the guy who invented fire
Fuzzy. Guitars
Ok, there have been a ton of little "I like it" and "this pedals kicks ass" reviews lately, I will try to give a good review here w/o being long winded...
Lots of guys are asking about the TF with a solid State amp...I can't help you I do not own a SS amp.
This is NOT an overdrive, a distortion box, or a booster at all, it is a fuzz tone...it is raspy, fuzzy, buzzy, and in the world of Fuzz Tones that is a good thing! If you are looking to slam the front end of your 2203 for Zack Wylde tone, or if you are looking to use this with a clean Fender amp and a Strat for SRV tone, stop reading this now, and forget about the TF...that is not what this is all about!
The controls are pretty simple, volume, gain and tweak...you could think of the tweak control like a tone control, being that it goes from thin and bright to thick and fat, but it's so much more that that, in the thinest setting it is not harsh and on the fattest setting it is not muddy...really quite a bit more that a normal ton control. The truth is that with a tone control on a Fuzz Tone you would find a spot where you liked and you'd leave it close to that, if you were to move much in either direction you would looks too much treble and the tone would become fat and muddy, or if you went to much in the other direction you would loose bass ands the tone would become too thin and harsh. I live every setting on the tweak control,an IMO they are all useable...some mor that others but all useable!
This pedal has more that enough volume, I have tried a lot of fuzz tones sounded good but, it was like the volume control didn't go high enough, you can get a pretty big volume boost with the TF if you wanted to.
As for the gain control, I'll say this...turned all the way down is provieds a very little bit of the fuzz that's about to come, all the way up it is pure fuzzy bliss!!! My favorite thig about it is that lots of fuzz tones get vary radical in the upper gain settings, not the Tweak Fuzz...it stays very controlable and useable even when the gain control is on "10"!
I campared it to my Roger Mayer Axis fuzz, which is a fantastic unti and I found the TF more useable. The tweak control was very helpful when switching from single coils to humbuckers, and the fact that the TF does not get as unstable at high gain setting like the Axis does it makes it much better for live use! I have inafct swapped the Axis fuzz for the TF on my pedal board! I do like the Axis, but it can be a bit hard to deal with and it has never lived humbucking pickups, even vintage output pickups...and if you are running a hot bucker forget it, it's almost unuseable!
For those of you that do not have a Duncan pickup booster, I'll tel you this...these Duncan pedals are constructed like tanks...no worries there!
There is one guy on the forum that I know for sure has one question right now...John, I did try the TF with a wah pedal and it sounded ok. I ran the wah first...basically I took it off the board so I was running my Strat into the wah then the TF then into my Sound City...it did seem to narrow the sweep of the wah a bit, but it was still a good useable set up...I did try the wah on the other side of the TF (which I have never liked ruinning a wah and a fuzz like that) in short, I didn't like it.
I found the pedal to have a whole lot of cool Fuzzy tones...some were very mild, some were anything but! If you are looking for a Hendrix fuzz tone sound, it's in there but it does so much more than that! It's like having a whole catalog of cool fuzz tones packed into one, neat little yellow box! I have heard the sound clips of the Bluse Saraceno fuzz tone that the TF is a copy of, and I must say that it sounds every bit as good. The Bluse Saraceno fuzz costs just under $400.00, and the TF sells for $99.99!
There are hundreds of fuzz tones out there, IMO there are very few of them are a "must have", ladies and gentlemen, add the Tweak Fuzz to that list!
Lots of guys are asking about the TF with a solid State amp...I can't help you I do not own a SS amp.
This is NOT an overdrive, a distortion box, or a booster at all, it is a fuzz tone...it is raspy, fuzzy, buzzy, and in the world of Fuzz Tones that is a good thing! If you are looking to slam the front end of your 2203 for Zack Wylde tone, or if you are looking to use this with a clean Fender amp and a Strat for SRV tone, stop reading this now, and forget about the TF...that is not what this is all about!
The controls are pretty simple, volume, gain and tweak...you could think of the tweak control like a tone control, being that it goes from thin and bright to thick and fat, but it's so much more that that, in the thinest setting it is not harsh and on the fattest setting it is not muddy...really quite a bit more that a normal ton control. The truth is that with a tone control on a Fuzz Tone you would find a spot where you liked and you'd leave it close to that, if you were to move much in either direction you would looks too much treble and the tone would become fat and muddy, or if you went to much in the other direction you would loose bass ands the tone would become too thin and harsh. I live every setting on the tweak control,an IMO they are all useable...some mor that others but all useable!
This pedal has more that enough volume, I have tried a lot of fuzz tones sounded good but, it was like the volume control didn't go high enough, you can get a pretty big volume boost with the TF if you wanted to.
As for the gain control, I'll say this...turned all the way down is provieds a very little bit of the fuzz that's about to come, all the way up it is pure fuzzy bliss!!! My favorite thig about it is that lots of fuzz tones get vary radical in the upper gain settings, not the Tweak Fuzz...it stays very controlable and useable even when the gain control is on "10"!
I campared it to my Roger Mayer Axis fuzz, which is a fantastic unti and I found the TF more useable. The tweak control was very helpful when switching from single coils to humbuckers, and the fact that the TF does not get as unstable at high gain setting like the Axis does it makes it much better for live use! I have inafct swapped the Axis fuzz for the TF on my pedal board! I do like the Axis, but it can be a bit hard to deal with and it has never lived humbucking pickups, even vintage output pickups...and if you are running a hot bucker forget it, it's almost unuseable!
For those of you that do not have a Duncan pickup booster, I'll tel you this...these Duncan pedals are constructed like tanks...no worries there!
There is one guy on the forum that I know for sure has one question right now...John, I did try the TF with a wah pedal and it sounded ok. I ran the wah first...basically I took it off the board so I was running my Strat into the wah then the TF then into my Sound City...it did seem to narrow the sweep of the wah a bit, but it was still a good useable set up...I did try the wah on the other side of the TF (which I have never liked ruinning a wah and a fuzz like that) in short, I didn't like it.
I found the pedal to have a whole lot of cool Fuzzy tones...some were very mild, some were anything but! If you are looking for a Hendrix fuzz tone sound, it's in there but it does so much more than that! It's like having a whole catalog of cool fuzz tones packed into one, neat little yellow box! I have heard the sound clips of the Bluse Saraceno fuzz tone that the TF is a copy of, and I must say that it sounds every bit as good. The Bluse Saraceno fuzz costs just under $400.00, and the TF sells for $99.99!
There are hundreds of fuzz tones out there, IMO there are very few of them are a "must have", ladies and gentlemen, add the Tweak Fuzz to that list!