Fuzz Pedals

[astrozombie]

I want to pick some up. I already have a big muff, which I love. I'm looking to get a Fender Blender because I've been messing around with it on Amplitube for a long time and I really like how it sounds on there. anything else you guys suggest? I want to pick up the big muff with tone wicker just because its the same pedal in a smaller case with another tone option. I just love fuzz pedals overall, so I'll dig anything you guys throw my way basically. Besides the Fender Bender and Big Muff, what are some other notable fuzz pedals?

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Fuzz Pedals

You cant miss the Fuzz Face... A much mellower and smoother fuzz than a big muff. My favorite fuzz is the Peppermint Fuzz from Analogman. Its a much more in your face fuzz than a fuzz face though. A good one but over looked is the mid 80's DOD FX52 classic fuzz. Has a big muff vibe to it but is still a good fuzz pedal

 

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: Fuzz Pedals

There are tonebenders and fuzz faces you should look at as well.

The Jimi Hendrix Fuzz from MXR is a great pedal for the money.

 

[mrpinter]

Re: Fuzz Pedals

I've been looking at fuzzes too, mostly via YouTube vids. Here are three that have got my attention:

Subdecay Tomato Fuzz. (used in the second half of the song in the solo/bridge)

Subdecay F-Bomb. (has been discontinued but there are still a few around)

Catalinbread Merkin.

All seem to have pretty useful sounds. The F-Bomb is cheaper than the others. Maybe that's why it's been d/c'd - cutting into sales of it's big brother?

 

[lareplus]

Re: Fuzz Pedals

I've loved fuzz pedals every since I was a little kid and didn't know what rock and roll was. After hearing one on a record at the club on base where my mom took me when she played bingo, I tried to get that sound with the attachments on her vacuum cleaner when it was turned on.

It's not a fuzz exactly, but the Catalinbread SFT makes a very nice fuzzy sound when you caress it gently. Turn its knobs and listen in wonder.

It stacks nicely. The next phase of my fuzzy career is to learn more about what fuzzes play nicely together. I just discovered that my Noise Floor is well tempered by my Big Muff Russian. . .quite wonderful sound, actually.

Do you know about Devi Ever? Some of her pedals are very good, others are so so. The Torns Peaker is intriguing me presently.

Good hunting on your quest for the finest of fuzzes. .

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Fuzz Pedals

Have a look at Theo Hartman's hand built fuzz face clones.

 

[baritone]

Re: Fuzz Pedals

Back when I started my fuzz quest, the Peppermint was one of the coolest ones I tried. I think my next fuzz will be the Ibanez ToneLok FZ7.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Fuzz Pedals

i love my Fuzz Factory

i'm thinking of ordering a Germanium Big Muff cuz it's a dual pedal :smokin:

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Fuzz Pedals

ive seenn some stuff here that caught my interest: analogman, fuzz face, russian muff. germanium muff... fuzz factory

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Fuzz Pedals

bump

 

[woemoejack]

Re: Fuzz Pedals

cant really go wrong with a Fuzzface. other notable pedals would be the Barber Trifecta, Analogman Sunface, and for the extremes of fuzz the Fuzz Fatory

 

[jmh151]

Re: Fuzz Pedals

There are tonebenders and fuzz faces you should look at as well.

The Jimi Hendrix Fuzz from MXR is a great pedal for the money.

There's 2 Hendrix Fuzz's, the Blue and Red. IMO, the Blue is the better one, it got rave reviews, and is the one that really sounds like Hendrix.

I believe the red one is modeled after one he got later on in his career

 

[Low_fidelity2100]

Re: Fuzz Pedals

The Jimi Hendrix Fuzz from MXR is a great pedal for the money.

The Hendrix FF is amazing...But the MXR 108 Fuzz is the same fuzz circuit (with an added Buffer switch), but in a smaller foot print. So if space is an issue, thats the one I'd go with...Both sound amazing though.

Check out Devi Ever's Fuzz's. She has a HUGE selection, and some are completely insanely amazing. The Soda Meister is very muffish, but with better mids, and its own "character". The 90 is the one I'm after right now (can't find em any where though). She's got tons of video's on her site showing what each pedal does, what it sounds like, etc... Plus a forum there, with some helpful info.

Check into Death By Audio if you want some more extreme Fuzz sounds.

If you get a Fender Blender, get the reissue, don't even bother trying to find an original. Having tried a couple originals, and the reissues...The Reissues actually sound Better.

Theres always Stomp Under Foot, if you want a big muff clone...and wanna be able to pick what era the clone is based on. I'm really interested in the Pumpkin Pi right now...its based on the IC big Muff Circuit. And suppoused to be patterned after the sound on Siamese Dream (but we've heard that before from tons of manufacturers).

Then there always the Royal Beaver...which has such a ridiculous amount of options, its not even funny. Never heard one, never tried one...But it looks very interesting....

http://www.bigtonemusic.com/royalbeaver.html

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Fuzz Pedals

Such a big can of worms...

Not all fuzz pedals are like a Big Muff...a Muff has almost infinate sustain and loads of gain...not all fuzz boxes are like that, in fact a germanium Fuzz Face for example has FAR less gain and lots less natural sustain so you really need to try a few fuzzes before you just start buying stuff...

Go to your local GC almost every GC has a few nice options to look into...Start there and try...

-Dunlop/Hendriox Fuzz Face (the blue one)
-Dunlop Octavio
-Dunlop Fuzz Face (the red one...which sucks IMO but some guys liek it)
-Voodoo Lab Superfuzz
-Voodoo Lab Proctavia
-Fulltone 70 pedal
-Fulltone Octafuzz
-Fulltone Ultimate Octave
-ZVEX Fuzz Factory
-ZVEX Mastotron
-ZVEX Wooley Mammoth
-EH Graphic Fuzz
-Way Huge Swollen Pickle

Those should be around at almost any GC in the world plus some GC's carry Keeley, Devi Ever and MI Audio which open a lot more doors...

This is just GC so as you can see there is a lot of stuff to check out at just one stop...

 

[these_go211]

Re: Fuzz Pedals

another vote for stomp under foot civil war. the demos and reviews i've seen seem to make this one a winner. also, supposedly his customer service is top notch.

a while back i had $50 sitting in my pocket from a gear sale. i had recently become fuzz obsessed. i bought a guyatone tz-2 fuzz pedal. supposedly it was based on a univox superfuzz. not sure if it sounds anything like it but it is a filthy, dirty, fuzz machine. on low levels is has some good bottom end, and at higher levels it winds up with an octave like feature. when i bought it i asked if anyone here had heard of it but got no response. i love the thing though it is a little fragile. it's a small pedal. a lot of cool dirty fuzz sounds possible.

 

[Kam]

Re: Fuzz Pedals

How come I've never heard anyone mention Devi Ever here before?

I'm sitting listening to her play some live acoustic covers on her Tinychat, come to glance at the forums and find a thread full of references to her pedals. Quite the bizarre coincidence.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Fuzz Pedals

There's 2 Hendrix Fuzz's, the Blue and Red. IMO, the Blue is the better one, it got rave reviews, and is the one that really sounds like Hendrix.

I believe the red one is modeled after one he got later on in his career

Wrong, wrong and wrong...

The red Dunlop fuzz (despite saying JHF) on the PCB is not linked to Jimi in anyway.

The Blue one is silicon and is modeled after one of Jimi later Si Fuzz Faces that he used during the BoG era...

The red one is modeled after nothing except an Arbiter schematic.

IMHO the red one sounds fairly lame at best due to popr quality trannys and half @ssed matchind of said trannys.

The blue one is handmade and uses high quality NOC BC108 trannys and while it does sound very similar to the FF's Jimi used during the BoG it really sounds very little like early Hendrix...

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Fuzz Pedals

i think id lik to try the fender blender and fuzzface first.

 

[thespricket]

Re: Fuzz Pedals

The Swollen Pickle would be my first choice, it can get close to the Muff thing but also be tailored to fit a lot of different fuzz sounds.

 

[Sanford]

Re: Fuzz Pedals

Visual Sound Angry Fuzz is a good pedal. Three knobs: volume (and lots of it), fuzz, and "anger" (octave level). Also it has a bright switch. Small footprint pedal, mid-range price (around $90 I believe), and a decent range of sounds possible.

Here's a sound sample I did a while back using the Angry Fuzz with the H20 for a little delay:
Volume: ~9:00, Fuzz: 11:00, Anger: 11:00, Bright Switch: off

The power chord parts were the bridge P-90, the single note parts were the neck humbucker in parallel on a P-Rails equipped Sheraton. Egnater Rebel 20 head with eq around noon on all knobs, tube mix center, wattage full, bright and tight off.