The First Fuzz

[Ch0jin]

Well the first one I made anyway..

This is a 1 min clip of my Fuzzface clone. Just wanted to highlight a darker side to the famed germanium fuzzface pedals. This pedal uses the same circuit as the original, however I've used some matched NOS USA made Ge's with more gain than the originals. There's two knobs on this one, vol is at 3pm and fuzz is maxed.

Setup wise, this is as per these pix

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ch0jin/2623773989/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ch0jin/2624637860/

Maton - Jaded Vision 'OMG Grunge!' pedal - Peavey Ultra112 (clean/eq flat)

Amp volume is umm, about 1 sadly. You can hear my picking over the amp haha. You'll just have to imagine how intense that sustain is at volume

http://members.iinet.net.au/~ch0jin/stuff/It%20Fuzz%27s%20in%20the%20Dark.mp3

[Jimi75]

Have you experimented already with the other options your fuzz delivers? Work with less distortion and try to find the sweet spot. Most of the time using a Strat it's quie good to leave the volume poti on about 7-8 to get the best out of it and only crank it for solo work.

The way you played your fuzz is definitely the "dark way" and it is difficult to get a good definition of the sound.

Thanks for the clip anyways, I never had the courage to go all the way with my fuzz :-)

Ah, one more thing. This fuzz seems to have a very good basic sound, so if you mange to put up some more "civilized" clips that would be great.

[Ch0jin]

Hi Jimi,
Yeah I have had that particular pedal for a while as that’s actually the first one I made so I've had a play with quite a few combinations. Just to give you an idea the fuzz control is almost a 3 position switch in the way it works, from off to 70% it's quite fuzzy, after that it's full on fuzz until 90% and if you max the fuzz it's, well, you heard it. As you said though the way to use these in a "civilized" manner would be to go to about halfway on the fuzz and roll you guitar volume up and down. I'm not really that civilized though ;)

The real reason for recording was actually to try out that cool little gimmick mic I received the other day (the little tiny silver one in the pics). Then I thought about how good DVM’s demo of his new tonebender was and wanted to do something different because I came to fuzz not through Fender slinging blues rock guys, but via Gibson toting, hum bucking, stoner rock bands like Monster Magnet, and then subsequently the sounds of the Black Keys and such. As silly as it sounds, I’d intended this pedal to be a “tame” fuzz. Right up until I found the artwork for the pedal that is. I was flipping through some old comics for inspiration and found a cell that exactly fit the top of the pedal and features a girl screaming “Grunge!” a quick change of transistors and a re-bias later and this monster was born.

Now that you’ve replied I can also add “To take the fuzz to places you may not have the courage to go yourself” as a reason for that recording ;)

Anyway, I have another Ge fuzz I'm "tuning" to my liking at the moment, and the post man just delivered me three more pedal kits this morning, so there's a good chance I'll assault your ears with more FX demos over the coming weeks...muhuhhahahahahahah