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Agree with the Red Llama all day. I use mine as a full-time low-gain fuzzy drive...never have the drive above about 9 or 10 o'clock. Great pedal.

The Mid Fi Demo Tape Fuzz is another good one. Definitely a drive/preamp rather than a fuzz, but which happens to go super fuzzy and blown out in the last 10% of the dial. The bass and treble controls are dialled in really well on this one too. Easy DIY build, and kits are readily available.

Lovepedal/Hermida Dover Drive is a great sounding fuzzy overdrive.

In the "fuzz for fuzz-haters people", I recommand the Catalinbread Karma Suture (Ge version). I guess you can find it used for less than 100 bucks.
It can just be, a subtle push up, and add harmonics to your base sound (as a "always on"). To sparkling od sound. To fuzz. The Ge side is warm and thick, the Si side is more "modern", straight sounding, but you can go between this two extremes with the "diode" setting, to your liking.

The Fulltone OCD Ge version seems to be quite nice too.

In the Rat family, the Jam Rattler + is a top notch pedal.

If money is a concern, give a try to a boss bd-2 drive. Surprisingly good in a tube amp (can be more deceiving on other setups).

The EHX hot tubes is a CMOS-based circuit like the Red Llama and should get you into similar territory for maybe less money. I think most of those pedals are based on Craig Anderton's tube sound fuzz circuit from his electronic projects for musicians book.

I have an old hot tubes and it sounds fantastic to my ears, but you definitely lose clarity/treble as you crank the dirt. I've not used a red llama but from what I've read the same thing happens with those pedals and pretty much any CMOS-based design.

The hot cake clone I have (mtl.asm positive) sounds great, but also tends to lose a lot of high-end as you crank the gain. This makes a bit of sense I guess as they were designed to beef up split enz's AC30s and perhaps tame a bit of the shrill ice pick sound when they were being jacked.

I've actually put my Mooer Hustle drive on by board again. might not seem like the obvious fuzzy pedal but:
-its a Fulltone OCD clone.
-its like a bluesdriver, with a pinch of Rat, but 'flat'
-it gets surprisingly warm and saturated. heavy, more than the typical blues pedal. then put a boost before, or feed a rat!

I’ll definitely second the Karma Suture, I have the ge version as well and it’s something I doubt I’ll ever sell.

Also the Hotcake for ACs. I just got it pretty recently, and I haven’t been able to bring myself to take it off of an AC amp to see what it sounds like with other amps yet. I didn’t realize Montreal Assembly made that Positive - any idea just how close it is to the Hotcake?

I also like the BD-2 a lot, but both of mine are modded. I would expect that the waza version is improved enough to compete with some of the mods out there, and has to beat a stock non-waza. One of mine is an old Keeley modded one, he now sells his own version of it, the Super Phat mod.

mcatano wrote: ↑

Sun May 24, 2020 6:42 am

The hot cake clone I have (mtl.asm positive) sounds great, but also tends to lose a lot of high-end as you crank the gain. This makes a bit of sense I guess as they were designed to beef up split enz's AC30s and perhaps tame a bit of the shrill ice pick sound when they were being jacked.

I didn't realize that anyone had ever cloned them before! There does seem to be a cult of people who prefer the "two knob + switch" version, although the one I heard was a typical 3-knobber and I thought it already sounded great.

jorri wrote: ↑

Sun May 24, 2020 11:16 am

I've actually put my Mooer Hustle drive on by board again. might not seem like the obvious fuzzy pedal but:
-its a Fulltone OCD clone.
-its like a bluesdriver, with a pinch of Rat, but 'flat'
-it gets surprisingly warm and saturated. heavy, more than the typical blues pedal. then put a boost before, or feed a rat!

I've had an OCD and a Joyo Clone and definitely didn't hate it. I wouldn't mind having another as another "foundation drive" type pedal.

somanytoys wrote: ↑

Sun May 24, 2020 12:55 pm

I’ll definitely second the Karma Suture, I have the ge version as well and it’s something I doubt I’ll ever sell.

Also the Hotcake for ACs. I just got it pretty recently, and I haven’t been able to bring myself to take it off of an AC amp to see what it sounds like with other amps yet. I didn’t realize Montreal Assembly made that Positive - any idea just how close it is to the Hotcake?

I also like the BD-2 a lot, but both of mine are modded. I would expect that the waza version is improved enough to compete with some of the mods out there, and has to beat a stock non-waza. One of mine is an old Keeley modded one, he now sells his own version of it, the Super Phat mod.

I'll check out the Karma Suture. I've never had a Catalinbread pedal before but I've got a two knob clone of the Naga Viper that sounds great.

I also have a stock BD-2 that I've loved for years but could stand to be modded. Maybe I'll look into that.

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone! Some really solid choices here.

Blues Drivers are fantastic pedals, and I think the main benefit of the Waza version is that you get the redesigned boss buffer circuit which is supposed to be the chef's kiss.

It can just be, a subtle push up, and add harmonics to your base sound (as a "always on"). To sparkling od sound. To fuzz. The Ge side is warm and thick, the Si side is more "modern", straight sounding, but you can go between this two extremes with the "diode" setting, to your liking.

I don't think there's a GE and SI side in the Karma Suture. Turning the diode pot CW adds the diodes to the circuit, turning CCW takes them out. But the sonic description is accurate.
It's a very smooth sounding fuzz though, too much for my taste. I use it mainly as a boost/light overdrive, in which it really excels IMO. I'd like to try the silicon version someday.

BTW, I recommend going used with Catalinbread. I had unpleasant experiences with QC and customer service recently. For the KS, look for one with the green indicator led, these are the older ones.

Good advice, they’re built very well and used should be a good bit cheaper anyway.

The purple one is the germanium, the more white one (or bubinga top, of you want & can find it) is the silicon. The original Harmonic Percolator that it’s based on used germanium, from what I remember.

I do like the higher gain settings sometimes on the Blues Driver, it’s got a unique sound. Especially the Keeley, it’s a beast, and I imagine his Phat Mod pedal is just the same or better, since he made his name famous by his mods to this and the TS-9 (among others, but those were the 2 best).

But like the TS-9 and Klon, it really excels in the lower gain/higher volume spectrum. I don’t ever use the stock side of the switch on either one, it sounds thin and just...“less”.

There are kits if you want to try to mod it yourself.
Fromel sells one, there’s the Monte Alums mod kits that seem popular, and probably quite a few others. No idea who might still do the mods now. Either way, it’s worth it. There are some comparisons on YouTube, including the waza, if you want to check some out.

stevejamsecono wrote: ↑

Thu May 21, 2020 3:20 pm

Oooo. I totally forgot these existed. Reasonably priced, too!

Reasonably Priced options, like $25 each, for a lot of fun:

Black Rat (RAT clone) with the Turbo switch
Golden Horse (Klon clone)
Azor 303 (Big Muff Pi, silicon version, clone)

Then stack the Golden Horse into the Black Rat and you can get up into spitty output.

.

I'd like to do some other suggestions:

* EQD Gray Channel (or another DOD250 style overdrive): I like this has a dark, stoner-y sound signature compared to most overdrives, which usually are mid-focused.
* JHS Crayon: supposed to sound like going directly into a mixer, but sounds more like going into a broken amp to me (in a good and bad way).
* Fulltone 69: fooled you! This is a fuzz pedal, but one that's very overdrivey. But isn't that basically the same thing as a fuzzy overdrive? Only seems to work great with humbuckers over here though.

I just watched the Double Standard demo.

Then I checked out the Wine & Roses.

Really like the germanium sound a lot on both, but the left side/stacking on the R&W is more to my taste. That and a clean boost would cover a lot of territory for me. Damn nice sounding pedal.