FUZZ. Players? / Users? Too Old Fashioned? My Very Favorite Type of Gain Pedal.

[HolmfirthNJ]

Thinking of maybe just going back to the Big Muff - big wall of muffy fuzz - and not worry about all the things that aren’t actually a problem that a million fuzz pedals are supposed to fix.
I was watching Loretta Lynn and Jack White from 2003, and I guess that’s what we’re hearing in the fuzzy parts, and why I might be thinking that.

 

[1 21 gigawatts]

Thinking of maybe just going back to the Big Muff - big wall of muffy fuzz - and not worry about all the things that aren’t actually a problem that a million fuzz pedals are supposed to fix.
I was watching Loretta Lynn and Jack White from 2003, and I guess that’s what we’re hearing in the fuzzy parts, and why I might be thinking that.

Yeah- Jack White uses a Big Muff Pi, usually in conjunction with an octave pedal.

 

[USian Pie]

I lean pretty heavily on a Mojo Hand Colossus. It's a Big Muff clone with the ability to boost mids and cut bass.

I love the Big Muff style of fuzz. It does that "800 lb kazoo" thing -- thick and singing. The only real downside is it can be too muddy for rhythm and it isn't real sensitive to pinch harmonics.

 

[Cleantone]

... Humbuckers push so much more signal than single coils that they require different pedal and amp settings to have the same range of clean tone to fuzz...

Playing around last night, I put a compressor in front of the fuzz and turned the level down to less than unity gain for use with a humbucker guitar. Pretty good results in keeping the clean to fuzz range with the guitar volume knobs. Will experiment more to understand how the pick dynamics are affected. Anyone else try this chain of compressor into fuzz?

 

[USian Pie]

Playing around last night, I put a compressor in front of the fuzz and turned the level down to less than unity gain for use with a humbucker guitar. Pretty good results in keeping the clean to fuzz range with the guitar volume knobs. Will experiment more to understand how the pick dynamics are affected. Anyone else try this chain of compressor into fuzz?

Yep. I like using a compressor before fuzz because I can make the guitar more sensitive without adding more fuzz. I can set the fuzz level to where it sounds best and let the compressor control the "feel".

 

[offsideref]

oops sorry need ta delete this…

 

[offsideref]

Killer indeed

I need to brush up my runes!

 

[Old Plank]

I'm a fuzz lover, and think it's still quite present across the age and genre spectrum, including lots of younger psych, noise and industrial bands. The compact Ibanez Mini Fuzz is the one I'm really enjoying currently, with a broad range from creamy to fairly nasty.

 

[4pickupguy]

I am old, and a relative newcomer to fuzz. It did not end up being what I expected at all. I use it about 60% of the time for clean, low, mid and high gain sounds. its a great alternative to my ODs. Super harmonically complex. Up loud it gets very comfy to play, very expressive.

 

[Sax-son]

I have several Fuzz pedals. They are all good and unique in their own ways, but I don't have any that I consider the "one". I have the Fulltone Soul Bender, Mahoney Buzztone, Lovepedal Fuzz 50, Plum Crazy "Fuzzy Lady", Behringer Superfuzz and I am sure there is some others I am forgetting. I love the Randy California on "Jewish", Eric Clapton fuzz on " I Feel Free" violin tone that they were able to get. Also the Pete Townshend "Live at Leeds" and "Woodstock" tone. Supposedly the latter used a Univox Superfuzz on those recordings. Those are my favorite fuzz tones.

 

[G Stone496]

Once upon a time, there was an “official” fuzz thread. Many participants. Check it out. Which is not to diminish your inquiry…

All Fuzz ⚡️⚡️⚡️ Kickass Fuzz Pedals and all Fuzz related

Do you love fuzz? Welcome to the official Fuzz thread. I trust it's finally time to start an official Fuzz thread on TDPRI. Let's use this space to talk all things Fuzz. Feel free to ask questions, share how you stack your fuzz pedals, post pictures and most importantly, have some fun...

www.tdpri.com

I play some modern pop and alternative songs. IMHO fuzz can be relevant in today’s music. It sounds good in alternative, and modern pop. Perhaps not as up front or as dominant as in the ‘60s and ‘70s but as a flavor or color to spice up a song. I use and like the sound of the Keeley Fuzz Head.

 

[cyclopean]

I need to brush up my runes!

Elder or younger?

 

[Bill]

My original, first version, triangle knob Big Muff. Always say it makes any guitar sound like a cello pumped through a cranked Marshall. I have a third version as well as an original Little Big Muff Pi. Neither has the same magic.

 

[telemnemonics]

I've had three Musket V2 pedals and probably want to get one again. Wren and Cuff Green Russian is similar as both are relatively low output. The Level is pretty far up before you get to unity.

You must run the fuzz/ gain knob down pretty low?
I find the magic of a muff happens with gain all the way up or pretty close.
Turn down the gain and you get tons of bass while losing the cutting treble and upper mids.

 

[CV Jee Beez]

You must run the fuzz/ gain knob down pretty low?
I find the magic of a muff happens with gain all the way up or pretty close.
Turn down the gain and you get tons of bass while losing the cutting treble and upper mids.

I don't remember where I had the gain (probably around 3 o'clock to wide open). I do remember that relative to other fuzz pedals, The Musket and Wren and Cuff Green Russian were higher on their levels to get to unity gain.

 

[telemnemonics]

I don't remember where I had the gain (probably around 3 o'clock to wide open). I do remember that relative to other fuzz pedals, The Musket and Wren and Cuff Green Russian were higher on their levels to get to unity gain.

Interesting, I have three musket / blunderbuss and another 12 or so muffs, all boost by 9am on the level knob, never run them even as high as noon, just exploding feedback.
This is a recent setting, I would have to either turn the amp down or get a longer cable so I could get far enough from the amp to be able to mute the feedback.

 

[CV Jee Beez]

Interesting, I have three musket / blunderbuss and another 12 or so muffs, all boost by 9am on the level knob, never run them even as high as noon, just exploding feedback.
This is a recent setting, I would have to either turn the amp down or get a longer cable so I could get far enough from the amp to be able to mute the feedback.
View attachment 1037717

Ha! That's great. My buddy has a V2 and I've had a V2 three times. We alway comment how for us unity would be around midnight to 2 o'clock. I wonder if the V1's like yours had more output?

 

[Ed Driscoll]

The JHS Bender does a great job of recreating the classic Sola Sound Tonebender:

The JHS Colourbox can go full chainsaw when cranked:

For times when those are a bit too much distortion, there's always the Nobels ODR-1 Overdrive, which just arrived last month:

 

[Wound_Up]

The first pedal I built was a biased fuzz face.

The breadboard is still lying on the floor almost 2 yrs later lol.

Now that I've started running it on something other than the 5v power supply I was using, I'm remembering it has a lot more usable sounds than I remember. With the 5v supply, it gets into spitty, velcro ripping pretty quickly. With a new 9v 'heavy duty' old school battery, it actually sounds incredible.

And I used a BC109C with an hfe of like 800 or SOMETHING for Q1 lol! And the 2nd transistor is just a plain 2N2222A.

Edit: well that's weird. A 2n2222 transistor has DC hfe gain of 100 while a 2n2222a is only rated at 35 hfe according to the specs sheets I pulled online.

I thought the 2222a was a direct replacement for 2222? Same specs, just a newer part?

 

[offsideref]

Elder or younger?

Both, I guess! I would say the Elder are more fun and more interesting, while the Younger are more practical.