definitive fuzz pedals

allicio

Bit of a two parter...
What in peoples opinions are the definitive fuzz pedals? Pedals that defined a particular sound/ place in history perhaps or are just awesome circuits!
Ive got a mkii, buzz around, fuzz face and a mk1.5 on the way. Anymore I should check out?

guitarfishbay

Big Muff, though I'm not sure what the definitive version is...  I think @ICBM may have an opinion on that!

Bidley

Yeah definitely Big Muff, that's my personal favourite. Everyone goes on about Tonebenders as well.

stickyfiddle

Ram's Head or Triangle Muff (though ICBM will disagree with me, he's wrong )

Don't forget the Fuzz Factory. 

ICBM

I don't disagree that the early transistor Big Muff is a classic, it's just that the IC Big Muff is different and at least as good .

stickyfiddle

ICBM said:

I don't disagree that the early transistor Big Muff is a classic, it's just that the IC Big Muff is different and at least as good .

Piff! That's such a reasonable answer!! We demand an argument about transistors or something!

GavRichList

The Empress Effects Fuzz looks cracking. Major GAS.

Dave_Mc

Don't have that much experience of fuzz outside of FF or muffs, but the danelectro frantone peach fuzz clone (cool cat V1 fuzz) I have is pretty nice. i suspect the "real thing" is quite rare. And expensive. )

ICBM

Dave_Mc said:

Don't have that much experience of fuzz outside of FF or muffs, but the danelectro frantone peach fuzz clone (cool cat V1 fuzz) I have is pretty nice. i suspect the "real thing" is quite rare. And expensive. )

And brilliant - the guitarist in the band I play bass in has one. I foolishly acquired it for him without trying it myself first…

I would be shocked if the Danelectro version sounds as good, no matter if it's a close copy - simply because no other modern fuzz I've ever heard sounds as good. It's not a 'definitive' classic since it's not been around long enough, nor is as unique as the Fuzz Factory, but for just a great straightforward powerful fuzz it's unbeatable.

Dave_Mc

Oh yeah probably not, but then I paid £23 (new) for the dano version )

And yeah it sounds good.

JayGee

ICBM said:

Dave_Mc said:

Don't have that much experience of fuzz outside of FF or muffs, but the danelectro frantone peach fuzz clone (cool cat V1 fuzz) I have is pretty nice. i suspect the "real thing" is quite rare. And expensive. )

And brilliant - the guitarist in the band I play bass in has one. I foolishly acquired it for him without trying it myself first…

I would be shocked if the Danelectro version sounds as good, no matter if it's a close copy - simply because no other modern fuzz I've ever heard sounds as good. It's not a 'definitive' classic since it's not been around long enough, nor is as unique as the Fuzz Factory, but for just a great straightforward powerful fuzz it's unbeatable.

There are one or two head-to-heads around on The Tube of You - I'd say definitely in the same ballpark but a little thinner and shriller. Peach Fuzz owners seem to want to talk up the difference more than the clips seem to justify to me, on the other hand they do have the advantage of actually being in the room rather than listening to a relatively low bandwidth compressed rendering of a recording. 

More importantly I think my CC Fuzz (like all the CC  pedals I've got) sounds pretty damed fine in its own right and doesn't sound like a straight rehash of any of the other "classic" designs. If that one breaks it's going to be a bugger to replace...

ThePrettyDamned

Love the axis fuzz. It's just the perfect fuzz for general... Er... Fuzz. max the knobs, then turn each one down a fraction till it stops squealing. Done. The only setting you need.

I might try building a fuzz factory though, poodle does a board mount pot kit which looks simple. I'd love an original but it's a lot for a pedal I might not even like.

Didn't @bucket find a company (Maxon?) that's cloning loads of old, not so common ones (boutique world hasn't picked up on them yet)? Not sure if any of them are classic...

Bucket

Yes indeed @ThePrettyDamned

Maxon have come out with seven pedals, several of which are based on weird old Japanese fuzzes like the Roland Bee Baa and Univox Superfuzz (there's a Ram's Head Big Muff clone, a Tonebender and an Ampeg Scrambler as well)

As it happens, I ordered one of Maxon's Bee Baa clones (it's called the Fire) from Thomann a couple of days ago, and am expecting it to arrive in the next day or two. I'll post a thread about it. Hopefully it's exactly what I've been looking for - if the YouTube demos are anything to go by, I'm pretty much expecting my socks to be blown off.

Bucket

I really, really love the sound of the Buzzaround-based fuzzes I've heard as well, they sound wonderful.

An American company called Skinpimp do one, shame it's battery-only with no 9v socket. Definite deal breaker.

ThePrettyDamned

Bucket;253400" said:

Yes indeed @ThePrettyDamned

Maxon have come out with seven pedals, several of which are based on weird old Japanese fuzzes (there's a Ram's Head Big Muff clone and an Ampeg Scrambler as well) - Univox Superfuzzes, Roland Bee Baa etc.

As it happens, I ordered one of the Bee Baa clones from Thomann a couple of days ago, and am expecting it to arrive in the next day or two. I'll post a thread about it. Hopefully it's exactly what I've been looking for - if the YouTube demos are anything to go by, I'm pretty much expecting my socks to be blown off.

The Bee baa was the one I'm most interested in, just because it sounds like nothing else I've heard!

The ampeg scrambler is a bit of an oddball. Let me know how you rate the Bee baa against the son of freakenstein (which is my next main target).

Bucket

I'm expecting them to be quite different.

The Bee Baa seems like a "Big Muff on steroids" kind of sound - well, at least the tone setting I'll mainly be using, there's also the Notch mode which introduces an impossibly-violent-sounding scooped tone which I probably won't be using much - but yeah, the main sound seems to be a very thick, mid-heavy, sustaining sound. Ideal really, IMO.

The Freakenstein can do that, and lots else besides, but I think it's far more aggressive. It's got the oscillator feature, and the absolute shedload of gain that you can't dial back (due to the noise gating, it's not even really possible with the guitar's volume). It's an absolutely fantastic sound, but it's definitely a modern, hyper-exaggerated take on what a fuzz can sound like. The Bee Baa, I assume, is more of a vintage-flavoured circuit (after all, the originals came out in the early 70s).

Dave_Mc

JayGee said:

If that one breaks it's going to be a bugger to replace...

Yeah. ) My drive (OCD clone) died but it's obviously a lot easier to replace. Not going to be too pleased if the fuzz or timmy clones die. i can replace the timmy clone (and actually mean to) but it'll take time, though i have other pedals which can do more or less the same thing to tide me over. But the peachtone clone... yeah. To be fair, I don't use it enough to justify forking out too much, if it broke i'd probably just use a different fuzz. )

allicio

Bucket;253402" said:

I really, really love the sound of the Buzzaround-based fuzzes I've heard as well, they sound wonderful.

An American company called Skinpimp do one, shame it's battery-only with no 9v socket. Definite deal breaker.

The early Ryan Kirkland ones were good but he sold the business I believe and as is usually the case the quality dropped.
Get in touch with arcane Analog in Canada hell build you one with the correct nkt213 trannies and a 9v adapter. His builds are easily on par with the best out there.

allicio

Think I'm going to take a closer look at muffs! Oo er!

juansolo

This one ...and no, I'm not making another



I've got my favourite muff in another multi. Plus they're more of a distortion than full on fuzz.

samzadgan

Black Arts Toneworks Pharaoh...end of story...for me anyway.