How do fuzz pedals cope with cutting thru in a 2 guitar band?

siraxeman

Do they work ok..never had a Fuzz ever. For years was very anti fuzz..but now somethings changing i'm starting to find certain songs and demo's where the fuzz is teh toanz. Now being in a 2 guitar band against the other guys TSL I wonder if I got a fuzz pedal would I get lost in the mix?? 

ICBM

With an AC30? I suspect you'll still punch a hole right through his weedy thin TSL sound .

I would probably avoid the bassy/scooped Muff-type fuzz sound though, AC30s don't cope well with it and it can indeed make them too compressed and lose volume. (And can be a risk to the speakers as well.)

Something more midrangy like a Tonebender-derived circuit or a Fuzz Factory type should have no trouble. Although if it's a vintage-clone circuit, make sure it has enough maximum volume available, since many don't.

monquixote

As ICBM says Muffs are quite scoopy unless you get one of the many tweaked clones that have a mid control.

I really like Fuzz Face type pedals, but get a more modern one, or you might find you have naff all level.

siraxeman

Its listening to Eric Johnson in particular and I've been loving his tone with his Fuzz Faces and his Strat sounds huge....and thats with single coils. I want some of that if it will compete against a TSL. I've got a TSL122 myself now along with my DSL and AC30 and i've naturally had to compare it to my DSL and it was no contest - the DSL is definately better. But typically its that trade off for the sake of convenience. The TSL to my ears sounds good till you play it A/B with the DSL then you think nah. But then again it has 3 independant channels with their own vol/gain and tone controls..so I think for now at least I'm gonna keep it for a while.

Getting back to topic....typically I gig with 2 amps - the DSL and the AC30 sat on top of it both amps on at once. Lately i've been using the AC30 top boost channel with master volume on and dialing in a nice but mildish crunch and a similar sound gain wise on the boosted green channel on the DSL then roll back for cleans and stomp on a pedal or change channels on the DSL for solos. Works suprisingly well but i've always got a pedal or 3 at my feet to and I'd love to get a slice of EJ's tones on a Strat! Lovely stuff.

ICBM

If you're going through those two amps together I don't think you'll have any trouble at all. They should work perfectly together, the more scooped sound of the DSL sound will handle the bottom end of the fuzz and the AC30 will still cut through on top.

Again, just make sure your fuzz has enough level available - many vintage ones don't, even though in isolation they sound loud… in a band mix you can easily find yourself with the level maxed and it's still not enough. The guitarist in my band had a beautiful original Mk1.5 Tonebender a while back - the best-sounding straight fuzz I've ever heard, but it just wasn't loud enough.

He sold it and bought a Soldano SLO with the money .

siraxeman

Thats an interesting but scary point...I was probably gonna buy one untried/tested off ebay. Don't think there's a wide selection to try out in any stores I know..even PMT music in Salford don't have loads of choice. Hmm.

Grunfeld

siraxeman said:

Now being in a 2 guitar band against the other guys TSL I wonder if I got a fuzz pedal would I get lost in the mix?? 

If you search the classifieds there's still my velvet vervet for sale.  (a) it's fuzzy; (b) it has optional octave; (c) it's a little pricey (but it's quality); (d) you would never get lost in the mix.  If "where's Wally" had this fuzz pedal you'd finish the book in about 15 seconds.  It has uranium transistors.  Just sayin'

Jackobean

An EQ pedal is your friend when trying to cut through with a fuzz.

photek

The only way i managed it was with a throbak stone bender but I had to eq my amp in such a way that none of my other pedals sounded good. I no longer use a fuzz. Shame really as it did sound good.

timmysoft

I used a fuzz for just over a year in my rig. I used the diamond fireburst, the focus switch really helped when I needed to cut through but being a rhythm player in a two guitar band I didnt need to cut through that often.

Travisthedog

Fuzz need boost

Shove a mxr micro amp or a tc sparkbooster in front of your fuzz and you'll have no problems being heard

ICBM

Fuzz Factory does not need boost .

The screaming mayhem it can unleash will guarantee being heard if you're unwise enough to turn the level control even as far up as noon .

(It can also do more subtle stuff.)

Johnnyseven

From experience with fuzzes, particularly muffs, adding volume does not neccesarily help you be heard in a band mix. The key is to seperate yourself from the other instruments. In a 1 guitar band like mine I would and mids and reduce bass and treble on my amp or using an eq pedal.

Although i've not tried it in a 2 guitar band, I would suggest both guitars try highlighting different frequencies or one plays with single coils or one humbuckers. Also playing different guitar parts to help you both stand out may help.

ICBM

Johnnyseven said:

From experience with fuzzes, particularly muffs, adding volume does not neccesarily help you be heard in a band mix. The key is to seperate yourself from the other instruments. In a 1 guitar band like mine I would and mids and reduce bass and treble on my amp or using an eq pedal.

Although i've not tried it in a 2 guitar band, I would suggest both guitars try highlighting different frequencies or one plays with single coils or one humbuckers. Also playing different guitar parts to help you both stand out may help.

That's always excellent advice regardless of what sound you're using. Muff-type fuzz can just make it a bit trickier, exactly because they have a very wide frequency response which makes it more difficult to separate the ones you need. (But is also why they sound so huge and powerful in the right context.)

kelvinburn

I play in a 2 (sometimes 3) guitar band and we just use different types of complimentary fuzz sounds.  I use violet rams head type muff with an indecent volume level (m design haus RAW) into blackstar ht60 and other main guitarist uses a fuzzface type into Marshall vm50 head. Sounds mahoosive.  Incidentally the fuzz face is actually a monkey fx supermonkey, which is pretty much a non octave, boostable version of the pedal @Grunfeld is selling.  You could do worse than giving that a go, er probably.  I should also add that our band is pretty weird though

Cheers

Kelvin

Jalapeno

More important to be playing different notes/chords

2 guitars playing the same distorted 6 string barre chords is a godawful racket

ThePrettyDamned

Jalapeno;118318" said:

More important to be playing different notes/chords



2 guitars playing the same distorted 6 string barre chords is a godawful racket

This. When we used to do the foo fighters kind of stuff, we would have one guy playing power chords and the other playing the third in octaves. It means you get the chord but it fills out nice, and the third jumps out as a melody.

Fusionista

Got a Fulltone Catalyst available if you are interested - you won't have any trouble with that cutting through.

http://i691.photobucket.com/albums/vv274/AndyP335/Fulltone_Catalystfuzzpedal.jpg

Longtallronnie

ICBM said:

Fuzz Factory does not need boost .

The screaming mayhem it can unleash will guarantee being heard if you're unwise enough to turn the level control even as far up as noon .

(It can also do more subtle stuff.)

Longtallronnie

Where'd my text go?

Fuzz Factory + AC30 = monstrous fun.