Was Fuzz mainly a late 60's early 70's phenomena?

[MetalManiac]

Besides the resurgence of fuzz in modern music, did the usage of the fuzz pedal - in particular the 'Fuzz Face' - kind of peter out towards the end of the 70's and throughout the 80's into the early 90's? Or no?
Can you cite some examples of bands/songs using fuzz throughout the late 70's/80's?

edit- I guess you could say the Rat,although not technically a fuzz, could get almost fuzz like, so how much was that particular pedal used late 70's / 80's?

[idsnowdog]

Re: Was Fuzz mainly a late 60's early 70's phenomena?

Not really. A number of guitarists used fuzz pedals that you wouldn't normally think of. Like Jake E Lee has used a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz for most of his career and The Edge from U2 has used a Big Muff. A lot of the grunge/stoner/doom bands from the 80's and 90's also used fuzz units.

[astrozombie]

Re: Was Fuzz mainly a late 60's early 70's phenomena?

I have a fuzz face on my pedalboard, so no.

[idsnowdog]

Re: Was Fuzz mainly a late 60's early 70's phenomena?

To clarify I'm pretty sure that fuzz pedals have been with us since then, but I don't think they have figured as prominently in music since the decline of psychedelic/acid rock. I'm not sure that people have run fuzz boxes into the mixing board like they used to in the 60's and 70's and then layered that signal over the mic'ed amp sound? With the improvement in fidelity of recording techniques some of the older fuzz units would be too noisy for producers to run straight to the board like they used to do. Also with the improvement in the ability of studios to record guitar tracks at high volume part of the rationale for those boxes being run directly to the board has disappeared. However that doesn't mean people haven't used them since then as distortion pedals like they were originally intended.

[JOLLY]

Re: Was Fuzz mainly a late 60's early 70's phenomena?

I always liked the way Django Reinhardt used one with his acoustic.

[DankStar]

Re: Was Fuzz mainly a late 60's early 70's phenomena?

Some of dire straights stuff sounds fuzzy to me.

[Myaccount876]

Re: Was Fuzz mainly a late 60's early 70's phenomena?

Even Brian May used fuzz occasionally (though he used the Dallas Rangemaster more) on the first two Queen albums. He had a Vox fuzz circuit on his guitar, and used it to get distortion at low volumes, since they were only allowed to record during studio down-time. You can hear it on tracks like Jesus and The Loser In The End. I don't think he ever used fuzz again after Queen II.

[Securb]

Re: Was Fuzz mainly a late 60's early 70's phenomena?

I always liked the way Django Reinhardt used one with his acoustic.

Is that how he got the tone on his VanHalen Tribute disk Django Unchained?

[astrozombie]

Re: Was Fuzz mainly a late 60's early 70's phenomena?

Is that how he got the tone on his VanHalen Tribute disk Django Unchained?

[jon the art guy]

Re: Was Fuzz mainly a late 60's early 70's phenomena?

I'm pretty sure if the technology to have overdriven sounds in a box existed, there would have never been fuzz. Fuzz was a means to an end with pretty crude electronics and a very simplistic design that was almost immediately overshadowed and dropped off the pedalboard in exchange for the first ODs. The sound of them is pretty niche and can really drive some people up a wall.

Nowadays there's a wiiiiiiide, huge field of musical tastes, and there's plenty of room for Ger-fuzzes, hardcore silicon, cascaders...all sort of stuff. Up until grunge it was the disco of guitar effects tho.

[TimmyPage]

Re: Was Fuzz mainly a late 60's early 70's phenomena?

I definitely think it is a clean signal/noise free mixing thing. Fuzz pedals degrade your signal pretty hard, they essentially chop up the input of your guitar and throw it at the amp. Don't misunderstand, it sounds GREAT (or, it can sound great) but the degraded signal, huge amount of chain noise, and general uncontrollability (you can play the same phrase twice and the fuzz might decide to react differently to it both times) have lead to it being used less and less in more modern music.

It's the same reason that noise suppressors and noiseless singles are so popular now, people want strong, clean, controllable and stable signal chains.

[Myaccount876]

Re: Was Fuzz mainly a late 60's early 70's phenomena?

I personally dislike fuzz pedals. I want a clean, overdriven sound that is consistent and clear. To me, fuzz just sounds like a cheap and noisy mess. I can understand why it was used back in the day, but I have an even easier time understanding why Brian May ditched the fuzz as soon as he was able to record with a cranked AC30 (or three).

[MetalManiac]

Re: Was Fuzz mainly a late 60's early 70's phenomena?

^ I had come to understand that Fuzz was by and large ditched with the advent Ibanez Tubescreamer and Boss OD-1's, Dod 250 Gray, as well as even the fuzz-like Rat. They offrered more clarity and note definition in line with the tighter much more dynamic late 70's/ 80's sound.
As has been stated., fuzz was still a definite factor throughout the later post psychedelic rock times up through the 90's, however in general, you might argue that fuzz was not as much of a factor in sound after the invention of the aforementioned overdrives?
Nowadays, with modern technology, its a varitable cornucopia of all kinds of fuzzes, overdrives., and boosts, many which are more dynamic and clear. Offerings range a very old school dirty sound but generally more versatile , to very modern takes on traditional fuzz effects.

[Myaccount876]

Re: Was Fuzz mainly a late 60's early 70's phenomena?

I still don't get the fuzz hype. It is about the last thing I'd want in the list of Drives/Boosters/Dirt effects. Just about every other option sounds better to me. I don't really even care for germanium transistors in my limited experience with them. I built a Dallas Rangemaster with all the correct parts, but I still prefer my silicon 2N5088 transistor Treble Booster. It has less noise, more usable gain, a fuller midrange, and is without the weird Ge transistor "sag". Time to venture into tube overdrive circuits.

[jon the art guy]

Re: Was Fuzz mainly a late 60's early 70's phenomena?

You're a good example of the prevailing attitude has been to fuzz since ODs came around, Myaccount. Personally, I bask in the busted sounds of a Pi fuzz...but in today's do-anything music climate, I have the prerogative, as do you.

For the record, germaniums are more of a solid state analog to tube than a silicon chip is, but the circuit is a clipping/mangling circuit, not a power amplifier. I bet a germanium power chip @5w would sound bretty gud doe.