So, Fuzz

[Phosphene Audio]

I know it's in the name of the board, and I have had it on the mind lately, and bought a couple.


My band is kind of too fast and dense for most fuzzes to be useful, though my main distortion is basically a modified fuzz face circuit. It doesn't really sound like one, though.


I also have been working on solo material and doing guitar parts for a long distance recording project that have led me to wanting some other options.


I actually recently bought a Big Muff, the tone wicker version. I intended to use it on one of my band's songs in a recording, figuring the wicker and tone bypass options would get me past the things I don't like about muffs, but it didn't work out. I didn't use it for the recording, but I did end up modding it and am much happier. I changed C1 and C5 to .047uf, cut out the diodes on the 2nd transistor and changed the diodes on the 3rd transistor to LEDs. There is still plenty of low end, but, depending on where the tone control is, there are options other than complete mud. I generally hate clipping diodes, and the pedal opens up with the first pair gone and the 2nd pair being LEDs


I also have been curious about Tone Benders and I grabbed a used Seeker Descry, which is a modified MKI, and it's great. It can be smooth, but can also be ugly and gated, which is what I like.

https://youtu.be/_SucrLXO4YQ?si=tSgbSkdZIj-B0F3R

[Phosphene Audio]

I kind of want to get a MKIII next. There are, of course, a shit ton of them, so if you have one you like, what is it?


I really like the looks of the EFE Moth, but they cost a fortune and there are exactly zero clips of them, as far as I can tell.

Spectre Electronics Hastings looks cool, but it's weird to me that, again, there are no clips of the thing, even on the sale listing on the manufacturers Reverb store.

[coldbrightsunlight]

My favourite fuzz aquisition lately is a boss FZ-3 clone for santa (thanks OAM!!!), after trying Disarm D'Arcy's last year. Such a classic fuzz sound but with the ability to really cut. I believe it's got Fuzz Face and/or Tonebender ancestry and I hear that in it.

[Gone Fission]

I’m often more on underfuzz usage than going full on. Most drive stuff that lacks whiskers also doesn’t cut the ways I like, so I want at least fuzz adjacent stuff. Digging the Lauren Audio B100 and Mustang GT, which can go fuzzy but also not. DOD Carcosa does great overdrive-ish things. Clubber Lang and I’m guessing other Percolators don’t sag like a cranked Fuzz Face, but I’m not doing shred riffs so how fast do you need?

On clipping diodes, hard clippers beat soft clippers for me. Rat, Boneshaker, Carcosa, Bosstone variants. Heck, even an Electra derivative. All feel better under the fingers to me than a Big Muff or Tube Screamer. Something about clipping in the feedback loop looses touch response and gets smeary but not in a good way.

[Phosphene Audio]

\
On clipping diodes, hard clippers beat soft clippers for me. Rat, Boneshaker, Carcosa, Bosstone variants. Heck, even an Electra derivative. All feel better under the fingers to me than a Big Muff or Tube Screamer. Something about clipping in the feedback loop looses touch response and gets smeary but not in a good way.

That makes sense. I think on the muff I modded, pulling the first set of diodes and changing the second to LEDs is a big part of what makes it more fun to play now.

[Phosphene Audio]

some fuzzes I have owned:

Dead Air Project V clone: This was pretty great, probably shouldn't have sold it, though they aren't unobtanium and the even cooler looking Project clone by Ghost Effects appears for sale occasionally. Despite the Dead Air having the bias pots on the front, it was mostly useful for a smooth and rich fuzz. It didn't do anything too impolite, but that's fine, it does that very well.

Keeley Fuzz Bender: Sounded pretty good, active tone controls made it more useful, but it wasn't super exciting.

EH Satisfaction: I don't remember much about this, but I don't think it was terrible.

JHS Fuzz: This was the 3 Series plain white box thing, easily one of the 5 worst pedals I have ever tried, dark, muffled and weak.

Zvex Fuzz Factory: This was long ago, maybe the first fancy pedal I bought. The "velcro" setting in the instruction sheet that came with it was great, but I didn't like much else of what it did at the time, and I felt it made my guitar disappear live. I should probably try another one sometime.

Zvex Mastotron: I owned one and built one after I regretted selling it, and I gave that to a friend. I will probably get another, one of the greatest and most original dirt pedals I have heard.

some Roger Mayer thing with Voodoo in the name: really boring and weak, not quite as bad as the JHS, but not good

Gamechanger Plasma Pedal: This wasn't a traditional fuzz, but the sounds were in the fuzz camp more than anything. It sounded great, but was tough to use in a band context.

I mentioned the tone wicker Muff in the OP, but I have had other muffs over the year and never liked them, an old triangle Muff, a Swollen Pickle and. a BYOC clone. All the mod versions (extra controls on Pickle, tone control mods on BYOC, extra switches on tone wicker) do help, but none fix the caps-too-big and choked-because-of-diodes problems, IMO.

DIY stuff I made that I liked include assorted fuzz faces (silicon, GE and hybrid) and the Bazz fuzz. 2 Bazz fuzzes in series in the same box sound good, too.

Part of my problem with some fuzzes may be that I use humbuckers that are too hot, though splitting them works. I am currently about to set up a guitar I don't use all the time with some weaker pickups.

[01010111]

If you like the velcro sound of the fuzz factory, you should try the wolf computer. It works well with high output picks, and it can be really open or velcro-y depending on the settings. The builder makes a batch every year or so, but they've also listed the circuit on their instagram (it's pretty simple because it's just a modified bass fuzz clone).

disclaimer: I am heavily biased. The wolf computer is my desert island pedal and it's been my main fuzz for about 15 years.

[le lambin]

I hate to say it but I normally don’t know what to do with fuzz except play an F power chord and then an E power chord. And then an F power chord again.

I do use a Fairfield ~900 regularly but in spitty drive mode. I have a percolator clone I built that is insanely high gain and doesn’t get much use. Ditto with the Infanem Driving Notion clone- though that one is pretty sick when cranked. Again, though- I’m just power chording it all day.

I do want to try that EAE x Obstruxtures fuzz though- and the new DBA Octave Clang. That shit sounds nice lower gain.

[echorec]

Has anyone sampled the Tampco All-Bender? (no hits for Tampco in the search engine) It's supposed to bundle the MK1 through the MK4. My only true Bender experience is the Marq Won by Basic Audio, which I have no plans to unload.

https://tampco.fr/en/effect-pedals/26-all-bender.html

[gila_crisis]

Dead Air Project V clone: This was pretty great, probably shouldn't have sold it, though they aren't unobtanium and the even cooler looking Project clone by Ghost Effects appears for sale occasionally. Despite the Dead Air having the bias pots on the front, it was mostly useful for a smooth and rich fuzz. It didn't do anything too impolite, but that's fine, it does that very well.

That's a fuzz I have on the radar, as it seam to be able to cover lots of sounds from full and muffed up to gated and destroyed.
I used to have a MAE Maybe? that I almost regret selling, but I got some Yes & No pcbs directly from MAE so I will put together my own clone soon.

Some fuzzes I enjoy a lot lately are:
- BSRI Audio TFZ (now Impossible Colors)
- Fender Hello Kitty Fuzz (despite the name and the pink finish... it rips!)
- BSRI&MAE Maybe the real treasure... (this is totally Berserk!!!)
- Gehirn Enterprises Noiswasp
- MASF Epilepsy (my classic OVER BERSERK fuzz to go for doom & noise)
- Electrograve Ripper
-. DIY Clone of the Lastgasp 88 oscillofuzz

[friendship]

I hate to say it but I normally don’t know what to do with fuzz except play an F power chord and then an E power chord. And then an F power chord again.

I'm not hearing a problem.

[coldbrightsunlight]

Has anyone sampled the Tampco All-Bender? (no hits for Tampco in the search engine) It's supposed to bundle the MK1 through the MK4. My only true Bender experience is the Marq Won by Basic Audio, which I have no plans to unload.

https://tampco.fr/en/effect-pedals/26-all-bender.html

Never heard of that one before but it's a cool idea.

[sutarappa]

\
On clipping diodes, hard clippers beat soft clippers for me. Rat, Boneshaker, Carcosa, Bosstone variants. Heck, even an Electra derivative. All feel better under the fingers to me than a Big Muff or Tube Screamer. Something about clipping in the feedback loop looses touch response and gets smeary but not in a good way.

That makes sense. I think on the muff I modded, pulling the first set of diodes and changing the second to LEDs is a big part of what makes it more fun to play now.

The mods sound cool. Does the Tone Wicker Big Muff have "normal" components or surface mount?

[Phosphene Audio]

\
On clipping diodes, hard clippers beat soft clippers for me. Rat, Boneshaker, Carcosa, Bosstone variants. Heck, even an Electra derivative. All feel better under the fingers to me than a Big Muff or Tube Screamer. Something about clipping in the feedback loop looses touch response and gets smeary but not in a good way.

That makes sense. I think on the muff I modded, pulling the first set of diodes and changing the second to LEDs is a big part of what makes it more fun to play now.

The mods sound cool. Does the Tone Wicker Big Muff have "normal" components or surface mount?

In the TW, the caps and diodes are though hole, so it's easy. One of the caps is between the switches, so it's a little tight, but not too bad.

Oddly, in the regular Muffs that are the same size as the TW, the caps are through hole, but the diodes are SMD, so I personally wouldn't mess with it.

BIg box Muffs are all through hole, AFAIK.

Honestly, one could probably just change C1 and pull the first set of diodes and see how it sounds, but I have no regrets going a little further.

I am keeping the TW one for mysel (I modded a couple of big box ones that a friend is trying at the moment), the mods in combination with the switches make it way more flexible.

[Phosphene Audio]

Has anyone sampled the Tampco All-Bender? (no hits for Tampco in the search engine) It's supposed to bundle the MK1 through the MK4. My only true Bender experience is the Marq Won by Basic Audio, which I have no plans to unload.

https://tampco.fr/en/effect-pedals/26-all-bender.html

This is a pretty wild demo of that, definitely not the sleepy blues-rock licks that make fuzz demos interminable:

https://youtu.be/h14QacTtHF8?si=u9GjnlIFxTSQYSOQ