How do you Fuzz?

[zizyphus]

How do you all use your fuzz pedals?

For me, I've found that fuzz is like ketchup: its perfect for flavoring a main course, but kind of gross by itself

I have a Fulltone '69 on my board, which has sounded the best of the fuzzes I've tried, and has unlocked some pretty cool tones for me. For me, its almost always driving / adding hair to another flavor of overdrive that's downstream of it. I love the additional texture and fatness it can deliver, as well as the responsiveness to my tone and volume knobs. I wire almost all of my guitars with a bass cut tone knob, which is particularly powerful for use with fuzz pedals. Seriously... if you haven't tried fuzz with a guitar with PTB style tone wiring, you REALLY owe it to yourself to try it out!!!

That said, even though the Fulltone was, to my ears, the best fuzz I've tried, it doesn't do it for me by itself. I've listened to plenty of other players rock fuzz pedals gloriously, but I can't seem to pull it off alone. I use batteries, don't have any buffers going into it, and I don't have any extreme temperatures in my living room :haha: but I just can't find a sound I like without stacking another kind of drive

What are you all doing with your fuzz pedals?
Any cool tips and tricks with fuzz that you've discovered?

 

[Rabelais]

Re: How do you Fuzz?

I stack a TS9 and a Green Russian Muff-type pedal. The best of both worlds.

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: How do you Fuzz?

I'm with you, ziziphus. I've tried 4 or 5 very different fuzz pedals over the past couple years and didn't care for any of them into a clean amp but I do like them into a dirty amp for that liquid sustain thing

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: How do you Fuzz?

Lately I've been using low output single coils->fuzz face->compressor (set pretty low)->clean or just slightly overdriven amp . . . and really working the volume/tone konbs a lot. The variations in tone you can get are pretty incredible. Does everything from sparkly cleans to light OD to heavy fuzz and is super touch sensitive.

Also a big fan of running a big muff into an OD . . . the muff sounds great on it's own into a clean amp, but just disappears due to the lack of mids when playing with drums/bass and the OD kinda fixes that.

 

[Mincer]

Re: How do you Fuzz?

No fuzz for me, just overdrive. An 805 or BYOC Silver Pony, and I'm good.

 

[Jacew]

Re: How do you Fuzz?

I just recently installed my double fuzz (Big Muff / Joyo Voodoo) back on the board. I like the tone, but didn't found much practical use for it on it's own.

Now it's sings in the loop of my Vapor Trail, and it sounds awesome. In addition to fuzzed delay tone, dialing it to zero allows to use mix-knob to dial in just the right amount of fuzz along with amp dirt.

(Kudos for SD making not just one of the best analog delays out there, but one of the best pedals in general...)

 

[Rabelais]

Re: How do you Fuzz?

Lately I've been using low output single coils->fuzz face->compressor (set pretty low)->clean or just slightly overdriven amp . . . and really working the volume/tone konbs a lot. The variations in tone you can get are pretty incredible. Does everything from sparkly cleans to light OD to heavy fuzz and is super touch sensitive.

Also a big fan of running a big muff into an OD . . . the muff sounds great on it's own into a clean amp, but just disappears due to the lack of mids when playing with drums/bass and the OD kinda fixes that.

A muff into an OD?. Nice idea. I will try that, since I´m doing the opposite.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: How do you Fuzz?

A muff into an OD?. Nice idea. I will try that, since I´m doing the opposite.

Your muff into tube screamer will radically alter the muff sound - cutting off some of the piercing highs and booming lows, boosting the mids a bit. This gives a very different sound that works well for liquidy smooth compressed lead playing.

 

[jeremy]

Re: How do you Fuzz?

i have a few fuzz pedals. analog man nkt red dot sunface, fulltone soul bender, voodoo lab super fuzz, keeley blacktop... probably something else im forgetting. i like them all for what they do and they dont need an od to sound good. the super fuzz isnt something i use often but it sounds good into a slightly dirty amp. the others all sound good into clean or dirty amps. ive done whole shows with just the sunface into a deluxe reverb set pretty clean and a strat

 

[zizyphus]

Re: How do you Fuzz?

i have a few fuzz pedals. analog man nkt red dot sunface, fulltone soul bender, voodoo lab super fuzz, keeley blacktop... probably something else im forgetting. i like them all for what they do and they dont need an od to sound good. the super fuzz isnt something i use often but it sounds good into a slightly dirty amp. the others all sound good into clean or dirty amps. ive done whole shows with just the sunface into a deluxe reverb set pretty clean and a strat

Interesting. Sounds like the Sunface does what you need it to. What genres are you playing? What tone are you going for?

 

[jeremy]

Re: How do you Fuzz?

i play blues rock or the tones are influenced by that school anyway. my sunface (theres a ton of variety) is a great germanium fuzzface which comes with all the quirks and idiosyncrasies of that design. doesnt like to be too hot or too cold, and tends to sound like its broken in either of those cases. the input impedance means it really wants to be first in line and i prefer the tone with vintage output single coils but paf type buckers can be ok too. the output impedance is weird so it doesnt stack well into many other dirt pedals. oh and it sounds best with a non-alkaline 9v. sounds great right? when things are right, it does such wonderful things. with the guitar volume on 10 its fat and dirty roll it back and there are loads of different dirty tones and most of the way down, the tone is pretty damn clean. doesnt cut through a mix too well without being too loud if there are other instruments competing for those same frequencies so i wouldnt use it by itself in anything but a trio. it lives on a little board with a dls mk2 and analog delay most of the time

 

[Gtrjunior]

Re: How do you Fuzz?

I have yet to find a fuzz that l like. So I guess I do not fuzz.
It’s just not for me.

 

[jeremy]

Re: How do you Fuzz?

when i tried a fuzz years ago, i hated it. sounded like a harsh trebley mess that i thought was unusable. tried a few others over the years with similar results. the superfuzz still kinda sounds like that if it isnt into a dirty amp. fuzz is an acquired taste and the different families of fuzz are pretty different. a fuzzface and big muff are very different and there are a bunch of others as well

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: How do you Fuzz?

The first time I kicked on a fuzz pedal, I was pretty sure it was broken. I mean, it sounded broken.

 

[jeremy]

Re: How do you Fuzz?

yep, me too. i think it was a dunlop fuzzface in the 90s, plugged it in, turned it on and SUUUUCCCKK i tried it for a few minutes then gave up cause it sounded broken

 

[zizyphus]

Re: How do you Fuzz?

The first time I kicked on a fuzz pedal, I was pretty sure it was broken. I mean, it sounded broken.

Yea, I hear tell that that's what some people are going for

I absolutely love the tones of a fuzz that has been stacked – that gritty, fat, almost out of control sound – but without stacking it, just is out of control, and I'm not going for that just-blew-a-fuse-and-my-cables-are-shorting type tone

 

[Erlend_G]

Re: How do you Fuzz?

I've been wanting a Electro Harmonix "Octavix" fuzz for a long time now.

Has that "blown circuit" thing going , and also an "octave up" thing, like Hendrix used.

Had several chances of getting one used for cheap... but maybe not any longer. :/ anyway, a great fuzz pedal.

 

[NoOnesFang13]

Re: How do you Fuzz?

I have 3 Fuzzes on my board. A Morley Power Wah Fuzz which gates super hard unless I roll the vol way down. With the wah not engaged and the fuzz on the treadle acts as a blend so I can mix fuzz and clean and it work great for me as I run a slightly broken up clean tone. I use my board for bass and guitar. So for bass it works grrat to make some really greatg synth tones with a POG. Not sir what circuit its based on. Looking at the schematic nothing jumped out at me, but it also runs of 120vac.

Next is a BBE Free Fuzz that's based on a silicon fuzz face, though it doesn't mind having pedals before it. The Fuzz knob is interesting as its less of a gain knob and more of a bias adjustment. Usually run the fuzz around 10 o'clock with the vol on full. Works great with my EHX Soul POG and I run it in the loop of the Soul POG. I run the Soul Food before to give a mid hump for riffing, and on bass I run the POG either before or after depending on what kind of sound in going for.

Last is the Keely Darkside a modified Op Amp Big Muff from the literature. Has a 3 way switch to adjust the EQ curve. Scooped is a standard muff sound, flat is what it sounds like, and full gives a mid boost from what I can tell. I run it on the full mode with the fuzz around 2 o'clock and filter around 2 o'clock as well.

I never used to like fuzz but here I am years later with more Fuzzes than OD. I think the thing is I don't really like most standard fuzz sounds and having options for tone shaping on the mid range helps a lot. My Darkside never goes into the scooped mode for example.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[Laughing Kookaburra]

Re: How do you Fuzz?

I've generally not liked fuzzes, but I recently picked up an Analogman Astro Tone. Analogman descries it being between traditional fuzz, and an overdrive.

I'm cautiously optimistic at this point. It has been so-so on the first couple amps I tried it with, but it is sounding rather good when used with a Rockitt Retro 50 tahat I picked up a few months ago. I was running the amp at the edge of break to early break up. Hot ceramic Duncan P90s in my Hamer. We'll see.

It also sounded decent when used with a SF Deluxe Reverb that I had for a bit.

I've heard others people sound great using them. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

 

[DankStar]

Re: How do you Fuzz?

Just by themselves, one at a time.

I’ve got a superfuzz clone, russian bug muff clone, algal bloom, tweakfuzz, and a couple homemade bazz fuss circuits. I like them all, but the bazz fuss is most interesting because of its simplicity, that it costs next to nothing, yet has such a great sound that you can modify to your heart’s content. The algal bloom is pretty fun cause it has lots of different sounds available that all sound good. When the mood is right, the superfuzz really hits the spot.

I wouldnt mind a fuzz factory or clone.

I should probably try more stacking and such with them.