Analog Alien's FuzzBubble-45

[Brian Johnston]

I communicated my review with one of the developers, Jack Napoli. He replied with some good info:

"As you play more and more with the pedal and you try different guitars through it, you'll find that it becomes more complex, especially the Pete circuit. Pete used HiWatts live for most of his career, but what a lot of players don't know is that some of his most famous sounds in the studio, especially on Who's Next, were done with a 1959 Fender Tweed Bandmaster. That amp's sound and feel is what the Pete circuit was really built around, not a HIWatt. To get that sound you also need the right guitar, in this case a 1959 Gretsch Country Gentleman. If you plug a Gretsch - any Gretsch that has filtertron pickups - into the FB-45 it will scare you. The pedal doesn't cover up the true tone of your guitar, that was very important to Joe and myself when it was still in the design stage. So, grab that Gretsch, and use a good tube amp, an old Fender Black Face or even the right silver face will do, plug into the Pete side and set it for '71 then hit the 'A' power chord to "Won't Get Fooled Again" and you're there! If you play single notes around the chord like he does, you'll hear each note. The Fb-45 has a lot of note definition. A Les Paul will do it too, but the Gretsch is the really deal here. Want "The Real Me"? Take the Gretsch out and use a Tele, it's that simple. The guitar is important and obviously so is the player. You'll never hear a great guitar sound with out a great player behind it. But, I'm sure the more you play around with the pedal the more you'll get a feel for it. You'll wind up playing the pedal as much as you will your guitar and amp."

[Brian Johnston]

The FuzzBubble-45 is one of the most authentic pedals I have used. You can really get those old 60s and 70s 'tube amp breaking up' sounds even at low levels. I put this piece together today (just riffed away) with some Townsend stuff at the beginning and end with some Jimi stuff in the middle. Nothing else was used except an Egnater amp (clean channel) and a Schecter tele style guitar. And any feedback sounds are courtesy of the Vibesware Guitar Resonator (GR-1). I didn't even play around with the knobs that much, which allows quite a variety of tones, distortion and fuzz.

http://profile.ultimate-guitar.com/l...ll/play1027350