For fuzz sakes

[Zork]

The perfect number of fuzz pedals is n+1. I'll take a picture of my collection next time I come to the practice room. One trick pony fuzz pedals are secret weapons for great recordings imo and if you choose wisely you don't even have to shell out loads of money for a nice selection.

[MattK]

Playing bass, when stepping on a fuzz pedal to fill in the background while the guitar is soloing, it always needs to be louder and then a bit more than you think.

this is because bass is more important than guitar solos

[Russell1982]

I love me some fuzz...I only have three at the moment...I have spent embarrassing amounts of money on fuzz pedals over the years!

Here's the current lineup:

I am absolutely in love with your blue sparkle octane 3. I’ve been on the hunt for an octane 3 for a while but I really love those old sparkle paint jobs. My fuzz factory is an early 2000’s green sparkle and I love it.

And to keep on topic, I’m a big fuzz lover too, the fuzz factory being on of my main weapons of choice but I also have a big muff from about 2000 as well as the reissue op amp version, plan on grabbing a triangle version at some point too as I love that sound. And I keep meaning to pick up a fuzz face at some point but have just never gotten around to it. The blue Hendrix version has been calling me for a few years now though.

[F15hface]

I’ve been known to enjoy a fuzz pedal…



The Fuzz Factory was my first ever pedal. It currently lives on a shelf but will be returning to board duties once I’ve got a second board for the music I’m writing.
The Big Muff with wicker was maybe my third pedal and while it’s not my favourite it does a muff, and that’s enough.
Bought the lizard queen because I thought the big box screen printing thing was cool, loved how it sounded so built a more pedal board friendly clone.
The one knobber in the trapezoid case is the first pedal I built, and I have another pcb and case to assemble that was bought in case of failure.
I just bought the Melxowtone off of Johnny. It arrived this morning and it rips.

I also have a Black Russian big muff, but it’s at my parents. Just an absolute walk of thick, sludgy filth.

[marqueemoon]

Most classic fuzz pedals are just one trick ponies.

yep. that's why i tend to have two on the board - "fat" n "thin".

the other thing no one ever admits is that you can get pretty close to most sixties fuzz tones with a decent fuzz face that has a bias control. yes even the splatty decay mk1 TB sounds everyone was throwing thousands at a while back.

Yes, my White Atom can cover a lot of ground thanks to the bias control. It even does a pretty decent overdrive sound. Also it has a tone control (the later version has bass and treble), and it’s hybrid, so you can put it anywhere in the chain.

Just the kind of practicality that’s a dealbreaker for true fuzz aficionados

[JSett]

It arrived this morning and it rips.

Accurate assessment

[zhivago]

I am absolutely in love with your blue sparkle octane 3. I’ve been on the hunt for an octane 3 for a while but I really love those old sparkle paint jobs. My fuzz factory is an early 2000’s green sparkle and I love it.

Hey thanks!

Sparkle Octanes are fairly rare, but definitely around...it's fun hunting these down!

[del]

I like all my fuzzes:

Ge (red) Dunlop Fuzz Face (x2)
Si (blue JH-F1) Donlop Fuzz Face
Fulltone 70s small box Fuzz Face
Prescription Electronics Yardbox
Basic Audio 6T9
Reuss Repeater Fuzz MkII
Lovepedal Tonebender MkIII
Devi Ever OK
Devi Ever Soda Meiser

Fuzz-ish pedals
ProCo Rat 2 (x2)
Red Llama clone (x2)
DOD 250
Lovepedal Les Lius

[fuzzjunkie]

As OffYourFace mentioned, EQ is important for getting fuzz to cut through. Fuzz cuts the top off a square wave, and often the bottom too, adding a bunch of extra harmonics that create an exciting sound in isolation, but clashes with other musical elements in an ensemble.

If you look at Kevin Shields’ early pedal boards, he had basic pedals like a Fuzz Face and Rat, but he also had 2 EQ pedals after them for sculpting the tone. Even though MBV was a wall of sound he still wanted the individual guitar tones to shine through. I think I read that the Shields Blender has a clean blend and sag control that the original version didn’t have? That would certainly help with getting the initial impulse of guitar to cut through before it gets washed out in an envelope of fuzz.

Another approach is to not go for a fuzzed out wall of fuzz. The arrangement leaves space for the fuzz to bloom. This is easier to do in a 3 piece, or 3 instruments and a singer, like Hendrix or Led Zeppelin, but the arrangement has to cater to the fuzz for it to stand out. The Yardbirds, the Beatles and the Stones all did this. The rest of the band laid back during the fuzz bits, otherwise it was just background noise.

I was always a fan of echo, delay and reverb when I first started playing. I thought fuzz was for geezers like Beck and Hendrix. Then I heard some Big Muff tones used by Will Sargent and the Edge. Thought that was pretty cool. Then the Jesus and Mary Chain really opened my ears. The Cocteau Twins were using a Big Muff too.

So I hunted down a Big Muff. It is an old Op Amp model and at the time I didn’t know any different. Tube Screamers and other dirt pedals were Op Amp based, so I wasn’t even aware of transistors until later.

I liked the Big Muff, but it didn’t work great with my Vox amp. It was better with a Marshall or HiWatt. That got me into Tone Benders, which seemed to be voiced perfectly for the AC-30.

Finally I got a Roland Bee Baa. I wanted that Japanese buzz saw fuzz that the JAMC had. It’s a big pedal with a big sound. In isolation. In a mix those harmonics become a big wash of sound, which was fine at the time because I was using fuzz like reverb and it was a big bed of background noise, not a featured solo sound.

After that I went full circle and I started listening to the early fuzz sounds of Barret, Beck, Harrison, Hendrix, Page and Mick Ronson. I started coveting those primitive fuzz tones. I recognized that less was more and those early attempts at building fuzz had it.

So this is the 3rd approach for getting fuzz to work in a live environment. Arrangements, EQ, and finally, Less is More. The lower gain fuzz circuits simply cut through better. Once you have more than 1-2 gain stages you hit a ceiling and while that might sound great on its own, it’s lost when other instruments are added. Don’t turn everything to 10, or 11, or whatever. You’re going to get buried. Fuzz needs room to breathe.

If you look at early examples of Beck, Hendrix or Page, they crank the volume up on the fuzz, not the gain. They wanted a thick, sustained tone and used fuzz to push their amplifiers. Not using the full on fuzz tone into a clean amp. The Beatles did that gain staging console preamps for some of their tones, but you can’t do that live.

I thought everything had to be on 10 when I first got my Big Muff, but in actuality it sounds best with the gain just past noon. I remember seeing a live Hendrix video and when he stepped on the Fuzz Face he disappeared from the mix. He went back to his amp, turned up the mids and got screaming feedback, then he went back to his Fuzz Face and turned the gain back down and the volume up. He was back in the mix and sounded like Jimi Hendrix.

So now my pedals cover 3 flavors. That primitive early ‘60s low gain fuzz, a thicker late ‘60s fuzz, and then a wall of fuzz pedal. I still have the old Big Muff, Bee Baa and Rat, but my main fuzz tones are a Tonebender MK1 and MK4, with a side of Fairfield Circuitry Four Eyes. That has a triple filter EQ circuit that allows me to sculpt those higher gain sounds in a manner similar to what OffYourFace suggests, and it works. I get Bee Baa and Big Muff tones that don’t get lost, plus it has a CV input for sweeping the filters like a wah or synth filter for JAMC and more experimental tones. I can get a nice Diamond Sea swirl from it too.

[zhivago]

Very well said. ^^^

Earlier today I had the pleasure of playing (with a band) through an Analogman BC109 that just killed...Esquire > Sunface > FD3 > AD900 > Amp.



The Sunface and the Esquire had a love affair all afternoon!

[JSett]

Sunface's are honestly the best fuzz I've ever used.

[sal paradise]

This is one of the most interesting & informative single posts I’ve ever read on this forum. And that’s a pretty high bar. Thank you for sharing all that info

That explains how my Octavia sounds better like a boost with low gain into slightly dirty amp than fuzzing out a clean sound,

Sunface's are honestly the best fuzz I've ever used.

Guess what pedal is currently waiting to clear customs…

[JSett]

Sunface's are honestly the best fuzz I've ever used.

Guess what pedal is currently waiting to clear customs…

Get ready to put all your other fuzzes into a cupboard

[Gav Haus]

Anyone seen the new Collision Devices TARS? Looks great in demo vids.

I’m a soviet muff user myself. Muffs are far and away my favourite. Fairfield Circuitry Unpleasant Surprise was another worthy of note.

[sal paradise]

Sunface's are honestly the best fuzz I've ever used.

Guess what pedal is currently waiting to clear customs…

Get ready to put all your other fuzzes into a cupboard

I’m trying to not get too hyped up about it. But it is was the first fuzz sound I heard that hit my dream ideals: smooth & massive. The boss is smooth but it isn’t massive. Big miff is massive but not smooth. Here’s hoping…