Chistopher
malapterurus electricus tonewood instigator
Anyone got one? Do they sound good? Will it make me into someone I'm not?
Fuzz Factory?
- Thread starter Chistopher
- Start date
GuitarStv
Sock Market Trader
There are some of the coolest fuzz tones I've ever heard locked away in that little box. It can do the fuzz face thing, zipper fuzz, crushing heaviness, and bizarre noises. That said, it requires a certain amount of patience to tweak, and can be really hard to reliably come back to settings if you're using it live. While I love the thing, it's more of a studio fuzz than a playing live fuzz for me.
Every guitarist should have a few hours with one to make weird noises. Might not make you something you're not, but it'll put a smile on your face most likely.
Every guitarist should have a few hours with one to make weird noises. Might not make you something you're not, but it'll put a smile on your face most likely.
solspirit
Ultimate Post Liker
My kind of playing.
superpete
Active member
i found them too noisy, too finicky, and too much hassle to get a usable tone out of. but im more of a plug it in, turn a knob or two and go kind of pedal user. i have friends who swear by them and love what they do. i just don't have the patience to mess around for hours on a fuzz pedal.
solspirit
Ultimate Post Liker
I used to be like this, but I've got nothing but time now.
superpete
Active member
yeah i should point out my criticism isn't against the pedal or what it does, it just wasn't for me
Chistopher
malapterurus electricus tonewood instigator
I have ordered the DemonFX clone of the Fuzz Factory 7. I'll report back when it gets here
Chistopher
malapterurus electricus tonewood instigator
I listened to an interview from Zachary Vex and he says that the Fuzz Factory was initially an attempt to make a Fuzz Face with transistors that are very far from Fuzz Face spec. It sounded kinda wimpy, so to make it sound fuzzier he added a gain stage in front of it (making it close to a Tonebender MK2). It squealed like crazy, so he added some pots to bias it by ear, and then he decided to leave the pots on the outside.
So it's based off the Fuzz Face, albeit in the same way an Ibanez Jem is based off of a Stratocaster
So it's based off the Fuzz Face, albeit in the same way an Ibanez Jem is based off of a Stratocaster
Chistopher
malapterurus electricus tonewood instigator
Package came in the mail today, I predict I'll be having quite a bit of fun with it this evening.
Chistopher
malapterurus electricus tonewood instigator
I was going to do a short right up yesterday, but I stayed up too late fiddling with it.
Bottom Line Up Front - This is a really cool pedal to play around with. I think the added Fat and Tone controls on the FF7 make it worth it to get it over the normal Fuzz Factory, I definitely used the Fat knob a lot. It's not worth it to me to spend $500 on one though, and now that I've discovered DemonFX has a blatant disregard for intellectual property, I'd say you shouldn't by this specific clone unless you buy used. The Vexter is also a good option, it's a 5 knob version that can be found for less than $150 and comes in vertical and horizontal
First thing I noticed out of the box was that the build quality was very good for a Chinese knockoff. Full metal enclosure, nice sparkly paint. Flipped it over and it had a Made In Canada sticker. Weird to think China is outsourcing to Canada. Probably global trade politics I'm not going to get into.
This thing is pretty cool, you can make really whacky sounds out of it, but it's a lot more forgiving than you would think. The knob labeling is very intuitive. There are a lot of redundant positions, especially with how interactive the knobs are.
It can make just about any sound there is to be made from 2 or 3 germanium transistors. There's too much range of sound from this thing to really review the sound quality of it, I had no trouble getting the sounds in my head to come out of my guitar when I was using it. Instead I'll focus on the vibe it gave off.
I think the ideal use case for this pedal would be as a sort of "eternal soup" fuzz. Throw it in your practice space, find a sound you like, and then with each passing day bump the knobs a little bit, never really trying to find the same sound twice. It's like the old saying goes, "no man can ever eat the same stew twice, for it is not the same stew, and he is not the same man".
My only dislike - and I am not the first person to discover this - is that there is this one sound that's almost too easy to get out of it. If you don't set at least one knob to some sort of extreme, it will sound like a slightly tweaked Fuzz Face, which can be a good or a bad thing. The Fat knob helps alleviate this. Also the tone control doesn't need to be on a switch, but it can be fun. I would have used it in tandem with a boost.
Bottom Line Up Front - This is a really cool pedal to play around with. I think the added Fat and Tone controls on the FF7 make it worth it to get it over the normal Fuzz Factory, I definitely used the Fat knob a lot. It's not worth it to me to spend $500 on one though, and now that I've discovered DemonFX has a blatant disregard for intellectual property, I'd say you shouldn't by this specific clone unless you buy used. The Vexter is also a good option, it's a 5 knob version that can be found for less than $150 and comes in vertical and horizontal
First thing I noticed out of the box was that the build quality was very good for a Chinese knockoff. Full metal enclosure, nice sparkly paint. Flipped it over and it had a Made In Canada sticker. Weird to think China is outsourcing to Canada. Probably global trade politics I'm not going to get into.
This thing is pretty cool, you can make really whacky sounds out of it, but it's a lot more forgiving than you would think. The knob labeling is very intuitive. There are a lot of redundant positions, especially with how interactive the knobs are.
It can make just about any sound there is to be made from 2 or 3 germanium transistors. There's too much range of sound from this thing to really review the sound quality of it, I had no trouble getting the sounds in my head to come out of my guitar when I was using it. Instead I'll focus on the vibe it gave off.
I think the ideal use case for this pedal would be as a sort of "eternal soup" fuzz. Throw it in your practice space, find a sound you like, and then with each passing day bump the knobs a little bit, never really trying to find the same sound twice. It's like the old saying goes, "no man can ever eat the same stew twice, for it is not the same stew, and he is not the same man".
My only dislike - and I am not the first person to discover this - is that there is this one sound that's almost too easy to get out of it. If you don't set at least one knob to some sort of extreme, it will sound like a slightly tweaked Fuzz Face, which can be a good or a bad thing. The Fat knob helps alleviate this. Also the tone control doesn't need to be on a switch, but it can be fun. I would have used it in tandem with a boost.
Chistopher
malapterurus electricus tonewood instigator
At some settings you can tune the oscillation to serve as a pedal note.
