Fuzz Face = Better clean tone?

I've been wanting a legitimate Fuzz Face (or clone) for quite a while. The thing that piqued my interest was an article in GP a while back on the incarnation of Fuzz Faces, and several comments on how the clean tone is much improved with a Fuzz Face. But no one ever seemed to explain that.

Are they speaking of the bypassed tone? That it's buffered?

Or are they speaking of a certain setting of the controls on the FF?

Or are they speaking of rolling the guitar volume down?

I've spent years with a custom octafuzz that I had made some time ago... but I just need a solid fuzzface tone too.

The clean tones with my Joe Bonamassa Fuzz Face is the best clean tones I've ever had. Just roll back the guitar's volume. It's clean, sparkly, and powerful. 10x better that your amp can do by itself .

Or are they speaking of rolling the guitar volume down?

Yes. The Fuzz Face has a pathetically low input impedance. And really any circuit that is super crude with bipolar transistors will be similar. So when you cut your volume back, it lessens the loading from the low Z in.

IMO, it only works for some styles, some chores. Some folks just leave the FF on all night long, cut their vol knob back to about 7, and then just work it up and down for most/all of the gig. I can do that some of the time, but it's not practical enough for what I do.

But if nothing else, it is fun to play with, and fun to experience. Since a silicon FF will do it as well as a germanium one, it need not be an expensive sort of playtime, either.

I just read some of your comments on the MXR 108. Seems I probably can't go wrong with just getting one of those to keep in the arsenal anyway.

snMnB8X-Myo
Talk about beating a decomposed horse to death again...here is my video:grin:

snMnB8X-Myo
Talk about beating a decomposed horse to death again...here is my video:grin:

The Seabiscuit of FF videos.:lol:

Works especially good with Ge FF's, IMO.

But I currently play a Dunlop Jimi FF (Si) and it is great too.

i have a white dot analogman sunface with sundial and it gives great clean tones and also very nice overtones.

ive read where roger mayer ( hendrix pedal and amp guy ) said that jimi would often run a silicon fuzz that roger made and also push that through a germanium fuzz.

I will have to try this with my Si Fuzz Face clone when I get home

I have to agree that FF are really fun pedals to work with, just using the volume and the tone knobs of the guitar. Crank the volume of the effect with gain at noon and then use your guitare knobs; at 40-50% = good dry clean tone (the key is the tone knob here), 60-80% good semi dirty tones with lots of shades, and fat fuzz at 100%. Of course this will work best on a low power amp like a Princeton or a Deluxe. Don't try it with a Twin 8/