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Is a fuzz pedal enough or...?🤔 (need help)

joeperry

Active member
Joined
Jun 24, 2002
Messages
1,058
Hi guys,
Lately I’ve been thinking of trying out a fuzz pedal and I’ve been lurking on YouTube to try spot the differences.
It looks like a fuzz cleans up Pretty well, when rolling down the volume knob on the guitar and gets dirty when rolling up the volume, which Suits me very well, as I play a 1955’ 1pu Lp junior:)
Therefore, I’ve been trying to figure out if one fuzz pedal would be enough to cover the dirt sound instead of having multiple pedals on the board?

The style I play is blues/rock inspired (the black Crowes/Aerosmith/early gnr/Marcus king)
And I’d normally just crank a tube amp and use a ts808 as volume/attenuator to keep the volume down, and I love the sweet saturated sound, but at times I’d love to have the opportunity to get the sound a little more dirty, so would it be possible to Use a fuzz pedal as I use the ts808- (but instead of the ts808) and get the same sweet saturated tone and when rolling up the volume then go into fuzz heaven?
Hope someone can help me

Best regards
Torben
 

mdubya

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 31, 2010
Messages
1,020
Fuzz pedals run the gamut.

Silicon Fuzz does not clean up like Germanium, yet you might find you prefer the dirty Silicon sound.

I prefer to run my fuzz pedals with volume and fuzz all the way up and use the guitar volume knob to control things. That works great (though it is a demanding way to play - like trying to keep a raging amp semi-under control) with some pedals, not so great with others.

My fuzz arsenal consists of:

Maestro MFZ-1 - great pedal, probably my favorite.
Colorsound One Knob - a semi out of control glorious beast of a fuzz.
Vick Audio Colorsound Overdriver - tons of output on tap and sounds best when using it. Fits between primative OD and fuzz.
JHS Supreme - Univox Superfuzz clone, truly crazy out of control fuzz tones. Beautiful, but can be "too much."
Dunlop Fuzz Face - red germanium version from the early 90's - definitely sounds best with everything on 10 and using the guitar volume.

I also rely on a bevy of fuzz tone variants from Fuzz Face to Big Muff to Octavia in my Fractal Audio AX8. You can do just about anything at any volume with the Fractal. Paired with a Digitech Freqout Feedback simulation generator, it is almost embarrassing how much fun one can have.

Sorry for the novela. The coffee is very good this afternoon. :salude :timc
 

Major Fuzz

New member
Joined
Nov 5, 2020
Messages
11
Fuzz pedals are a hit or miss for me. Every time I've used a fuzz on my board, it's been a Fuzz Face. One was germanium and the other was silicon. They were so far apart in time that I couldn't remember the germanium enough to compare. Also, every time I've used a fuzz, I had a different drive pedal as well, cause I feel like you won't really ever want JUST a fuzz. I usually have my EJ Fuzz Face and a Way Huge Overrated Special, or I have a 2 channel amp one set to a lot of gain, and the other is a bit cleaner (not clean, just more clean that the cranked channel). That way I have more than one flavor of drive available, fuzz for more psychedelic/bluesy songs, amp drive/Overrated Special for heavier songs.

At one point though I had many different fuzz pedals on my board, cause I was using fuzz as my main means of drive. I had a Band Of Gypsy's Fuzz Face Mini, a EQD Hoof Reaper (technically that counts as 2 fuzzes, but I count it as one), Fuzzrocious Grey Stache, Fuzzrocious Cat Tail, EQD Acapulco Gold, Eric Johnson Fuzz Face, Catalinbread Sabbra Cadabra, as well as many drives including the Overrated, Beano Boost, Pickup Booster, Timmy, Dover Drive, and a BK Butler Tube Driver...... Yeah I had like 13 drive pedals on my board at one time....
 

Sol

Active member
Joined
Oct 26, 2001
Messages
775
If you want the 'sweet saturated' tone of your cranked valve amp pushed by your TS808 only ' a little more dirty', there are a few pedals that immediately come to mind..The Electroharmonix Big Muff is, based on your post my first recommendation that you check out.

There are so many varients of this classic by so many epic pedal builders that your heads going to spin my friend !
There is a companion pedal that I spotted David Gilmour using alongside his Muffs and Rats, and I can't recommend it strongly enough, and that's a Boss GE-7 eq pedal. This pedal will provide you with all the tone shaping capability that boutique Muffs have built in, for a price, a price that may well be worth paying, its for you to decide.
But. A bog standard Big Muff with a Boss GE-7 before or after will allow you to shape your sound to perfectly match your guitar/amp setup anyway you want. I learned it all from David Gilmour..
 
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