my first "real" fuzz

Post by marqueemoon » Mon Feb 12, 2018 8:35 am

Tried this recording bass with a friend when I first got it. We tried taking a split using an A/B/Y box so we could track clean and fuzzy bass at the same time and blend to taste. The box we were using to split was being buggy and causing dropouts, so we eventually abandoned the idea, but seeing the waveforms side by side was a trip. The fuzzy track was just a solid block.

Tried some guitar last night at practice with the fuzz first in the chain. It definitely rips. Very smooth and mid-centric. It's very easy to coax into a nice musical feedback.

The downsides are:

1: It wants to be loud. When set at a similar level to, say, an overdrive it gets lost pretty quickly.
2: It doesn't do complex chords. No real surprise there.
3: Not a good one for the guitar volume control riders. It cleans up only within a very narrow range and the rolled back sounds are ok at best.

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Re: Incoming NPD - my first "real" fuzz

Post by fuzzjunkie » Mon Feb 12, 2018 8:59 am

Sounds as described ^^^, though I have found that some clean up better than others, they don't do the Fuzz Face thing even though the circuit is similar.

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Re: Incoming NPD - my first "real" fuzz

Post by marqueemoon » Mon Feb 12, 2018 9:09 am

fuzzjunkie wrote:
Mon Feb 12, 2018 8:59 am
Sounds as described ^^^, though I have found that some clean up better than others, they don't do the Fuzz Face thing even though the circuit is similar.
Yeah. It's pretty much exactly what I was expecting sonically. High quality build too.

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Re: Incoming NPD - my first "real" fuzz

Post by marqueemoon » Wed Feb 21, 2018 9:13 pm

In my 3 piece band I haven't found a sweet spot between "lost in the mix" and "way too loud" with this pedal, but I've played some lead-ish parts against some cleaner looped parts when messing around on my own and it sounds really great. I guess I need to start/join a new band to actually use this thing live. :derp:

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Re: Incoming NPD - my first "real" fuzz

Post by marqueemoon » Tue Dec 31, 2019 6:10 pm

Well, I broke this out today for the first time in a while and tried it with a few things I’ve acquired since.

It seems to like lower output pickups, and a touch of spring reverb really helps it pop. It really is great sounding. I just need a musical context where it can be loud n’ proud, but I’m working on that :ph34r:

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Re: Incoming NPD - my first "real" fuzz

Post by fuzzjunkie » Wed Jan 01, 2020 8:07 am

marqueemoon wrote:
Tue Dec 31, 2019 6:10 pm
Well, I broke this out today for the first time in a while and tried it with a few things I’ve acquired since.

It seems to like lower output pickups, and a touch of spring reverb really helps it pop. It really is great sounding. I just need a musical context where it can be loud n’ proud, but I’m working on that :ph34r:
Yeah, pedals like that come to life with lower output pickups. It’s probably best in small doses in a full mix, or in a drum-bass-guitar-singer situation where there’s fewer instruments competing for sonic space.

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Re: Incoming NPD - my first "real" fuzz

Post by marqueemoon » Wed Jan 01, 2020 9:31 am

fuzzjunkie wrote:
Wed Jan 01, 2020 8:07 am
Yeah, pedals like that come to life with lower output pickups. It’s probably best in small doses in a full mix, or in a drum-bass-guitar-singer situation where there’s fewer instruments competing for sonic space.
Yeah. The songs I write in my 3 piece don’t really call for fuzz, but I might be in a musical situation soon where it’s more appropriate, and I want to spend some time getting to know it better regardless. Embracing chaos is one of my goals for 2020.

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Re: Incoming NPD - my first "real" fuzz

Post by CorporateDisguise » Fri Jan 03, 2020 3:34 am

Another trick to help it cut at band volumes is to run it into a low gain drive pedal. That can help it have more band friendly frequencies.

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Re: Incoming NPD - my first "real" fuzz

Post by marqueemoon » Fri Jan 03, 2020 6:44 am

CorporateDisguise wrote:
Fri Jan 03, 2020 3:34 am
Another trick to help it cut at band volumes is to run it into a low gain drive pedal. That can help it have more band friendly frequencies.
Cool. Was planning on putting it right before my Archer.

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Re: Incoming NPD - my first "real" fuzz

Post by MechaBulletBill » Fri Jan 03, 2020 7:04 am

klones can be a bit too compressed for fuzz faces once the gain comes up into dirty territory. something looser like an amp-in-a-box type distortion works, just something that compresses the fuzz a little bit, without squishing all the fun out of it like a tubescreamer would.

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Re: Incoming NPD - my first "real" fuzz

Post by marqueemoon » Fri Jan 03, 2020 7:30 am

MechaBulletBill wrote:
Fri Jan 03, 2020 7:04 am
klones can be a bit too compressed for fuzz faces once the gain comes up into dirty territory. something looser like an amp-in-a-box type distortion works, just something that compresses the fuzz a little bit, without squishing all the fun out of it like a tubescreamer would.
I have my old Madbean Moar I could also try which is a bit more neutral (less mids), and there will be a clean boost on the board too.

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