FAA - Fuzz Addicts Anonymous

samzadgan

I've played with fuzz on and off for ages...and probably about 5-6 years ago gave up on them and settled on more distortion pedals. Fast forward to about a year ago, and i started chatting with some fuzz heads, and i decided to take the plunge again...after a year, and money that id rather not think about...i have slowly amassed a small arsenal, and it doesnt look like I'll be stopping anytime soon.

I have found the ones i love and will always keep and my go to fuzzes, but there are so many different flavours of fuzzes that i cant stop buying them...they are so much fun!!! 

anyone else have the Fuzz addition? 

Here's my current bunch...

shaunm

My names Shaun and I’m a fuzz addict too.

I have pretty much stopped using all “normal” drives and only using fuzz pedals now (I call the Broadcast as a fuzz). 

Theres just something about them that I like more than drive pedals. They are way more interactive and my clean (ish) tone has never been as good as when I roll back the volume on a fuzzface. 

Currently i have a fulltone 69, Broadcast and Thorpy Fallout on my board. I’m wrestling with the idea of buying a Vetran Si at the moment. I’ve got or tried a lot of the Dunlop fuzzface pedals but I haven’t tried the Bonamassa so I’d like to give that a go and I haven’t tried the Wampler Velvet but every demo of it sounds incredible.  

Actually the Shanks sounds great on every demo too but £400 for a normal production fuzz? I’m hooked but I’m not a junkie!!

samzadgan

im with you on the "hooked by not a junkie" 

whats the broadcast like? i've been wondering about that one for a while.

also...have you tried Buzzaround fuzzes?? i got one recently and its pretty amazing

gusman2x

So want to be. Play them at home, love them. Never get them to work in a band setting. Used a fuzz factory on a couple of songs for a while. I liked that a lot. Tried various muffs and muff clones in the band but they never cut it.

Currently have a Wren and Cuff Trie Pie 70. To be honest, I don't feel there was enough of a difference between that and the BMP Tone wicker I had. Might actually flog the Tri Pie. Still got my FF, which is a great pedal, but I pretty much set and forget. Best fuzz I own is a Blackout Effectors Twosome. The Muff style fuzz is pretty awesome (not that I use it for anything other than playing Siamese Dream songs), but the Fix'd Deluxe side....oh man, that's an awesome, awesome pedal.

I'm actually only using ODs now in the band, but I'm using a Mini Fuck, which I have firmly in the fuzz/dist category. Especially with HBs

UnclePsychosis

I love fuzz tones and could very easily fall into the trap of having dozens - I currently own about five - but I've realised that once the initial "that sounds awesome" fifteen minutes wears off I tend not to actually use them.

So I'm trying very hard to avoid buying any more and just admiring from afar. That said I'm on an EQD kick just now so the Terminal, Spires and Hoof are all on my watch list - hopefully I can resist!

samzadgan

@gusman2x ; I have to admit the one thing i dont like is Muffs, and all variants of it.

i guess it also helps that i dont play in bands with more than 1 guitarist, so dont have to battle for frequency space.

@unclepsychosis ; are you gonna check out the Grey Channel? that sounds great...more of a fuzzy distortion though.

UnclePsychosis

I've got a Gray Channel - most certainly my favourite dirt pedal! It's great. 

Moe_Zambeek

I love fuzz too....apart from muffs, which are a big pile of mud to my ears. I like cut, sizzle, rasp from fuzzes, and Velcro / gating too sometimes. At the moment I have a Pigdog Omolon, Zvex Fuzzolo and Jonny Octave, a Castledine Olympic Custom and a no-name fuzz face clone. The Omolon is my favourite - big brother to the Party Favour in the OP (would have preferred that for size reasons). 

The two problems with small company fuzzes are the size of the enclosures they use and they tend to be pricey!

VJIves

I was starting to accumulate a few...then I got a Frantone Cream Puff which rendered everything else obsolete so that's now my only one.

Dopesick

I was about to chime in with typical sneery vigour 'only need one fuzz innit'...but then I remembered I actually own three fuzz pedals, all with different purposes.

DAM Meathead clone - forgot who made it, but I call it the Shitbox. Only reason I use it is for the insane oscillations it produces.
BAT Son Of Pharaoh (smaller Pharaoh...obviously) - works absolute wonders as an overdrive/boost together with my newly acquired S&K VHD distortion. Petite and with top jacks as well. Magnificent.
Behringer Super Fuzz - got one a few weeks ago just to piss about with...but it sounds so fucking awesome that I'm going to use it in my new doom band which is getting started soon.

Don't need any more fuzz as distortion is more my bag, but I've always wanted to try a Fuzz Factory.

TTBZ

I think I like the idea of fuzz more than the reality. Generally when i use them as a boost they end up being too compressed, scooped and mushy in a band context and even worse into a clean amp. Had a Carcosa which was awesome at home and useless at band. Currently got a Fuzz War clone on my board which is ok but a very specific sound and was better with my Laney. Just too much low end and very vocal mids almost like a cocked wah.

I play stoner rock so you'd think it'd be great but we do some chuggy riffs with tight palm muting and it just doesn't work for me. The best I've found is a Rat but that's not really a fuzz and sounds a bit "pedally" into a dirty amp - need to try a turbo though. Been on the lookout for something similar but with a bigger/more amp-like quality. I want something thats gonna send a crunchy marshall into the edge of meltdown.. slightly loose bass that doesn't mush out and a big fat open/uncompressed raw sound. Been looking at either the BAT Pharaoh, MXR 108 fuzz face  or even the DOD Boneshaker might be what I'm after. Weirdly I've even looked into a Blues Driver since some people say it had a fuzzy quality with the gain up high and it always gets rated well as a booster.

ourmaninthenorth

I'm having a lot of fun with a The Wizard as we speak. 

bbill335

TTBZ said:

I think I like the idea of fuzz more than the reality. Generally when i use them as a boost they end up being too compressed, scooped and mushy in a band context and even worse into a clean amp. Had a Carcosa which was awesome at home and useless at band. Currently got a Fuzz War clone on my board which is ok but a very specific sound and was better with my Laney. Just too much low end and very vocal mids almost like a cocked wah.

I play stoner rock so you'd think it'd be great but we do some chuggy riffs with tight palm muting and it just doesn't work for me. The best I've found is a Rat but that's not really a fuzz and sounds a bit "pedally" into a dirty amp - need to try a turbo though. Been on the lookout for something similar but with a bigger/more amp-like quality. I want something thats gonna send a crunchy marshall into the edge of meltdown.. slightly loose bass that doesn't mush out and a big fat open/uncompressed raw sound. Been looking at either the BAT Pharaoh, MXR 108 fuzz face  or even the DOD Boneshaker might be what I'm after. Weirdly I've even looked into a Blues Driver since some people say it had a fuzzy quality with the gain up high and it always gets rated well as a booster.

I had a low serial number Fuzz War (2 knobs) and it sounded really different - massive yet tight low end, perfect for chugging. Could try a mk3/4 Tonebender clone? Less compressed than a muff and more midrange but still fat low end. Or build a meathead clone and tune it to the sound you like!

antifash

Got a Sunface. Addiction ended. It’s all the fuzz I need. Oh, but I also have a silicon fuzz too. Ummm. Er...

TTBZ

bbill335 said:

I had a low serial number Fuzz War (2 knobs) and it sounded really different - massive yet tight low end, perfect for chugging. Could try a mk3/4 Tonebender clone? Less compressed than a muff and more midrange but still fat low end. Or build a meathead clone and tune it to the sound you like!

Yeah it sounds a bit different to some demos of the real thing but I'd have to play them side by side to see if it actually is! It just sounds awful into a clean amp though, needs some drive to blend in with. I was looking into tonebender types before but that's an expensive wormhole to fall into!

Babones

TTBZ said:

Weirdly I've even looked into a Blues Driver since some people say it had a fuzzy quality with the gain up high and it always gets rated well as a booster.

This guy, from All Them Witches, uses one for similar reasons. (11:10 on its own, 10:20 with cocked wah)

TeeByrd

I definitely have a problem with fuzz pedals. I have 38, with another currently in customs, one winging its way from Auz that I won on Instagram, and one being built in Canada. I read this back and its slightly embarrassing, and worrying 

TTBZ

Babones said:

This guy, from All Them Witches, uses one for similar reasons. (11:10 on its own, 10:20 with cocked wah)

That sounded just what I'm after actually! Love the guitar sounds in All Them Witches and I'd heard about him using a Blues Driver before. I was also just looking at the EQD Acapulco Gold (or the fuzzdogs clone with a gain control) and the Bellows but I reckon this might do the trick

UnclePsychosis

The other reasons I manage not to own thousands of fuzzes is that I refuse to spend £100s on pedals that make cheap, nasty and broken noises - lots of fuzzes sound great basically because the circuits don't work properly, I'm buggered if I'm paying £200 for that :-D

bbill335

UnclePsychosis said:

The other reasons I manage not to own thousands of fuzzes is that I refuse to spend £100s on pedals that make cheap, nasty and broken noises - lots of fuzzes sound great basically because the circuits don't work properly, I'm buggered if I'm paying £200 for that :-D

I think you're confusing well-engineered finely-tuned fuzz circuits with Devi Ever

JonHosker

Yep...my snagged Veteran Germanium has started a fuzz fest for me too....the silicon fuzz search is on!