Dear Abby, I want to buy a FUZZ pedal and am pretty clueless..can you help?

JeffB

JeffB

Let it B
I have never owned a fuzz. Played some, but not own. I know we have tons of fuzzfans here.

My needs

No over the top doom stoner fuzz pedals. I have tried a metal muff. Not my thing.

Vintage 60s/70s tonality. Mild fuzz. Adding color to an already jacked marshall tone, not looking to run on a clean fender.

True bypass or buffered.

WORK WELL WITH HUMBUCKERS.

I am thinking Germanium, as Sillicon seems more harsh. I may be wrong, just going by my experience so far.


No clue how it sounds live, but that classic blue box MXR caught my ear in clips? Isnt that a Fuzzface in a normal box?

Suggestions?
 
Re: Dear Abby, I want to buy a FUZZ pedal and am pretty clueless..can you help?

Well the good news is you want to run it with a dirty Marshall. So Fuzz Face types will probably work well for you. I am still looking for a fuzz to run with clean Fender amps, haven't found one yet.
 
Re: Dear Abby, I want to buy a FUZZ pedal and am pretty clueless..can you help?

Definitely a Fuzz Face variant. Avoid anything Muff-related.

EDIT: and don't count out silicon so quickly. Lots of great-sounding silicon FF variants out there.
 
Re: Dear Abby, I want to buy a FUZZ pedal and am pretty clueless..can you help?

Have no idea, but good thread topic!
 
Re: Dear Abby, I want to buy a FUZZ pedal and am pretty clueless..can you help?

Mojo hand Iron Bell. Nice all around fuzz. And it plays extremely well with other pedals, whether buffered or true bypass.
 
Re: Dear Abby, I want to buy a FUZZ pedal and am pretty clueless..can you help?

JeffB said:
No clue how it sounds live, but that classic blue box MXR caught my ear in clips? Isnt that a Fuzzface in a normal box?
Click to expand...

I'd be interested in hearing what people think of this one. I've thought about picking up a fuzz recently, and that's one of the one's I've considered.
 
Re: Dear Abby, I want to buy a FUZZ pedal and am pretty clueless..can you help?

Blue Box is a funky sub octave synth like fuzz...listen to the solo on Fool In The Rain. Not what you want at all...

I'd say a Fuzz Face of some sort of maybe as Ben suggested the old Sam Ash Fuzzz Boxx...for the later I'd go with the Astro Tone from AnalogMan as it has all the tone of the originals plus more range in the tone circuit.

If you go Fuzz Face it's a big can of worms to get in to and know going in that there is a learning curve but it's worth it IMHO.

If you go Fuzz Face I'd start with the Dunlop Hendrix, the blue one and go from there...
 
Re: Dear Abby, I want to buy a FUZZ pedal and am pretty clueless..can you help?

IF you are thinking Fuzz Face, you had better get to a good shop with a lot of variations to try; I know when I got mine, I played through 8 different versions until I found the one I liked best.

ooor, just take the train down my way and we'll find a some good uses for your cash! :)
 
Re: Dear Abby, I want to buy a FUZZ pedal and am pretty clueless..can you help?

LOL. I may take you up on that Ben ;)

Christian, I was talking about theClassic 108 from MXR..its the fuzz face with the buffer switch in a square housing? Not the little blue box inexpensive one.

Unfortunately my local shops suck. The mini GC has a handful, mostly muffs and I think an EJ fuzzface.the mom and pops dont have much different.
 
Re: Dear Abby, I want to buy a FUZZ pedal and am pretty clueless..can you help?

JeffB said:
No clue how it sounds live, but that classic blue box MXR caught my ear in clips? Isnt that a Fuzzface in a normal box?
Click to expand...
The MXR Blue Box is an octave down pedal. There is the MXR 108 Classic fuzz which has a powder blue case, if that is the one you are talking about them, yeah its just a dunlop jimi hendrix fuzzface with an added buffer.
RE: germ vs silicon. They are both cool. Fuzzes (even just fuzz faces) come in so many different sonic textures it really is incorrect to write off silicon as being "harsh" and germanium being somehow intrinsically better.
The downside of all the diversity tho is the finding the perfect fuzz tone for you is a very individual choice depending on what your playing style is and what kind of repertoire you want to play with it.
They are also extremely picky about what else is in your signal chain. It is not just a matter of putting the fuzz first, because everything down the line affects their performance too.
You can get fuzzes that work well in a chain of effects of course, but this convenience comes at the cost organic responsiveness to your touch and how they interact with your guitar's volume knobs.
Fuzzes are not like other pedals. We all have our favourites, but finding the right fuzzface is as individual as finding the right guitar.
Re: humbuckers - look for a fuzz that has an input trim control - some are on the box, some are on trimpots inside. Silicon fuzzes are much more predictable so you don't need an input trimmer for them to get along with your humbuckers.
To me a bias control is really important too, so you can tailor the texture of the fuzz to your liking - again, some are on the outside, some inside and some fuzzes just don't have them.
 
Last edited:
Re: Dear Abby, I want to buy a FUZZ pedal and am pretty clueless..can you help?

JeffB said:
LOL. I may take you up on that Ben ;)

Christian, I was talking about theClassic 108 from MXR..its the fuzz face with the buffer switch in a square housing? Not the little blue box inexpensive one.

Unfortunately my local shops suck. The mini GC has a handful, mostly muffs and I think an EJ fuzzface.the mom and pops dont have much different.
Click to expand...

The MXR BC-108 is, for the most part a Jimi Hendrix Fuzz Face in a phase 100 box with a 9 volt tap and a buffer for use with wah pedals...

Decent starting point...
 
Re: Dear Abby, I want to buy a FUZZ pedal and am pretty clueless..can you help?

nedcronin said:
Well the good news is you want to run it with a dirty Marshall. So Fuzz Face types will probably work well for you. I am still looking for a fuzz to run with clean Fender amps, haven't found one yet.
Click to expand...
I use fuzz straight into a fender twin mostly. I guess it depends what kind of sound you are after.
 
Re: Dear Abby, I want to buy a FUZZ pedal and am pretty clueless..can you help?

the guy who invented fire said:
The MXR BC-108 is, for the most part a Jimi Hendrix Fuzz Face in a phase 100 box with a 9 volt tap and a buffer for use with wah pedals...

Decent starting point...
Click to expand...

I thought having a wah pedal w/ a fuzz pedal was mandatory for Hendrix style riffage. This is the one I've been eyeballing too btw.
 
Re: Dear Abby, I want to buy a FUZZ pedal and am pretty clueless..can you help?

Mr 9finger said:
I thought having a wah pedal w/ a fuzz pedal was mandatory for Hendrix style riffage. This is the one I've been eyeballing too btw.
Click to expand...

Wah pedals and fuzz pedals are funky and often create issues when used together...

More modern style wah pedals have input/output buffers and when used with a fuzz and placed first in the chain they really mess with the operation and tone of most fuzz pedals (Big Muffs and a few others are the exceptions to this).

Also if you have an older (style) wah w/o the buffers and a fuzz (again, Big Muffs don't count here)
and the wah is first there is an impedance mismatch and when the 2 are used together you get very little wah effect and you will get a lot of noise and feedback.

So if you want to use fuzz and wah together you have a few options...

-Buffered wah (NOT input/output bufferes like in a Dunlop Crybaby) but fuzz buffer like in an RMC, Fulltone, Wilson, etc
-Buffered fuzz (Like the MXR BC-108)
Or...old school...
-Put the fuzz first then the wah however this makes a VERY different sound and feel when both the fuzz and wah are used together.
 
Re: Dear Abby, I want to buy a FUZZ pedal and am pretty clueless..can you help?

Good info here. Thanks everyone for the details. My other pedals are more important in my rig than the fuzz would be, so I definitely want the fuzz to play nice with the other kids, otherwise I won't bother with getting one.
 
Re: Dear Abby, I want to buy a FUZZ pedal and am pretty clueless..can you help?

So, when you coming down to New Jack City? :)
 
Re: Dear Abby, I want to buy a FUZZ pedal and am pretty clueless..can you help?

JeffB said:
Good info here. Thanks everyone for the details. My other pedals are more important in my rig than the fuzz would be, so I definitely want the fuzz to play nice with the other kids, otherwise I won't bother with getting one.
Click to expand...
well thats a good start.
Voodoo labs supefuzz can do an awful lot of sounds and works well with other pedals.
 
Last edited:
Re: Dear Abby, I want to buy a FUZZ pedal and am pretty clueless..can you help?

Did that superfuzz just come out or something? Been seeing alot of comments recently about it.
 
Re: Dear Abby, I want to buy a FUZZ pedal and am pretty clueless..can you help?

JeffB said:
Good info here. Thanks everyone for the details. My other pedals are more important in my rig than the fuzz would be, so I definitely want the fuzz to play nice with the other kids, otherwise I won't bother with getting one.
Click to expand...

What are the other kids??
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Nacho8807
NPD - MXR 108 Classic Fuzz Mini Review
Replies
1
Views
982
JB_From_Hell
JB_From_Hell
Pierre
I tried a bunch of pedal today... MXR, T Rex, Zvex, MI Audio, and... New Pedal Day!
2
Replies
27
Views
2K
kjrocks
kjrocks
Back
Top