| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
bosshog
Silver Member
Canada
493 Posts |
 Posted - 05/15/2006 : 05:20:04
|
Ok,
If you were not to buy a Fuzz pedal that wasn't of the FZ persuasion what would you buy?
|
|
|
pawnshop_trash
Gold Member
USA
603 Posts |
Posted - 05/15/2006 : 21:43:54
|
I guess it depends on the definition of fuzz... AnalogMan makes a great Fuzz Face copy (called the Sun Face), that is expensive but sounds really, REALLY good (my friend has one). and IMHO, the DOD FX69 Grunge pedal (the original "butt"/"face" version, anyway) is also a hellacious fuzz pedal, but it doesn't sound like the Sun Face at all.
other pedals I haven't tried include the E-H Big Muff (which version is the best?), the Superfuzz, and the ProCo Rat (maybe more of a distortion pedal).... |
 |
|
|
StratoSphere
Double Platinum Member
Canada
2232 Posts |
Posted - 05/16/2006 : 13:37:35
|
| i was told that the Z Vex fuzz factory is the most insane fuzz you will ever hear. they have quite the hefty price tag though. |
|
|
|
Dingus
Silver Member
USA
472 Posts |
Posted - 05/16/2006 : 15:05:55
|
I heard great reviews about the Fulltone '69 Fuzz.
It depends what kind of Fuzz you're really looking for.
Are you looking for a classic kind of Hendrix Fuzz-Face fuzz?
Are you looking for a fuzz to use with your bass that will capture the bottom-end nicely (ala Neutral Milk Hotel)?
Are you looking for a My Bloody Valentine style wall of sound fuzz?
And for reference Electro-Harmonix just came out with the "Little Big Muff" which is supposed to be like the original one from the 70's
The ProCo Rat (at least the Rat 2) was a big disappointment for me, but I also wasnt looking for a fuzz pedal, but I think that thing barely does distortion. The Turbo Rat however is pretty awesome.
Analogman's SunFace Fuzz is interesting because it has the NKT 275 germanium transistors in it, which is what the original Fuzz Faces that Jimi Hendrix used supposedly had in them.
I wouldn't really call the DOD Grunge Pedal a Fuzz Pedal, I think it's interesting and it was actually the first pedal I ever bought. But if you're looking for "a certain sound" I don't think this pedal would often fall into the category of that certain sound someone is looking for.
|
|
|
|
bosshog
Silver Member
Canada
493 Posts |
Posted - 05/16/2006 : 16:13:12
|
| Thanks for the comments. I like the Fuzz on The Cult's "The Witch" which is a good example.... |
|
|
|
Dingus
Silver Member
USA
472 Posts |
|
|
jack
Platinum Member
USA
1418 Posts |
Posted - 05/16/2006 : 20:28:52
|
| I haven't gotten one (yet), but I am really impressed with the sound samples of the Fuzz pedal made by Vintage Tone Project. |
|
|
|
Heart and Soul
Silver Member
USA
369 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2006 : 14:41:40
|
I have a NYC Muff RI and a Fender Blender RI...The Muff is great but the Blender is insane...In a good way...
P.S. Hey Dingus what do you recomend for an MBV style fuzz/sound?...I'm curious...
|
|
|
|
Dingus
Silver Member
USA
472 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2006 : 15:40:43
|
Heart and Soul: That's a tough one, because it wasn't really a fuzz kinda sound that they had. I know it seems like that at times because Kevin Shields always had a very thick sound. But it was the combination of two Marshall Guv'nor pedals (the old black box ones). Rather often there isn't much fuzz at all, just a distortion to add that to the signal before the reverse reverb, but it's also fun to try it after the reverse reverb. I can't stress enough that if you're interested in covering any of their songs or getting a sound close to theirs you need either a Yamaha SPX-90, or an Alesis Midiverb 2, at least that's what he used. That is just for the Reverse Reverb though, but that makes up a ton of his sound.
The reason I said "Are you looking for a My Bloody Valentine style wall of sound fuzz?" earlier is because this is how that type of sound is typically described and it often comes out sounding closer to fuzz than distortion despite the fact it is distortion. It's also rumored, but not confirmed that the other MBV guitarist (Belinda Butcher) used an HM-2 as her main distortion. I'm working on confirming this.
It's worthy to note though, that as people have been realizing artists like My Bloody Valentine, The Pixies, and Gary Moore have used this pedal prices have been going up quite high. In general though it's a great distortion pedal, with a built-in effects loop, so I can imagine the prices eventually going up anyway, but probably not this high.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-80s-Marshall-Guvnor-Still-in-the-box_W0QQitemZ7419055078QQcategoryZ41416QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
That is the most I've seen one go for yet.
It is also well worth noting that Kevin Shields used a Turbo Rat (I do genuinely like these pedals compared to the rat 2's) and a Roger Mayer Axis (named after the fuzz he built for Jimi Hendrix for the Axis: Bold as Love album) and a Roger Mayer Mongoose.
The two Roger Mayer pedals are both fuzz pedals, but unfortunately I have not had the pleasure of playing with either of them, although it would not surprise me if the typical MBV Fuzz sound lies within one of these boxes. But you can get damn close with just one Guv'nor as long as you have the reverse reverb. It also helps if you play in stereo (with 2 amps) and use a good amount of tremolo (I heard he never used the Panning on the PN-2 just the Tremolo). The TR-2 has better tremolo anyway if you were to use that. Also for songs like "Only Shallow" which almost epitomizes the "Loveless era" MBV sound he is running in stereo with 2 different amps (I remember one is a VOX AC-30) and I think the other one was some kind of Fender, but he sets the tremolo on both amps to different settings put on microphone directly in the middle of both of them, and then recorded it and sampled it and played it backwards on top of itself. That's how he did "Only Shallow", but he uses different setups for almost every song, the only effect that is usually always on is the Reverse Reverb. There is a lot more discussion about this here and there on the forum at http://www.mybloodyvalentine.net/ which is where I've pulled almost all of this information, its a very useful board that unfortunately crashed recently and most of the good posts were lost. But if you want to ask questions you'll generally get some answers and their old guitar tech visits the board every now and then and provides great information.
Also here is a link to Roger Mayer's pedal sound sample page which I am about to go listen to now.
http://www.roger-mayer.co.uk/audio.htm
|
Edited by - Dingus on 06/05/2006 16:47:51 |
|
|
|
indytone
Bronze Member
USA
124 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2006 : 19:29:06
|
Lately, I've been looking for a good Shin-ei FY-2 fuzz clone. I want to get that William Reid sound for certain noise freak-out parts.
Tony
http://svetlanamusic.com |
|
|
|
Heart and Soul
Silver Member
USA
369 Posts |
Posted - 06/07/2006 : 23:31:35
|
Thanks Dingus...I think I did hear somewhere he used a Turbo Rat and I need a hard dist. anyway so I'll try and pick one up...Guv's seem a bit out of my range so I'll let it go...And I have a HM-2 and to my ears I'm not sure she used it...If you find out some settings let me know...It's been off my board lately so maybe I'll throw it back on for curiousity...
And yes the whole "Artist Mark-up" on pedals is killing me...Oh well...
peace.
|
|
|
|
Craig
Copper Member
10 Posts |
Posted - 06/11/2006 : 17:47:11
|
| MXR Blue Box. You can set it so the octave feature is off and you get a great sputtery gated type fuzz that is big and warm sounding. |
|
|
|
tomwest
Silver Member
United Kingdom
436 Posts |
Posted - 06/15/2006 : 11:12:20
|
I can get an ok MBV sound using my HM-2, but its not the exact tone, it's just a general shoegazey sound, especially if i run it:
Guitar - Small Clone - Fender Blender - HM-2 - Fender Eighty Five (with reverb on)
its not perfect but it has the whole wall of sound swirling noise going on. Sellers of the Fender Blender claim it was used by Kevin Shields anyway, I'm not entirely sure, but its crazy as hell if you don't know how to fine tune it.
Sorry to hijack the thread, however how does the ProCo Rat 2 or Pro Co Turbo Rat compare to the USA Big Muff or the HM-2? |
Edited by - tomwest on 06/15/2006 11:21:25 |
|
|
|
Basstyra
Gold Member
France
523 Posts |
Posted - 08/17/2006 : 20:55:52
|
I just finished my work on a Jen Fuzz, and I would like to share this with you.
I never played a germanium Fuzz before. It's really astonishing... 
And guess what... I got it free. Yeah, free. A vintage 60's Jen germanium Fuzz, for free. This could be my best deal, ever.
The whole story is, I repaired a wah for someone (a normal 50� cry baby wah...), and he paid me with parts. Some pots, some transistors, a new MN3205 BBD, and a Jen Fuzz "box". But the surprise was, it wasn't just the box, the whole circuitry was in there. Just a couple of caps and all the wires were missing. The 2 Ge transistors, simply impossible to get nowadays (SFT 337 and SFT 363), were there. putting it alltogether was not really hard...
http://perso.orange.fr/jumping-jack/atelier/pages/jenfuzz/jenfuzz.html
 |
|
|
|
lazzrath
Bronze Member
Canada
103 Posts |
Posted - 08/21/2006 : 08:51:34
|
quote:
Originally posted by pawnshop_trash
...AnalogMan makes a great Fuzz Face copy (called the Sun Face), that is expensive but sounds really, REALLY good...
I just recently got one of those, and I really like it a lot. It took a little bit of experimenting to get a really fat sound out of it, but then again, it's not supposed to be a really fat sound - the germanium fuzzes (apparently) are a lot cleaner than say a silicon fuzz.
And as for the ProCo Rat, I've got one of those, and I really dig it. I've heard the, 'It get's fuzzy with a cranked distortion knob' claim, but I definitely don't class it as a fuzz - though I definitely love the distortion it gives. I hate to say it, but I end up using it more than my DS-1 some nights. I guess it really depends on what mood I'm in. Maybe I'll get AM to mod a DS-1 for me.
 |
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
Non Boss Fuzz
