Fuzz Too Quiet?

[AlexDoesGuitar]

Greetings Forum, long time no post!

I recently added a Hungry Robot FZ pedal to my board with the hopes of using it as a volume and low-end boost when parts call for it. It's very versatile, works as a good contrast to the Clean Rat boost on the Deucetone, and sounds great to that end when I run it into one of my Marshalls. However, I'm having trouble getting the creamy, boosted low-end tone I want when running it in front of my always-on Deucetone RAT pedal in my live rig. I've run into similar issues with other fuzzes, so I'm feeling kinda stumped. Here's the signal chain for my live rig for reference:

Guitar-->Morley Wah-->RAT (always on with volume maxed and gain dialed down)-->ISP Decimator (always on)-->Hungry Robot FZ-->Phase 90-->CopilotFX Orbit-->Keeley Delay Workstation-->Digitech JamMan-->Sunn Enforcer

Any suggestions? What am I missing here? Is the issue the pedal, its spot in the signal chain, or the amp? I really like the rhythm tone I've dialed in with the RAT-->Gate-->Enforcer combo I'm running in my band and would like to keep it in my rig. Any suggestions out there as to what I could do?

[jeremy]

Re: Fuzz Too Quiet?

i know nothing about this fuzz but on most fuzz pedals ive played and owned, they want to be at the front of the chain and dont love being slammed by od or distortion

[GuitarStv]

Re: Fuzz Too Quiet?

Put the fuzz first, then use the RAT afterwards to boost volume.

[EC Strat]

Re: Fuzz Too Quiet?

I’ve found that Fuzzes don’t stack too well with other ODs. When I try to stack my germanium fuzz with an OD it loses gain and volume Must be a resistance problem

My bet is if you click off your Rat and run your fuzz with the Marshall OD it’s be fine

[jeremy]

Re: Fuzz Too Quiet?

it is the quirky nature of a fuzzface, super low output impedance. i run mine into a dirty little secret mkii and it works great but ive tried to use other od and experienced the same issues you describe

[Despair]

Re: Fuzz Too Quiet?

A lot of fuzzes are sensitive on both input and output. I'm not familiar with your particular fuzz, but debugging fuzz, first thing to try is put it first in chain. Even before the wah, if the wah has a buffered bypass.

On the other hand, there ARE players who routinely do chains of boost/OD->Fuzz->boost/OD/distortion. But, you don't usually max out the output of the pre-fuzz OD, you give a bit of a boost to smooth out the fuzz, when doing that kind of stacking. And you use a fuzz that's less sensitive to placement in chain, like a Big Muff.

If you want a dynamic fuzz, like a germanium Fuzz Face, you want it first in chain (excepting maybe a true bypass wah), which is a pain for things like noise gates. Good news is that OD into fuzz is much easier to configure, and has fewer bad combos. All out volume boost after fuzz? No problem!

So try Guitar-->Hungry Robot FZ-->Morley Wah-->RAT (always on with volume maxed and gain dialed down)-->ISP Decimator (always on)-->Phase 90-->CopilotFX Orbit-->Keeley Delay Workstation-->Digitech JamMan-->Sunn Enforcer, and if you don't like wah after fuzz after experimenting a while, then try Guitar-->Morley Way-->Hungry Robot FZ-->RAT and see if you still like what the fuzz does. Might also try swapping the Decimator and the RAT in the chain, as killing noise before gain is often easier to get both dynamics and minimized noise. But maybe your wah drops volume too much?

if you just want a bass boost, a fat overdrive/dirt box may do better than a fuzz, if it HAS to be after the RAT. But given you like the fuzz by itself direct into amps, trying it first in chain and adapting rest of chain's settings a hair may get you where you want.

Good luck!