EDIT: I made a crappy, rushed video. But you can hear the differences. Maybe... Fuzz shoot out youtube
All tests conducted with a Les Paul standard into clean-ish JCM800 2205 with Torpedo Live (Brit vintage cabinet) & Rode NTH-100 headphones.
PART 1: NORMAL? FUZZES
1. Analogman Sunface Bart
2. DRV 1981
3. 1990s Rat 2
4. Balls Effects Galaxian
5. EHX Nano Big Muff
6. Balls Effects Big Balls
7. EQD Bellows clone
8. Way Huge Swollen Pickle mkiiis
![Image](https://i.ibb.co/tz5BNT0/IMG-2042.jpg)
Professionally connected & beautifully presented test subjects
The results were really interesting…
1. Analogman Sunface has a lot of treble but sounds the most organic. I still need to tweak the internal gain & bias settings a little to really make this pedal do its thing. Regardless it’s just cool & big and it has a vintagey thing that the others don’t, yet still having more gain on tap than a lot of other drive pedals
![Kiss :-*](./images/smilies/kiss.gif)
2. DRV 1981 kinda sounds great at almost any setting, except anything past 11 o’clock is too much gain. I loved this pedal, until I properly A/B’d it with the Rat…
3. ProCo Rat 2 at first sounded really scooped and compressed compared to the 1981. A better volume match & a bit of tweaking and get them sounding really similar both at low & higher gain. The 1981 might sound a touch more alive with my setup, but I don’t think that’s enough to save it. The Rat wins.
4. Balls Galaxian is a Big Muff on steroids. Sounds way more open than the big muff nano, so the stupidly high gain sounds are still usable. It’s a fun pedal that will be used for overdubs. Plus it looks awesome inside & out. All hail the doctor
5. This was the first fuzz that I liked, many moons ago. It still sounds cool at lower gain settings & given this test it’s passable covering the sounds of the two Balls pedals. Sadly, it’s massively outclassed at lower gain by that dastardly doctor…
6. Balls Big Balls is a tamed Big Muff. That’s what it says on the tin, and that’s what it does. It sounds great form low gain to mid settings, and sounds better than the nano at both imo. It can sound a little compressed, but dropping the gain & some fine tuning of volume and tone makes a huge difference. Would seriously recommend one of these if you want a muff sound & don’t have the £££ for a vintage EHX.
7. Bellows clone has been a surprise & a revelation. When I first used it with a single channel amp, I thought it sucked. I was wrong. This thing sounds great & the tone is just right. The surprising part is I expected it to be in the Analogman kind of world. And it is, sort of. Yet at low gain, this thing is a Rat. And it works. Go to noon and you’ve got a big muff thing going on. My setup is quite bright, so it doesn’t quite sound as pleasing as the muffs but it does have that slightly vintage germanium sound so it works. I’m going to test this on my board where my rat usually sits before I make any decisions on this little marvel.
8. Swollen Pickle. Oh dear. I’ve lusted after one of these ever since they were first released. Some cool bands used them & the reviews sounded great. I thought it would be more big muff, and it’s not. Got a far more abrasive tone, edging towards Steve Albini’s kinda Shellac sound. It’s actually more similar to the Analogman in sound. Yet despite all the tweakable elements, it never quite manages to sound as good. Maybe I should spend more time with it, not impressed when directly compared to these other pedals.