New pedals...

[the guy who invented fire]

Let me start by saying that I think I need help...this fuzz box thing might be getting out of hand!

I recently got my hands on another AnalogMan modded Fuzz Face...I got this one with some slightly different trannys than my others have.

The trannys used in the new one are mid 60's NKT275's and have a mega sweet tone...similar to my other NKT275 (which are slightly newer and are also Mil Spec) but once you go head to head with them the differences are plain for you to see (or hear as it may be!).

Let me say this...people that tell you that trannys make little to no difference aare just wrong...I now have 3 Fuzz Face pedals total, all 3 of them use NOS NKT275 trannys and they are ALL 3 VERY different once you sit and listen to them!

As always Mike and crew did a fantastic job on the mods...nice clean work and the tone is out of this world. All in all I think I like this one a tuny bit more than my old standby Fuzz Face that I've had a few years now.

I also recently picked up a new wah pedal of sorts...actually it's a drop in kit from Wilson Effects. It's his "Signature Wah" board which is based on the old Vox Clyde wahs and he did a fantastic job with it! It's handwired on a nice board and uses some really great parts including some killer trannys, carbon comp resistors and some real NOS tropical fish caps!

It's really similar in tone to my RMC4/Teese Picture wah but is slightly different...more or less what I have are 2 different builders takes on the famed Clyde wah pedal.

The biggest difference is that the Wilson is wired like a vintage Vox with chassis mounted jacks etc and the fact that I ordered the Wilson NON true bypass...not sure why I just wanted to try a high quality wah but non true bypass.

All in all I think the Wilson edges out the Teese but it is a matter of personal taste...I will say this for sure. The Teese has some hiss to it under both clean and distorted conditions but the Wilson is nearly GRAVE silent...amazing! Both have fuzz buffers and work well with all my fuzz boxes, so thats nice.

All in all I highly recomend Wilson for wah pedals...Kevin was great to work with and did it all just like I asked, made to order and I had it in less than a week! I will be buying more wahs from Kevin for sure!

 

[ErikH]

Re: New pedals...

Your new gloss should be "fuzzywuzzologist"....LOL.

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear. Fuzzy Wuzzy had a lot of stompboxes!

Fuzzes are cool, I just don't get along with them for my style. There was one fuzz I played a while back that I did like a lot and figured, hmmm, I could get use out of that. It was the Visual Sound Angry Fuzz. Not a vintage sounding fuzz by any means, but has a cool sound.

 

[Lazarus1140]

Re: New pedals...

Awesome .......... congrats on the new fuzz!

New pedals rock!

Let me ask about your wahs. Are they very smooth throughout the sweep, or is there a notch in either or both?

 

[RLee]

Re: New pedals...

Congrats on the new pedals! Yes, the transistors are totally critical to the fuzz tone, more so than any other pedals... at least the fuzz-inducing parts, not so much the initial input/output buffering stages.

Op amps are similarly critical to the sound of the old tubescreamer circuits; I recently read an interesting article on the reasons for that.

I find it very amusing that the old crappy, low gain, leaky germanium parts from the 60's are so highly touted now for fuzz tone. In fact I just ordered several OC75's and may also get some OC81D's for my tonebender project.

 

[Luke Duke]

Re: New pedals...

Awesome .......... congrats on the new fuzz!

New pedals rock!

Let me ask about your wahs. Are they very smooth throughout the sweep, or is there a notch in either or both?

Any vintage or vintage styled wah is going to have that abrupt breakover, it's the nature of the beast. Heck even most MODERN designs have an abrupt breakover.

Luke

 

[Lazarus1140]

Re: New pedals...

Any vintage or vintage styled wah is going to have that abrupt breakover, it's the nature of the beast. Heck even most MODERN designs have an abrupt breakover.

Luke

Well, that makes me feel better about mine, but I heard some clips by wahwah through an RMC-1 and the sweep sounded very smooth.

 

[RLee]

Re: New pedals...

Well, that makes me feel better about mine, but I heard some clips by wahwah through an RMC-1 and the sweep sounded very smooth.

That's one of the reasons I picked a crybaby original over several other, more modern hi-tech pedals after listening to them; the original's sweep was much smoother. Also the two extremes of pedal position were still usable tones. It's one of the very few times I've gone home with the least-expensive item! :approve:

 

[jimijames]

Re: New pedals...

I can't decide if I like fuzzes or not, some days they sound amazing, other days... they just don't do it for me. Ideally, I want a fuzz that I can leave on, and control the gain with my volume knob. I do like my z.vex fuzz factory, but I want a more straight-ahead fuzz. I like the tweak fuzz, but when compared with the fuzz factory, it sounds one-dimensional. So, all in all, I'd really like to try out a quality fuzz face replica, but at the time, I don't have the gear budget to get a good one. However, rest assured that I will try out a quality fuzzface one of these days.

Glad you're digging yours!

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: New pedals...

Fuzz is much fun....
But as time has passed...I only really like them on big amps and 4x12 cab
Methinks I need to buy my Hiwatt back...lol

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: New pedals...

Your new gloss should be "fuzzywuzzologist"....LOL.

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear. Fuzzy Wuzzy had a lot of stompboxes!

Fuzzes are cool, I just don't get along with them for my style. There was one fuzz I played a while back that I did like a lot and figured, hmmm, I could get use out of that. It was the Visual Sound Angry Fuzz. Not a vintage sounding fuzz by any means, but has a cool sound.

Fuzz boxes are not for everybody...they are a pretty specific sound but if you ever need/want that sound, nothing else will do!

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: New pedals...

Awesome .......... congrats on the new fuzz!
New pedals rock!
Let me ask about your wahs. Are they very smooth throughout the sweep, or is there a notch in either or both?

Any vintage or vintage styled wah is going to have that abrupt breakover, it's the nature of the beast. Heck even most MODERN designs have an abrupt breakover.
Luke

Well, that makes me feel better about mine, but I heard some clips by wahwah through an RMC-1 and the sweep sounded very smooth.

Well...this is true, any wah pedal is going to have that point where it starts to break over then it break over to a toppier sound however my wilson wah is MUCH smoother in that department that the Teese. It still does it but it's not as sbrupt as the Teese.

The RMC1 is a different beast...Geoffrey designed that pedal from the ground up to address all the "issues" players had with vintage Vox wahs...one of them was the knee breakover so he tweaked it out. The RMC1 is mega smooth in that department as are several settings on the RMC2 and RMC3. Kevin Wilson also sells a few wah pedals that address this issue but for me, thats part of the sound of a wah pedal and I quite like it.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: New pedals...

Congrats on the new pedals! Yes, the transistors are totally critical to the fuzz tone, more so than any other pedals... at least the fuzz-inducing parts, not so much the initial input/output buffering stages.

Op amps are similarly critical to the sound of the old tubescreamer circuits; I recently read an interesting article on the reasons for that.

I find it very amusing that the old crappy, low gain, leaky germanium parts from the 60's are so highly touted now for fuzz tone. In fact I just ordered several OC75's and may also get some OC81D's for my tonebender project.

Thanks!

Also...there are lots of new(er) trannys, both Ge and Si that can be used to make a great sounding fuzztone Im just blown away that I have to identical Fuzz Faces, both made with Newmarket NKT275's but made about 10 years apart that do in fact sound so different.

 

[Stratman]

Re: New pedals...

I still like the original Jordan Bosstone fuzz sound, but only when combine with a volume pedal and with a dry circuit running in paraller.

I remeber electronic used are NPN 2N2222, PNP 2N3906, 1N914, and 1N4148, 4 capacitors, 7 resistors, 2 jacks, one 9V battery, 2 pots, and one switch.

I used to have an exact schematic, but you can get one closed enought from the internet.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: New pedals...

I can't decide if I like fuzzes or not, some days they sound amazing, other days... they just don't do it for me. Ideally, I want a fuzz that I can leave on, and control the gain with my volume knob. I do like my z.vex fuzz factory, but I want a more straight-ahead fuzz. I like the tweak fuzz, but when compared with the fuzz factory, it sounds one-dimensional. So, all in all, I'd really like to try out a quality fuzz face replica, but at the time, I don't have the gear budget to get a good one. However, rest assured that I will try out a quality fuzzface one of these days.

Glad you're digging yours!

Like I said above, fuzz pedals are not for everybody. If you want to control the fuzz from your guitar a Fuzz Face is the ticket...Tonebenders, Big Muffs, Tonemachines, etc offer a lot LESS control in that area.

I have tried a lot of Fuzz Face clones in recent years and have even had the chance to plug into a few originals...IMHO AnalogMan does Fuzz Faces right and better than most others.

In terms of budget, Mike and crew do offer a few options that are very cost effective...you can get a Standard Sunface, brand new for around $185...it won't have NKT trannys and the bias pot will be a trimmer inside the pedal but it's still got the sound and he's offereing 3 different tranny options for the standard price right now.

Also, there is a new guy in the game selling a pedal called the OX FUZZ...they are priced pretty low at the moment to drum up business...I've not tried them but the reviews are good. MJM pedals offers both a GE and an Si Fuzz Face copy...I think that the Sunface edges them out but it's not a night and day thing or anything. And don't over look the Dunlop Hendrix fuzz thats been out for a few years not...the blueish one...great pedal! Handwired in the old school fasion, all the "right" parts were used and the tone is great! They are in fact Si based (BC108's) but are set up for better clean up that most Si Fuzz Face pedals and have a great warm tone to them thats stunning for an Si based unit and the prices are unbeatable...a buddy of mine picked one up for $95 a few months ago!

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: New pedals...

Fuzz is much fun....
But as time has passed...I only really like them on big amps and 4x12 cab
Methinks I need to buy my Hiwatt back...lol

I hear ya...I do enjoy that sound (a half stack wiht a fuzz) but there is something so gritty and grindy about a low watt combo with a fuzz running through it...I love it!

That said, you do need to buy your HiWatt back...and so do I!

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: New pedals...

I still like the original Jordan Bosstone fuzz sound, but only when combine with a volume pedal and with a dry circuit running in paraller.

I remeber electronic used are NPN 2N2222, PNP 2N3906, 1N914, and 1N4148, 4 capacitors, 7 resistors, 2 jacks, one 9V battery, 2 pots, and one switch.

I used to have an exact schematic, but you can get one closed enought from the internet.

Mahoney is doing several versions of the original Bosstone. One in pedal format one in the original plug into the guitar style and he even makes a docking startion of sorts for the plug into the guitar style that will turn it into a pedal!

They are really spot on and sound great. I've though about getting one more than once.

http://mahoneyguitargear.com/pedal_vintage.html