FAA - Fuzz Addicts Anonymous

ragingben

bbill335 said:

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

Haha, while there is a lot of truth in this I can't deny I'm partial to a Devi Ever fuzz! I've built quite a few of the circuits on breadboard and played about with them, while I'm sure from a purely electronics point of view they aren't perfect, they are generally really fun to play, and I've often found them inspiring.

It took a long time for me to get into fuzz, but now I own more fuzz than anything else. Current line up is:

-BAT Pharaoh
-BAT Pharaoh Supreme
-Magnetic Effects Buzzer
-Magnetic Effects Solar Bender
-Devi Ever Hyperion
-Devi Ever 90

I had a Juan Solo ICBM clone that was gold but wasn't getting used, considering a Magnetic Effects White Atom and maybe a Zvex Fuzzolo. Although the WMD Geiger Counter isn't technically a fuzz I've found it churns out some of my favourite 'broken fuzz' tones.

m_c

And here was me thinking having two fuzzes was overkill.

I will admit that I do find them a better idea than the reality, but get the balance right with a Veteran Ge and a guitar, and the change in tone available from just how you hit the strings is brilliant. You can go from just a slight bit overdrive, to overdriven fuzz just by hitting the strings harder, and it sounds fantastic through a good amp.

Then full blown Veteran into Muffroom Cloud is just hilarious. Definitely not useable in any real life situation, but brilliant fun when messing around.

TTBZ

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 get this a bit as well, I begrudge paying loads of money for something that kinda sounds like shit (but in a good way). That and the circuits are usually so bloody simple. My fuzz war clone cost about a third of the proper version and I'd probably have been a bit pissed if I spent full whack for it to sound that horrid (again - in a good way)!

@ragingben do you think the Pharaoh Supreme is worth the extra over the standard one? And how do they work into a dirty amp - do they go all compressed or still cut ok?

ragingben

@TTBZ Yes and no. It's a more versatile pedal, and I would say the 3 additional clipping modes are actually my favourites. The pre knob is way more versatile that the high/low switch, you can get into quite a bit of different territory. So as a straight up comparison I'd go Supreme everytime.

Whether it's worth upgrading to if you already own the standard is a different matter. I paid £100 for a second hand Pharaoh and £180 for the Supreme new from Prymaxe including import duty and shipping. To me it's not £80 worth of improvement, but it would be the £20 or so between a new Pharaoh over here and a new Supreme from the US. 

I'm not sure about your other question I'm afraid - since owning it I have only been playing at home and it has to be very low volume (sleeping babies!) so it's going into a very clean Blackheart Little Giant at 3w, sounds awesome through that.

TTBZ

Cool thanks for that! I guess for £20 you may as well have all the tweakability of the supreme. this thread is sending me on a fuzz searching spree again

samzadgan

BAT stuff is great and affordable. I’ve had most of his pedals at some point...and the ritual is the keeper for me.

ive a/b’d with the meathead and meathead deluxe and also the black acid, all of which cost me double the amount at a minimum, and I have to admit the Ritual holds its own. Their all fat fuzz face style fuzzes....all different but BAT really hit it out of the park with that one.

not sure I get the fuzz sounds like shit sentiment...I’ll agree that I really dislike muffs and I don’t find them useful either...but fuzz face and buzzaround fuzzes are awesome...and mk3/4 sound a lot like distortion anyway. 

I guess if if you really like a tight sounding dirt pedal then fuzz is probably not the kind of sound you want...the last thing I want is tightness in my music...

samzadgan

ourmaninthenorth said:

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

The Wizard is amazing...even with the gain on zero is so great!

TTBZ

samzadgan said:

not sure I get the fuzz sounds like shit sentiment...I’ll agree that I really dislike muffs and I don’t find them useful either...but fuzz face and buzzaround fuzzes are awesome...and mk3/4 sound a lot like distortion anyway. 

I guess if if you really like a tight sounding dirt pedal then fuzz is probably not the kind of sound you want...the last thing I want is tightness in my music...

I've read a lot about the Buzzaround circuit and it might be what I'm after rather than the smoother muff style fuzzes. My problem with a lot of distortion and overdrives is they seem to work best into a clean amp and they're always a bit too refined sounding.

samzadgan

TTBZ said:

samzadgan said:

not sure I get the fuzz sounds like shit sentiment...I’ll agree that I really dislike muffs and I don’t find them useful either...but fuzz face and buzzaround fuzzes are awesome...and mk3/4 sound a lot like distortion anyway. 

I guess if if you really like a tight sounding dirt pedal then fuzz is probably not the kind of sound you want...the last thing I want is tightness in my music...

I've read a lot about the Buzzaround circuit and it might be what I'm after rather than the smoother muff style fuzzes. My problem with a lot of distortion and overdrives is they seem to work best into a clean amp and they're always a bit too refined sounding.

Smooth muff sounds like farts to me, but I'm biased!

buzzaround is great man...I love my Pary Favor. I definitely recommend you check it out.

TTBZ

@Dopesick what's the bypass like on the Behringer super fuzz? Sounds great when it's on from the demos i've seen but the behringer EQ I have has noticeable tone suck when it's off so that's holding me back a bit - wanted a hyper fuzz for ages but used prices are a bit silly. I suppose you won't be really turning it off much in the doom band though

UnclePsychosis

Having said that I wasn't buying any more I managed to buy, erm, three fuzzes yesterday. Oops. 

To be fair, it's an EQD hoof reaper so three in one... 

NPP

this thread prompted me to dig out my blue baby fuzz face again. I never really got on with it, possibly because I never learned how to set it properly. I try to run it with the guitar volume slightly down and into a drive pedal set at low gain but somehow it doesn't sound like Hendrix ... What am I doing wrong?

Also, when I fully roll down the guitar volume I can pick up German radio stations and what sounds like Eastern European taxi radio with the fuzz face engaged (in the UK!). What's going on there? 

UnclePsychosis

NPP said:

Also, when I fully roll down the guitar volume I can pick up German radio stations and what sounds like Eastern European taxi radio with the fuzz face engaged (in the UK!). What's going on there? 

-Some vintage circuits, particularly fuzzes, have circuits that are quite good at being radio receivers. Fuzz Faces notoriously so.

The reason why turning down the volume activates it is that turning the volume down turns the (cable+guitar) circuit into a pretty good radio antenna (if I remember right its because its a capacitor to ground attached to thje input of the pedal). If there's a strong enough radio signal at the right frequency you'll hear it as a result.  

NPP

thanks for that!

Now I only need to find out how to make the fuzz sound like it's supposed to ...

Dopesick

TTBZ said:

@Dopesick what's the bypass like on the Behringer super fuzz? Sounds great when it's on from the demos i've seen but the behringer EQ I have has noticeable tone suck when it's off so that's holding me back a bit - wanted a hyper fuzz for ages but used prices are a bit silly. I suppose you won't be really turning it off much in the doom band though

Tbh I couldn't really tell you as I always had it on in the SideTrak of my Amptweaker (basically an A/B loop). It sounds really damn special though, especially at high volumes. If it works well then I might be tempted to try and get the Demon Lung from Abominable Electronics off Reverb.com or something (or brand new if they decide to start making them again).

TeeByrd

My current fuzzy hoard, including a couple of Ge Boosts and a Germanium overdrive (low gain fuzz). 

https://imgur.com/a/Ja07Y

lewism

Bloody hell! I thought I had a few nice fuzzes but that takes the biscuit!

Moe_Zambeek

TeeByrd said:

My current fuzzy hoard, including a couple of Ge Boosts and a Germanium overdrive (low gain fuzz). 

https://imgur.com/a/Ja07Y

How do you like the Wizard @TeeByrd ?

samzadgan

TeeByrd said:

My current fuzzy hoard, including a couple of Ge Boosts and a Germanium overdrive (low gain fuzz). 

https://imgur.com/a/Ja07Y

loving those colourful EFE pedals man. 

That pigdog space face is awesome...a friend on mine got one of the blemish ones Steve was selling a few months ago.

i've heard good things about those Maxon's too...what do you think of it??

lasermonkey

I built myself quite a few DIY fuzz clones over the past few years, including the following:

 modified Monolith Oracle (probably my favourite fuzz of all)
 modified EHX Triangle Muff (another favourite)
 modified EHX V2 violet Muff
 EHX '78 IC Muff
 modified Jordan Creator 6000 (probably more of a distortion than a fuzz)
 Sustain Punch Creamy Dreamer
 Earthbound Supercollider
 Tonebender Mk I
 Tonebender Mk II
 Tonebender Mk III
 modified Retro Channel Fuzz
 D*A*M 1966
 D*A*M Drag'N'Fly
 D*A*M Flesh Head
 D*A*M FZ-673
 D*A*M GB-80 Greasebox
 D*A*M Meathead Deluxe
 D*A*M Meathead Deluxe (dark silicon version)
 D*A*M Meathead
 Shin-Ei FY-2
 Fender Blender
 ZVex Fuzz Factory
 ZVex Woolly Mammoth

 I really need to get my arse into gear and finish off the Buzzaround that I started ages ago. I've built a few for others and like the sound a lot. I've got a whole load of various Muff clones in various stages of completion, a couple of D*A*M clones I never got around to finishing, plus a fair few others.