Unexpected rig change

ICBM

I love my little Zoom B3 - it's very versatile, sounds good and has a lot of useful features, and it seems to sound pretty much the same into any amp. Great for the sort of gigs I'm likely to do where there is usually a house bass amp. I was genuinely happy with it and not looking for anything else.

Then the guitarist in my band decided to sell a fuzz pedal - I thought it would give me a sound I wanted for guitar, which was the signature tone of a band I like. But I made fatal mistake... out of a sense of idle curiosity I tried it for bass.

Oh dear. I'm going to need to re-think my entire set-up, because this

http://www.wattson-fx.com/gallery.html

produces the most epic bass tone in the history of epic bass things. Actually, two of them - the two tone switch settings are very different, but each is absolutely fantastic, and broadly replace my two main sounds from the Zoom (Rat and Bass Muff models - which I had compared to the real pedals and are close), except that each is *far* better.

It's a modern clone of the Shin-Ei FY-6, which was also sold as the Univox Superfuzz and several other brand names, and is the fuzz part of the Shin-Ei Companion Fuzz-Wah as used (for guitar) by the Jesus And Mary Chain.

Tone 1 is a middy, fairly standard fuzz but rather more dynamic and responsive to playing than normal. Tone 2 is a huge scooped synthy, slightly octaved fuzz which is the most powerful sound I've ever used on bass.

I've tried cloning the sounds with the Zoom and I can't even get close - it just sounds too restrained and dull, even on the most aggressive settings - and it's not that the Superfuzz is harsh either, it's just far more dynamic and 'present'.

Problems... first, although it's very quiet when used on a battery, it's very noisy on a power supply. Probably not a big issue since the current draw is pretty low and it will be fine to run it on a battery, although the Boss TU-2 I will need as well if I'm not using the Zoom draws a bit more. Second... it kills amplifiers. Probably. Or at least, when I unwisely turned up a bit too far at band practice, the studio's Trace Elliot AH500 produced the most unmusical, broken-sounding distortion I've ever heard out of an amp, and I stopped immediately for fear of blowing either the amp or the speakers. So this could be a problem at provided-amp gigs. (My Peavey handles it just fine, but weighs as much as a small car so I was hoping to avoid using it.)

Oh well... I think I'll just have to find a way round it, because I'm not going to not use this thing!

Dave_Mc

Hahahaha

EricTheWeary

@timhulio of Fredric FX may be the expert here. IIRC he has worked on the originals owned by TJAMC and does an FY-2 clone and a switchable FY-2 to FY-6 pedal, both ( I think) with some level boost to overcome the low level output of the originals.
quick mooch on YouTube couldn't bring up anyone using any of the variations on bass.

timhulio

Thanks for the mention! I think he means noise when you're not playing though. The FY-6, unlike the FY-2, has no shortage of volume in stock configuration. Ours differs very slightly in that there's a touch of RF and noise filtering (and power filtering, but I can't imagine the Wattson doesn't have this) as to whether there's enough filtering for your taste I don't know. If you want to try one and can get to London I think Regent Sounds have some (possibly Vint & Rare in Bath too, but check first).

This is the FY-2/FY-6 combo pedal:

http://www.fredric.co.uk/super-unpleasant-companion

ICBM

timhulio said:

Thanks for the mention! I think he means noise when you're not playing though. The FY-6, unlike the FY-2, has no shortage of volume in stock configuration. Ours differs very slightly in that there's a touch of RF and noise filtering (and power filtering, but I can't imagine the Wattson doesn't have this) as to whether there's enough filtering for your taste I don't know. If you want to try one and can get to London I think Regent Sounds have some (possibly Vint & Rare in Bath too, but check first).

This is the FY-2/FY-6 combo pedal:

http://www.fredric.co.uk/super-unpleasant-companion

Yes, noise when not playing. It seems prone to induced noise via the power supply when other heavier-draw pedals are connected, so I think it's simply a filtering issue. To my surprise it does *not* appear to have any more filtering than the original battery-only circuit (a single 10uF cap), and no reverse-polarity protection either. Being a faithful clone of the original circuit is a good thing - not adding sensible precautions for the modern world is not so much.

@timhulio  - that Super Unpleasant Companion looks like fun… what does the FY-2 sound like for bass?

timhulio

Quite good really. Not massive like the FY-6, but I sell lots of FY-2s to bassists because the bassist from The Radioheads used an FY-2 on one of their songs.

Bass sound at about 3:00

ICBM

Hmmm… interesting, but probably not really my thing. Much prefer the FY-6.

ICBM

Aha! And now I discover that the Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz is based on the FY-6 . I thought it sounded similar...

It also has EQ - even more bass boost, if you want - and a volume boost mode, and best of all proper reliable and silent buffered switching. I've borrowed one and it can sound pretty similar, although not exactly the same. But maybe a better choice for gigging. I hate 3PDTs.