Fuzz and Wah

Dave_Vader

I love the sound of a wahed fuzz, it is a wonderful thing but...

What happens when your fuzz likes to be first in the chain? Fuzz before wah sounds rubbish, it goes all volume pedalesque and loses all it's smooth loveliness.

My current fix is to have two fuzzes on the board, one before and one after, not ideal, and probably stupid.

What did Jimi do? Why does it matter, and am I mishearing the sound of fuzz before wah?

What order are we all putting our fuzz-faces and crybabies in?

tekbow

Jimi had Roger Mayer modding things.

vasselmeyer

If you have time, check out the recent episode from That Pedal Show on this very topic:

bbill335

I just tried putting a SHO boost between my wah and my fuzzface clone and its sounds pretty ace. I might build another SHO circuit into the wah output (it's unity at zero, but can then boost). It really sounds great, can't believe I haven't tried it sooner.

Babones

Wah after fuzz for me. Mine has a boost, so no loss. I blame the 80s/90s bands I grew up with. Sounds awesome for what I use it for. 

ICBM

Babones said:

Wah after fuzz for me.

Likewise. Wah after fuzz and before distortion and overdrive for me.

lukedlb

If you have a boss type pedal, put it between the wah and fuzz. The boss has a buffer on when in true bypass which will help the wah interact with the fuzz. If you like it, then you’ll need a wah buffer installed. Some wahs already have them, most don’t. 

soma1975

get a wah with a fuzz buffer or buy and install a foxrox retrofit buffer.

I run BMF wah, Fuzz Face, Treble Booster, Vibe (or at the moment phase 95), OD, Dist.

As for what jimi did, if you listen to a lot of him live, usually struggle like fuck dealing with this problem. 

Babones

ICBM said:

Babones said:

Wah after fuzz for me.

Likewise. Wah after fuzz and before distortion and overdrive for me.

Actually, I have it after all dirt, stacked and so on. But I'm not going for a classic wah sound.