Fuzz?

[johnnyfancy]

i had a foxrox fuzz i've used before with the clean and it sounded huge. i'm still kicking myself for selling it but had to. got a big muff tone wicker, sounds okay, but i'm unimpressed by it.

 

[Don]

I am of a fuzz fanatic. I currently have a Fulltone '69, '70 and Octafuzz, a BYOC Tonebender MKII clone and a homemade silicon fuzz. I recently sold my Fuzz Factory and had another '70 Pedal.

Fuzz depends on the amp that it's played trough to sound good.

I don't own a Mark, but have found that fuzz seems to work better with a simple amp like my tweed Deluxe clone or Ampeg Jet when the amp is cranked up a bit rather than a more complex amp like my Express 5:50.

 

[scumcity]

While not strictly a fuzz...kind of an od/fuzz, the Keeley Fuzz Head sounds pretty kickass through not only R-1 on my Mark IV but R-2 with a bit of amp gain. there are a lot of options with this pedal (just like the amp!) its a tweekers delight. You can crank the fuzz and the gain(head) for a fulltone 70 kinda fuzz (on the SI setting)...or you can back the fuzz down and keep the gain(head) up into R-2 on the amp and its a wooley overdrive.(kind of like Blue Cheers version of Summertime Blues or maybe a little Kyuss or Fu-Manchu) very unique sounds too. I use it with an SG standard with burst-buckers and I like it when I want something different. I think that it works with the mark IV better than my Fulltone 70 did.
Of course..like any fuzz pedal you HAVE TO CRANK UP THE AMP so it doesn't sound thin and buzzy...

 

[zebpedersen]

I've always relied on amps (and more, and more, and more amps) for dirt, but I picked up a Big Muff (tone wicker) over the holidays and I'm loving it.

The tone is very different between different amps - I was very surprised about how much, actually. The '80s (red knob) Twin I tried it out on in the shop didn't really sound that hot with it, but when I got it plugged into the Boogies back home it was a different animal. It sounded pretty good through the Mark IV, but really came into its own through the vintage gear - I've got it rigged up with the Mark IIB currently. I find it sounds best with the graphic engaged on the amp.

FWIW I'm not able to play particularly loud where I am at the moment, but honestly the 'Muff sounds 90% as good at low volume as it does when it's in front of a steaming amp.

 

[iFreedom]

I can say that I was NOT a fan of the Catalyst fuzz with the mark V. Stay away. IMO, way to trebley.

 

[Platypus]

George, something of a fuzz fan here... zvex fuzz factory, zvex machine, foxrox octron, skreddy mayo, skreddy ? lady, devi ever shoegazer are currently on my board.

I use them with the C+s as well as the IV. I will say that the IV is better suited as the C+s can get a bit bright. That said, dropping your presence down helps out dramatically.

What kind of fuzz are you looking for? Most of the above are not very musical. That's very subjective though. A lot of people mistakenly think you can get those massive walls of fuzz like smashing pumpkins or my bloody valentine out of a big muff alone and that just isn't the case. The biggest thing is that without proper low end from an actual bass player, fuzz is very harsh by itself. I've tracked tons of tracks with fuzz and it sounds awful without a bass player in the mix for the most part. There are definitely exceptions but it really depends a lot on the fuzz. High output pickups sound like junk with fuzz in my opinion.. something midrange output like LP 57 classics or burstbuckers for example are much better suited. Single coil pickups are also great with fuzz, believe it or not. When I say non musical, I just mean, you're not going to get gobs of sustain out of them, they are a bit finicky depending on the transistor type and your guitar.

The Foxrox Octron is probably the best/most musical pedal in that list above.. it actually DOES do all the things I just typed up that fuzz usually doesn't do. It has a nice midrange to it instead of just obscene bass and treble, it's very smooth, it's very easy to get good sustain and liquid lead tones with it...

I didn't mean to turn this into a fuzz tutorial but I just wanted to make sure you knew what you were getting into. You will fight and wrestle with your tone with a fuzz and get super frustrated but when you 'figure it out' it will fall into place nicely.

Another tip I have is turn your tone knob on your guitar way down or off and then use the pedal's tone control to shape.. it can get might ice picky and shrill in fuzz land.

 

[Neptical]

I would think with all the tonal options you have with your Mark, that you would never use your fuzz pedal. :wink:

 

[Platypus]

George, I suggest you look into a ZVex Fuzz Factory as it's more of a classic fuzz and beyond type thing. I can conjur fuzz tones from lots of different pedals from that one just by making a hair adjustment to the knobs. They're inexpensive for the non-painted ones and hours of fun (and pain!)

Skreddy makes great pedals, I own two of them. There are a lot of big muff clones out there but I like his the most.

Fuzz is great for lead tones on a clean amp, I find it gets far too muddy with any gain in it. I usually dial a nice round clean tone with a bit of a midrange boost as fuzz usually sucks a bit out of it. Skreddy has a midgain toggle in a lot of his pedals, he'll add it to any of them if you ask. It sounds a bit weird alone but in the mix you will never get lost.

Keeping the volume down on your pickups is another nice little tip, I use fuzz mostly with my gibson 339 and my tele, on the tele I can run the volume a bit higher but on the 339 I keep it around 7.5 or 8. I find the neck or middle pickup selectors to work the best at rounding out some of the harshness fuzz can impart when you're not in a full band situation.

If you want me to drop the Fuzz Factory in the mail so you can play around with it I'd be happy to do that. I don't use it as frequently now that I have like 8 fuzz pedals lol. It's my go-to for sonic mayhem but there are a lot of REALLY great tones in that pedal. I'll attach the massive 3 page settings page I have for it. I'll include my own settings that I like. The best thing about that pedal is that it's by far the most tonally diverse. You can get everything from sputtering fuzz to liquid lead to octave to very 8 bit sounding to choked off, etc. It's the swiss army knife of the set.

 

[johnnyfancy]

dave fox from foxrox is a standup dude, also if you can find an old foxx fuzz,it's one of the nastiest fuzzes in the world,very useful though. also the sobatt fuzz breaker(germanium) is pretty sweet. my faves are the foxrox and vintage foxx tone machines.

 

[iFreedom]

Ok, so I've been looking for a decent fuzz for my V too. I took platypus' advice and tried a fuzzfactory and BINGBONG! What a wicked fuzz. I found this bad boy used too. Anyway, I'm hardly a fuzz expert, but this thing kicks some serious *** with the V but probly any amp. I mean this thing is a monster! Good splatter or simple fuzz. I think she's a keeper, at least for now :lol:

 

[primeholy]

Which fuzz will get you closest to Josh Homme's tone on "Little Sister" (Queens of the Stone Age)?

 

[Platypus]

Which fuzz will get you closest to Josh Homme's tone on "Little Sister" (Queens of the Stone Age)?

Most fuzz pedals will get you there as long as you use a nice thick guitar like a Les Paul style guitar on the neck or middle position with the tone rolled back slightly.

 

[Don]

My Fulltone '70 Pedal is brightest sounding when my guitar's tone control is turned all the way down! It's quite a bit brighter on 1 than on 2!