Small fuzz pedal - what's good?

DartmoorHedgehog

I'm after a fuzz pedal...  never used one before so I'm not quite sure exactly what I want but sound-wise I'm thinking early '70s T-Rex and such.  Physically I'd prefer small as possible because of limited space on my board, if any of the mini ones are any good.

I'm assuming the sound I'm thinking of is more "fuzz-face type" than "muff type" - is this right?

Any suggestions?  (I'm happy with new, second-hand or kit BTW, obviously the cheaper the better as long as it's not pants)

MattBanshee

If you want a kit, try the Fuzzdog fuzzpups kits. Various fuzzes that fit into (supplied) tiny enclosures.

Otherwise, maybe try a Mooer Blue Faze or Grey Faze (or find a retailer to A/B them), they are clones of the Fuzz Face, one using Si transistors and the other Ge (I forget which way round).

Cookiemonster

I think Marc Bolan used a rangemaster so not a fuzz type

DesVegas

I'm selling a Piggy FX Tonebender which is mini and excellent, i can post it to you to try whilst i'm waiting for it to sell if you want to try it out (obvs don't have to buy it)

simonk

EWS Little Fuzzy Drive - all kinds of excellent.

benmurray85

@DesVegas  pm me if the OP doesn't take the plunge pal. Thank you 

EricTheWeary

simonk said:

EWS Little Fuzzy Drive - all kinds of excellent.

At GuitarGuitar for £99 at the moment. The little voicing switch makes it relatively versatile as well. 

fretmeister

Guitarsystems Fuzztool Jnr

http://www.guitarsystems.nl/fuzztool-junior/4579437206

Amazing pedal. The Tone control isn't really a tone at all. It changes the saturation of the fuzz in a different way to the gain control. It's very useful when swapping guitars.

I sold almost all my guitar pedals when I got a Helix. This is the only FF style I kept.

DartmoorHedgehog

DesVegas said:

I'm selling a Piggy FX Tonebender which is mini and excellent, i can post it to you to try whilst i'm waiting for it to sell if you want to try it out (obvs don't have to buy it)

Massively generous mate, but having listened to a few more demos I think I'll try to find something with an octave switch.  Let @benmurray85 have a go.

Thanks for all the suggestions - listening to lots of demos now and thinking I could do with an octave function.  Octopuzz sounds good to me but I can't find any trace of availability or prices, new or used.  I'll keep looking, no rush at all with this.

Gassage

Vick Audio Ram's head. Most excellent.

Wampler Velvet too

ChrisCox1994

I can sell you a lovepedal bonetender, just bought it on here but realised i prefer muff style fuzzes... pm if youre interested, gets that great 70s fuzz sound and is tiny! 

DartmoorHedgehog

ChrisCox1994 said:

I can sell you a lovepedal bonetender, just bought it on here but realised i prefer muff style fuzzes... pm if youre interested, gets that great 70s fuzz sound and is tiny! 

Thanks - that was one of the ones I liked the sound of in demos  No octave though... but still might be tempted.  Need to decide how much I'd use the octaver.

DesVegas

No worries mate, good luck with that search

Octafish

MattBanshee said:

Otherwise, maybe try a Mooer Blue Faze or Grey Faze (or find a retailer to A/B them), they are clones of the Fuzz Face, one using Si transistors and the other Ge (I forget which way round).

Grey Faze is the Germanium (£50), Blue is silicon (£40). I'd definitely recommend the Grey Faze, haven't ried out the Blue.

@DartmoorHedgehog - Most Fuzz/Octave tend to be normal or bigger sized pedals. If you gig it's also worth having the ability to turn off the octave separate to the fuzz with a footswitch, which means two switches and therefore again a bigger enclosure. Have you thought of a mini fuzz and a seperate mini octave pedal? You could proabably buy both for around £100.

simonk

Suhr Rufus Reloaded should be worth a look too.

english_bob

Octafish said:

@DartmoorHedgehog - Most Fuzz/Octave tend to be normal or bigger sized pedals. If you gig it's also worth having the ability to turn off the octave separate to the fuzz with a footswitch, which means two switches and therefore again a bigger enclosure. Have you thought of a mini fuzz and a seperate mini octave pedal? You could proabably buy both for around £100.

Worth mentioning that if you want it to sound like a proper octave fuzz then you need an analogue octave up circuit- a POG wannabe or a bog-standard digital pitch shifter isn't going to sound right. 

Fuzzdog do a Green Ringer clone, but not as a 1590a build. Although FWIW, two mini pedals plus the space taken up by the extra cables probably take up nearly as much space as a 1590B or even a BB, so you could go for something like the Fulltone Ultimate Octave clone on the Fuzzdog site that has the octave up footswitchable.

DartmoorHedgehog

I agree two mini pedals takes up more room than a single normal one.  I think if I did get one with an octave function I wouldn't need to switch it mid-song, so switching by hand would be fine.  I'm not really into big pedal boards (currently just wah, delay, chorus and boost/eq), so I don't want to go mad with multiple pedals (even fitting an extra mini pedal on my board would be pretty tight).  

I'm not trying to replicate any particular sound exactly (the band I'm in only play two or three covers) so authenticity of the octaver isn't a problem (I thought the Octopuzz sounded good in demos but seems near impossible to get hold of).  For normal fuzz, the Bonetender sounds excellent, or I could build a kit...   

Need to think more about how much space I could make and whether I really need the octaver - and if I decide I don't I'll be very tempted by @ChrisCox1994 's Bonetender.

Flanging_Fred

How about a Danelectro French Toast? Small, cheap, had an octave up switch and sounds really good. I enjoyed mine when I had one a few years ago.

DartmoorHedgehog

Flanging_Fred said:

How about a Danelectro French Toast? Small, cheap, had an octave up switch and sounds really good. I enjoyed mine when I had one a few years ago.

Thanks - another one to look at, sounds good in the demo I found (and really cheap of course).  The plastic case will probably be OK - I don't stamp on my pedals hard.

The EH Octavix also looks possible (although neither of these are as small as a mini pedal so I'll have to do some jiggling to fit either of them in). I think the EH pedals are similar size to the MXR aren't they? If so, I've got a Carbon Copy for comparison.

DartmoorHedgehog

Thanks for all the comments folks.  I've listened to loads more demos and decided I don't really need the octaver, at least for now.  And I seem to prefer the silicon type fuzzes to germanium.  Found a s/h Mooer Blue Faze, so I'll see how I get on with that without the risk of losing much if I end up not keeping it or it doesn't like being in front of my buffered wah (does a buffer AFTER a fuzz cause problems, or is it only before?)

Dave_Mc

^ I think it's only before. I've got buffers after a blue faze and I didn't notice much wrong.