Re: How do you Fuzz?
I love the cleanup of a classic FuzzFace. Rolling back the guitar gives you the recognizable, iconic Hendrix semicleans.
And of course when you dime the guitar it's instant psychedelicious. Nothing else quite like it.
I've got an Analogman Sunface, a Duncan Tweakfuzz, and two germanium Lovepedals which are half Fuzzface and half Rangemaster, with balance knobs for the two cicuits. I use those two mostly in fuzz mode, with a bit of treble boost to add clarity and reduce woof.
I also have the Lovepedal Fuzz 50, which is based on the Church Of Tone circuit but actually sounds and behaves like an idealized Fuzzface. That same beautiful cleanup, with better upper mids so it doesn't get lost in a full mix like a vintage FF tends to. I liked this box enough to buy a second one for the smaller board. I have multiple variants of several classic pedals but the Fuzz 50 and one favorite vibe are the only cases in which I've bought more than one of the exact same circuit.
I also have a couple of ToneBender variants, the Lovepedal Mark III and a Bonetender. I consider Benders to be more like an overdrive than the FF. They will fuzz when dimed, but in the middle and lower gain ranges they produce a more amplike, slightly rude drive that to me just screams 70s classic rock. And they clean up pretty well with the guitar's volume knob, though not as well as a FF.
I have a few other oddball fuzzes. One is the VFE Fiery Red Horse, a five-knob version of the Big Muff that also has a character switch. Big fat ripping sustainy tone which hardly cleans up at all. Great for solos.
I nearly always have both a Bender and a Fuzzface (or Fuzz50) on each board.