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Thread: How Useful is Fuzz?

  1. #41
    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    Quote Originally Posted by NDRU View Post
    You play lead I guess? What kind of music? I know you have a Mesa also, so you have a very modern amp & a vintage style one.
    I'm primarily a blues and r&b guitarist but I play all kinds of music (top 40 rock, roots rock, alternative, early metal, punk, country, rockabilly, ska...) in a band that typically has drums, bass, vocals, harp and me as the only guitarist, but often includes another guitarist and other musicians (all of whom have to show up and rehearse with us if they want to go on with us).

    We're not pros. We play at jams, open mics, parties, bbqs and, most recently, at a benefit concert, opening for three other bands.

    In a way, this is good. It allows me the luxury of not having to try to cop a song's exact recorded overdrive tone.

  2. #42
    Forum Member Wilko's Avatar
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    That's what I figured. I can sample the various "ideas" of different effects at least. If I'm intrigued I can look further into octave fuzz or what ever.

    Fact is, I've been gigging for 30 years and know my way around many effects. The last 15+ years have been done with hardly any effects. I don't use 'em a lot so this is just fine.

    I still have my original Mig Muff, Small Stone, Hot Tubes from back in the day and I use the phaser these days. I've still got my old Compressor, octave and such. But this thing is tiny and I won't be out much if it gets lost or stolen.

  3. #43
    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    I'm building a Dallas Rangemaster clone. The parts should be hear soon. It will be my next foray into the world of Germanium! The way that I often use my '69 Pedal would probably be better suited to a Rangemaster.

    After that, I think I'll get rid of my Fuzz Factory (I hope I can say that here!) and get an Octavia type of pedal.

    I've always been really intrigued by fuzz pedals.

  4. #44
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    Quote Originally Posted by Wilko View Post
    But this thing is tiny and I won't be out much if it gets lost or stolen.
    that alone is reason enough. Sometimes I think we're the only ones who care about our tone--or about that extra %5 that boutique stuff offers.

    For most people (musicians in the band included) if it swirls, wahs, or crunches, it's good enough.

  5. #45
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    Quote Originally Posted by Don View Post
    I'm building a Dallas Rangemaster clone. The parts should be hear soon. It will be my next foray into the world of Germanium! The way that I often use my '69 Pedal would probably be better suited to a Rangemaster.

    After that, I think I'll get rid of my Fuzz Factory (I hope I can say that here!) and get an Octavia type of pedal.

    I've always been really intrigued by fuzz pedals.
    I had never considered fuzz once I discovered overdrive (& got rid of the Boss DS1). Nice to turn a corner & discover something old that's new to you

  6. #46
    Forum Member Gris's Avatar
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    Yeah, I always liked the ambient effects in those plastic multis, but despised all the crunch tones (think Magicstomp) until ... I found this one setting on my little fender G-dec. OMG it kills for nasty slide leads!

  7. #47
    Forum Member Wilko's Avatar
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    I just played it at rehearsal using a solid state B-52 house amp through a Line 6 4 x 12. Oh my god. the fuzz tones were all horrific. They were nicely softened by my old Deluxe. I could barely get a usable tone tonight.

    Ambient sounds and trmolo, phaser, roto stuff were all fine.

  8. #48
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    So I did go with this one


    I was really pleased with it, rehearsed with the band last night. I think I used it kind of as Wilko described, more or less like an overdrive (since that's basically what I was stomping on pedals for previously), but I was really pleased with the sound of it. I think it will take some messing around to work out some "embrace the fuzz" riffs that will take advantage of it's unique characteristics.

    But even just as a drive pedal for soloing it was really sweet, yet nasty & rude. Definitely not lost in the mix.

    FWIW I listened to a lot of clips from gearmandude (who is rumored to be Jack Black) when initially researching this...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIJxzfXvL5s

  9. #49

    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    That is a really cool sounding pedal, well at least online. I have not tried it yet!

    He also has a darker voiced version to match the 60's era darker sounding amps.

    Try running your amp with all the tone controls down except for the bass and also on the guitar, see what you get.
    Fuzz is proof God love us and wants us to be happy. - Franklin
    http://www.frankdenigris.com

  10. #50
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    Quote Originally Posted by Franklin View Post
    That is a really cool sounding pedal, well at least online. I have not tried it yet!

    He also has a darker voiced version to match the 60's era darker sounding amps.

    Try running your amp with all the tone controls down except for the bass and also on the guitar, see what you get.
    it's definitely going to take some messing with to see what it can do. The middle knob is like a bias, and if you turn it down it creates bizarre sputtering sounds. Get it just right and the guitar is like a Harley Davidson or something.

  11. #51
    Forum Member chuckocaster's Avatar
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    gearmandude rocks! love the snake skin boots too. he does some pretty nice demos of things, very entertaining too.
    "don't worry, i'm a professional!"

  12. #52
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    Quote Originally Posted by chuckocaster View Post
    gearmandude rocks! love the snake skin boots too. he does some pretty nice demos of things, very entertaining too.

    yeah sometimes I wish he'd mic an amp for better sound, but even so, he always give a great comparison between the countless pedals he has. Even stuff like the 4 different versions of the OCD--and they are very different!

    And yes, he wears some sweet boots.

  13. #53
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    I am really loving this fuzz. But I must say I'm just using it for solos--basically like an overdrive, except single notes are basically mandatory.

  14. #54
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    an update on the Peppermint Fuzz:

    I had not been using it much, finding it impractical for real life settings. But one day got around to messing with the dials again. I found that turning the fuzz down and the volume up let me get a nearly clean tone with the guitar volume down, and totally fuzzed out tone with the guitar volume maxed.

    I was really surprised at how much this thing changes with a twist of the dial. It compresses the sound a bit, too, so volume changes don't affect the actual volume as much as they might.

    Now I can leave it on and play near-clean rhythm, play crunchy rhythm on the bridge, and turn up for the solo, suddenly it is like a go-to pedal....for the moment, anyway

  15. #55
    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    That's good to hear! I still use my '69 Pedal (the fuzz set all the way up) as the only dirt pedal on my board and have aquired a few more fuzz pedals (non of them as useful as that dang '69 Pedal!) since the last time this thread was active!

  16. #56
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    Quote Originally Posted by Don View Post
    That's good to hear! I still use my '69 Pedal (the fuzz set all the way up) as the only dirt pedal on my board and have aquired a few more fuzz pedals (non of them as useful as that dang '69 Pedal!) since the last time this thread was active!
    The only dirt pedal, eh? That's saying a lot.

    I looked into the 69 pedal, but it's not available anymore. The Peppermint is a germanium fuzz, too, seems like that is a more pleasant (but rude) sound to me.

    A friend recommended the Fuzz Factory, and the Pi can sound pretty awesome, but I am excited to have put this to good use for the time being.

  17. #57
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    I know cleaning up with the volume knob is not a new concept, I am just surprised how true it is, especially with a very dirty pedal

  18. #58
    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    Quote Originally Posted by NDRU View Post
    The only dirt pedal, eh? That's saying a lot.
    I'm not a pro (though I play with my band at a local bbq joint once every couple of months) so I can get away with stuff that a pro can't (like not sounding like the album).

    Most of my dirt comes from my 5E3 clone which is set to be dirty and I get a clean sound by turning my guitar down (or just picking lighter when I'm feeling lazy- I do the same thing with the '69 Pedal. I leave the pedal on for the whole song and adjust as I go).

    When I play outdoors I use my Mesa/Boogie 5:50 which has a pretty good built in drive sound.

  19. #59
    Forum Member hudpucker's Avatar
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    Fuzz?

    Love it.


    I'm not into the 'retro' or vintage types though; I'm much more likely to be swayed by a newer Devi Ever or some such rather than a Rangemaster.

    YMMV.
    Tone is in the fingers, eh? Let's hear your Vox, Marshall and Fender fingerings then...

  20. #60
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    Ok, I did it again...




    But I love to search this forum , ther are TONS of good topics.

    Well, I dug this one out because I've been using lots of fuzz lately, my band is doing some 60s stuff.

    I love fuzz. It sounds like I want to sound, it's kinda like MY tone.

    Well right now I placed the dunlop germanium fuzzface nest to a dunloe distortion +, which is a much more versatile pedal and I can easily crank it up for more dirt and down for a chunchy clean...

    So I use the fuzz for more classic songs, and the dist plus for newer stuff.

  21. #61
    Forum Member Old Ranger's Avatar
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    Well you do indeed have a talent for digging up old threads!

    But like yourself, I find many things of interest from the past. Since around those early rock and roll days when you could buy a 58 Les Paul for a few hundred used and a 60 Strat new and it wasn't a re-issue, I've watched as the first pedals began to arrive. Chorus, tremolo, and others. Distortion pedals always got my attention. When the RAT came into being, I was complete. Anything from a hint of distortion to moderate fuzz. All from one pedal. Yet it was when I found that violin like singing quality in the RAT that caught my attention. It was a sound that had a quality that was almost enchanting. Hypnotic. And yet from a little black box.

    I look about my pile of effect boxes and I find a RAT, a Mouse (Biyang DS-8) , Bad Monkey (everyone has to have one!) and my "Swiss Army Knife of Pedals" the Digitech DF-7 the Distortion Factory. Seven dirt boxes in one. That pedal is amazing in that it has the same foot print of any other standard stompbox yet it has within it the following perfectly cloned boxes:

    Digitech Metal Master
    DOD 250
    Boss DS-1
    Ibanez TS-9
    Pro Co RAT
    Boss Metal Zone
    EH Big Muff Pi

    With stereo imaging, direct out for recording or running to a board, and other features this box is a remarkable piece of engineering. Yet it was produced for only a few years. I believe it was killed by the cheap multi-processors that hit the market a few years back. Since it is a pedal that requires you to stoop over to change settings, and tweaking IS needed with them all, I feel that is the prime cause of it's demise. The kids of today with their "need" of instant gratification, must have felt that it was out dated. They have the cheap processors that you can set 50 or more settings and get them at a tap of the foot. Handy, but to me, sort of lifeless stuff. Shame really as the DF-7 has tons of deep rich tones to offer. Which brings me to the FUZZ portion of the pedal, the Big Muff Pi...

    Not only does it clone the original Big Muff Pi box's controls, it offers extended tone controls with stacked pots to expand the sound you get and enhance the texture to stages unheard of by the original. Kinda cute if you ask me. I can milk out of this setting a raw fuzz that would make Keith proud and at the same time tweak it to produce Gilmore-like tones that simply defy logic. And those are just SOME of the tones found in this box.

    In closing, though my hearing is failing me more and more each day, of what I can still pickup from the air around me when I play, the fuzz is still an amazing effect that goes beyond simply making a buzzing massive noise to irritate one's parents. It is an essential part of your sonic arsenal that builds and enhances your tone. True, I can achieve this mystic tone with my old RAT and it's clone, the Biyang Mouse with it's turbo switch, but it's the Big Muff Pi setting in the Digitech DF-7 that renders a fuzz from the likes of Jimi and his upside down Strat to a smoothness that is Comfortably Numb... Yeah, ya gotta have a fuzz to be complete.
    I forgot what I was going to say...

  22. #62
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    Brother, I wish we had a "like" button here.

    We have quite a similar taste for dirt boxes! I like the digitech bad monkey too, and you don't know how much I crave for a pro co Rat! I am a fan of its tone (funny that you mentioned Comfortably numb), Gilmour actually does use a RAT in his pedal chain.

    too bad they are not so easily found here, and are AWFULLY expensive

    About the fuzz itself, I find the big muff just awesome, but my dunlop mini fuzzface does the job quite decently with the valve amps I generally use.

  23. #63
    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    I just picked up another used Big Muff reissue. It's of no use to me in the band I'm in, but I have a fuzz problem and it was cheap.

    It sounds good, though nowhere near as good as the 1970s original that I worked on a few months ago!

  24. #64
    Forum Member Old Ranger's Avatar
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    Quote Originally Posted by de Melo View Post
    Brother, I wish we had a "like" button here.

    you don't know how much I crave for a pro co Rat! I am a fan of its tone (funny that you mentioned Comfortably numb), Gilmour actually does use a RAT in his pedal chain.

    too bad they are not so easily found here, and are AWFULLY expensive

    .

    Make you a deal... Shoot me a PM or e-mail me an address and I'll send you mine. It sits on the shelf in the box for months on end doing nothing. It should go to someone that can use it. I'm going deaf and never take it out of the box anymore. This time of year it'll likely get there around Feb!! But you'll have a RAT! And I'll try and find the reversed A/C adapter lead for it so you can use it in a standard polarity based wiring rig. Don't know how bad Customs will beat ya up over the importation tax/fees but there will be a real RAT in the box!

    Wade
    I forgot what I was going to say...

  25. #65
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    See why I'm genuinely proud to be a friend of this gentleman's, guys?

    Brother, I couldn't comfortably accept the gift without feeling sorry, after all I've known you for a couple of years now and I know just how much you like it.

    But I can't thank you enough for such kindness and brotherly friendship! You're "one hell of a friend", as I bet they say up in Texas!

  26. #66
    Forum Member Old Ranger's Avatar
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    Well it's a Lakota thing. Among us traditionals, we hold to the old ways. If I have two of one thing and my brother or friend has none then by the end of the day we both have one.

    You see, I have my Biyang Mouse that has a cloned RAT inside and the Digitech DF-7 has a cloned RAT as well. So by sending you the "real" RAT so to speak would be correct and proper to do. It would not be that I'd not have a RAT sound if needed. So you think about it.... and I know you don't want to make an old Lakota elder feel bad. Might make me crawl off and do something weird like become a tree hugging pacifist liberal! Oh the shame of it all. I'd have to hide my face from the world and live under a rock... Well I almost live under a rock now.... but anyway.....

    Besides, you should hear what a RAT pumping into a Bad Monkey does. It sounds like AN INCOMING ROUND!! Or a fist-bump from a proctologist!!

    OK, you may return to your regularly scheduled program already in progress....
    Last edited by Old Ranger; 12-08-2015 at 02:42 PM. Reason: Tons of TYPOS!
    I forgot what I was going to say...

  27. #67
    Forum Member ch willie's Avatar
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    I love my Rat. It sounds so very good in front of my DRRI. I don't use it with the Marshall because I'm happy with it's OD and higher gain channels.

    It's a pedal I would buy again if I lost it. Of course, I have one of the newish ones, and it's wonderful.
    If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison

  28. #68
    Forum Member Don's Avatar
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    I love my Rat, too. I built mine on a Tonepad PCB. I set the distortion below 9:00. It's the "Marshall channel" on my Fender amps.

  29. #69
    Forum Member Old Ranger's Avatar
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    OK, but that RAT of mine is just sitting in the box doing nothing.
    Like it has for the past year or better.
    Just sitting there in the dark.......
    Not being used........
    Lonely..........
    Forgotten......
    IT could be in Brazil rockin' the multitude.......
    But no, it sits in the box......
    All alone and no one to play with.....

    Sergio, the offer still stands amigo....
    Just send me an address and Los RATTA will be on the way...
    I forgot what I was going to say...

  30. #70
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    Quote Originally Posted by Old Ranger View Post
    OK, but that RAT of mine is just sitting in the box doing nothing.
    Like it has for the past year or better.
    Just sitting there in the dark.......
    Not being used........
    Lonely..........
    Forgotten......
    IT could be in Brazil rockin' the multitude.......
    But no, it sits in the box......
    All alone and no one to play with.....

    Sergio, the offer still stands amigo....
    Just send me an address and Los RATTA will be on the way...
    Well, hermano.

    I'll accept the gift and send you my address by PM, and you send me the RAT IF it's not too much trouble/cost to you, deal?

    And a big THANK YOU!

  31. #71
    Forum Member Old Ranger's Avatar
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    Por Nada!

    Now I WILL be expecting in the future, a posting of you ripping it up with the RAT in a MP3 of some killer rock tune!! So when it gets there..... you know what to do.... YOU GO AND.......

    STEP ON A RAT!

    As that's the thing ya gotta do when ya got a RAT on your pedalbaoard! Ja!!
    I forgot what I was going to say...

  32. #72
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Re: How Useful is Fuzz?

    But of course I will post some of the work I'll do with the Rat!

    Just don't expect any 80s/90's stuff, but I sure will record loads of Ramones stuff with it! I love those guys and I like to play them with single coils and a powerful dirt pedal, instead of cranking the amp up. It sounds HOT!

    Thank you, again, brother.

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