Trying Hard To Love My Caroline Shigeharu Fuzz...

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sea
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Trying Hard To Love My Caroline Shigeharu Fuzz...

Post by sea » Wed Sep 06, 2017 7:39 am

I wanted a Shigeharu ever since they had been announced. Billed as a big muff that actually cuts through the mix, what's not to love? Well, I'm not sure about this one. I've had it for a few months now, and I'm still unsure that I can vibe with it. The sound is very trebley and thin. Additionally, the pedal is very noisy. Noisier than any other fuzz I've tried before, in fact! On the positive side, however, I do quite like with the octave effect activated. I'm still trying to make this one work for me! Have any of you guys tried the Shigeharu? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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Re: Trying Hard To Love My Caroline Shigeharu Fuzz...

Post by Embenny » Wed Sep 06, 2017 9:00 am

I don't have any personal experience with this one, but I can share my experience that the way things sound on paper and the way they sound in your rig, with your hands, for your music, are completely different things.

I've tried many things that sounded "perfect for me" on paper - and some of them have been home runs while others have left me cold. After a few months, if you've tried playing with all your other gear (amps/settings/guitars/signal chain) and you're not gelling with it, it's totally fair to give up on it.

Some examples of things that I have never gotten to sound good in my hands: RATs (I love so many artists' tone who use them, but I've genuinely never enjoyed mine with any of my setups that involved one), Wide Range pickups, Les Pauls, and Vox amps.

All of the above sounds great in other people's hands, but I've never gotten a tone I was happy with them for my purposes. I used to feel like I somehow failed if I couldn't get something to sound good. Now I just accept that it's impossible to predict what works for me and what doesn't. I try to test things out as best I can before ordering, but I now move stuff along if it doesn't work out.
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Re: Trying Hard To Love My Caroline Shigeharu Fuzz...

Post by Mike S » Wed Sep 06, 2017 5:46 pm

This sounds like the Octave Up setting on a Tone Machine. It sounds like it would be best on a high-output humbucker in the bridge position. Be careful with playing on the neck pickup and be very careful if you roll back the tone. If it sounds like you described, you may be able to unintentionally get an 8-Bit Nintendo sound out of it.

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Re: Trying Hard To Love My Caroline Shigeharu Fuzz...

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Wed Sep 06, 2017 6:48 pm

I wonder if it's the same circuit as the original Olympia/Shigeharu (which is what I had). I loved it at first, as kind of a nice middle ground between a muff/fuzz face/tonebender, but after awhile, it just didn't do anything for me. I LOVE fuzz, but what you hear on records and what you hear when you play is way different to my ears, and I haven't really gotten on with many fuzzes in person. Caroline makes amazing stuff, but the Shigeharu is definitely a different beast.
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Re: Trying Hard To Love My Caroline Shigeharu Fuzz...

Post by Jaguar018 » Thu Sep 07, 2017 8:04 am

Finding a fuzz pedal you like can be a long journey. You don't have to force yourself to like a pedal that just isn't really doing it for you, especially in this day and age.

There are hundreds of fuzz pedals out there. Thousands, millions. Used, new, cheap, expensive. Give a few others a try.

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Re: Trying Hard To Love My Caroline Shigeharu Fuzz...

Post by Mike S » Fri Sep 08, 2017 6:57 am

After listening to several clips, the Shigeharu definitely is in the same sonic family as the Foxx Tone Machine and Danelectro French Toast. I haven't tried a whole lot of the boutique retro/improvement fuzz pedals but to my ear, the Tone Machine is the only fuzz that's more brutal than the Shin-Ei fuzz pedals. If you can't get the sound you're looking for, at least you'll be able to get closest to George Harrison's sound on Revolution.

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Re: Trying Hard To Love My Caroline Shigeharu Fuzz...

Post by stevejamsecono » Sat Sep 09, 2017 7:51 am

Jaguar018 wrote:Finding a fuzz pedal you like can be a long journey. You don't have to force yourself to like a pedal that just isn't really doing it for you, especially in this day and age.

There are hundreds of fuzz pedals out there. Thousands, millions. Used, new, cheap, expensive. Give a few others a try.
This. Also, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that straight up Distortion pedals are really underrated for fuzz-like applications and generally are easier to eq. Everyone's mileage is gonna vary on this one, but I feel like there's at least a thread a week on any guitar forum where it's like "Oh I got this fuzz that is on records I love and it doesn't work in my setup, but I'm gonna buy this and this to try to make it do that" and it makes me wonder.

Not to say this isn't a cool pedal or that fuzzes aren't useful or cool pedals, but I think the "flavor of the week" mentality in guitar players sometimes gets us writing off other options because of what we think should work rather than by what actually works.
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Re: Trying Hard To Love My Caroline Shigeharu Fuzz...

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Sat Sep 09, 2017 11:29 am

stevejamsecono wrote:I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that straight up Distortion pedals are really underrated for fuzz-like applications and generally are easier to eq.
Completely agree. My first "fuzz" pedal was a Boss Blues Driver. When I maxed out the gain for the first time, I was so excited that it was fuzzy. And my Arc Effects Soothsayer can get very fuzzy too.
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Re: Trying Hard To Love My Caroline Shigeharu Fuzz...

Post by marqueemoon » Sat Sep 09, 2017 1:14 pm

I think this is largely why I haven't gotten into fuzz. It's a fine line between fucked up sounding in a good way and fucked up sounding in a bad way.

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Re: Trying Hard To Love My Caroline Shigeharu Fuzz...

Post by Jaguar018 » Mon Sep 11, 2017 8:07 am

marqueemoon wrote:I think this is largely why I haven't gotten into fuzz. It's a fine line between fucked up sounding in a good way and fucked up sounding in a bad way.
The general truth about all effect flavors (Delay, Flanger, Phaser, Overdrive, etc. ) is that you have to figure out your tastes and not be afraid to make some mistakes.

Fuzz, to me, is one of the most complicated sounds to distill; for one of the least complicated circuits, it seems like there are millions of subtle, and not-so-subtle variations.

The other key bit is: what kind of music do you play? Some styles lend themselves very well to fuzz textures, while others just get lost in the plot.

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Re: Trying Hard To Love My Caroline Shigeharu Fuzz...

Post by stevejamsecono » Mon Sep 11, 2017 1:41 pm

Shadoweclipse13 wrote:
stevejamsecono wrote:I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that straight up Distortion pedals are really underrated for fuzz-like applications and generally are easier to eq.
Completely agree. My first "fuzz" pedal was a Boss Blues Driver. When I maxed out the gain for the first time, I was so excited that it was fuzzy. And my Arc Effects Soothsayer can get very fuzzy too.
marqueemoon wrote:I think this is largely why I haven't gotten into fuzz. It's a fine line between fucked up sounding in a good way and fucked up sounding in a bad way.
That's kind of been my experience as well. I've never been much of a fuzz guy to begin with, but any attempts to add them into my setup as completely clashed with my sensibility and gear. I still wanted the relative gains of a fuzz which to me would be the sustain and a fizzy accompanying texture, so some cheaper Distortion boxes tend to get me there for what I like.
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Re: Trying Hard To Love My Caroline Shigeharu Fuzz...

Post by smallerthings » Wed Sep 13, 2017 7:03 pm

I'm a huge fan of mine, personally. It does tend to have more treble than most, but I've been able to adjust it and get a beefier tone.

Have you adjusted the gate trimpot at all? I kept mine all the way down because I liked the tone as is, but it may add something for you.

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Re: Trying Hard To Love My Caroline Shigeharu Fuzz...

Post by smalahove » Thu Sep 21, 2017 4:39 am

Jaguar018 wrote:Finding a fuzz pedal you like can be a long journey. You don't have to force yourself to like a pedal that just isn't really doing it for you, especially in this day and age.

There are hundreds of fuzz pedals out there. Thousands, millions. Used, new, cheap, expensive. Give a few others a try.

Fuzz is so difficult, probably because (youtube) clips seldom capture the nuances that determine if you like it or not IRL.

However, I've had a few instances of pedals that I've considered lackluster, even over long periods, but have come to be my favs. The Catalinbread Echorec is one of them, another is the Bearfoot HoneyBee overdrive. On the fuzz side, I fell quickly in love with Trombetta Minibone, but other ones, even the coveted Trombetta Tornita have been on-and-off affairs.

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Re: Trying Hard To Love My Caroline Shigeharu Fuzz...

Post by Mike S » Fri Sep 22, 2017 4:11 pm

Sometimes when I'm noodling around with my Super Fuzz or with a Muff and I can't get the sound or definition that I'm looking for, I flip both pickups on out of phase. The frequency cancellation can help get better clarity while still maintaining the character and ferocity of the effect.

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Re: Trying Hard To Love My Caroline Shigeharu Fuzz...

Post by repoman » Sun Oct 01, 2017 3:26 pm

What amp are you using? What pickups?
Fuzz always sounds like crap to me through blackface fender style amps and amps set very clean. The seem to come alive with amps that are just starting to break up and have a lot of inherent midrange available. Single coils seem to work better too as humbuckers tend to drive them way too hard and the sound gets all compressed and fizzy.

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