Tone Help!

Hi all,

I've been recording some fuzz-pop tunes recently for a wee side project that looks like it's taking off a bit. I recorded all the guitar straight into ableton and got the tone through a combination of guitar rig and a bunch of tape saturation plugins and some reverb / slapback. All well and good, but I'm really loving the tone I've got recorded and can't seem to replicate it live. I've got the reverb and slapback covered but it's that tape saturation style OD I can't get near.

I'm aiming to invest in a small tube amp (likely a peavey delta blues or classic 30) but will consider others - amp + pedal recommendations (or any other tricks) to get me near this?

http://soundcloud.com/harpoonist/bear-country-4-new3

Get a fuzz face style pedal, if it can simulate a dying battery (maybe BYOC) then you will get some of the splattyness at lower gain.

Get a fuzz face style pedal, if it can simulate a dying battery (maybe BYOC) then you will get some of the splattyness at lower gain.

thanks, this is kind of what I had in mind. am I right in thinking there's a danelectro psu that does this or something too?

The electro harmonix Germanium 4 big muff can nail that low fi fuzz sound.

Wheres Bigmuff113 when you need him?

I really dig that sound. I wanna hear more.

Nailing that tone live might be tricky. I would even be tempted to run some ratty old home stereo speakers that are slit or have holes punched in them and miking those. The intentionally damaged speaker was the earliest fuzz effect - a la Link Wray.

You almost have two fuzzed tones going, the actual guitar fuzz coming down the signal chain and what sounds like a buzzing speaker artifact. You may be able to get some different layers of fuzz by running several small cheap combo amps all together. I think you'll get closer by unconventional methods.

Look at some clips of the Kills live. They have that kind of sound going.

I wanna hear more.

You could always play through a laptop and use your original plug-ins - very 21st century!

Sounds more distortion that fuzz. How about a Boss DS-1 for starters.

If you're looking for the sag, you might try a Red Llama and go easy on the gain. The amp sound I'm hearing is more BF/SF Fender than the Peavey EL84 thing. It's almost like surf music with distortion. Pretty cool!

EHX Germanium OD + Memory Boy delay into a used blues or hot rod deluxe. Add tuner and a boost for solo lines you should be good.

thanks everyone for the nice words and suggestions!

i'll have a peep at the germanium OD, always kinda overlooked it. i also found this guy which looks cool as hell never mind the tone! http://www.kingelectricpedalcompany.com/sagboost.html

if i can afford some old tube amp and cut the speakers up that might be fun too!

I wouldn't cut up the speakers in the amp itself, but rather run an extra cheap speaker or a cheaper amp with the speaker ripped up just make sure you have the right ohm load (there are other threads on here describing it). Don't bust up a good amp.

Those sag pedals look awesome. Keep two things in mind, 1. you can put a pot (sag knob) between the leads off the battery connector on just about any pedal with varying results. 2. If you are running a power supply on your board, any pedal you place after a sagged effect will also suffer low voltage- for better or worse.