Suggest a fuzz to try please - fuzz war like

[andrew00]

Heya,

I've been trying to find a fuzz and would appreciate some suggestions please. I'm looking for something that goes from garage rock to psychedelic to just huge.

Bands I like include early Pink Floyd, from Pipers to Pompeii (selmer t+b dimed, fuzz face), early Stooges (superfuzz, si fuzz face), Velvet Underground (i think an ac30 and vox treble booster), to modern bands like Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees (fuzz wars).

I've got a DBA Interstellar Overdrive Deluxe atm, which has an octave fuzz (that doesn't really sound too octavy) which is nice and vintage sounding, but dark and doesn't have any tone options to tweak it. I've also used a DBA Fuzz War which I liked for how big and present it could sound, literally just attacks you. But I didn't like how it was just so fizzy and metal sounding.

I quite liked turning the fuzz war and the iod's fuzz on at the same time. The fuzz war gave that all over growl and the iod's fuzz gave the mid feeling so it wasn't so scooped. I don't really want to have to use two fuzzes at once though, and this setup was really 0-100 where it'd be nice to be able to dial it back sometimes so it's less apocalyptic.

My current setup is a Strat into a Fender brownface Princeton ('62 Stapleton), which is great, and I use a Hudson Sidecar (808 circle with active +/- eq) with the gain at 0 and tone at 3 or even 0, basically it cuts treble and bass to bring lots of mids out, and gives a nice garage rock style guitar when 'clean'.

Because of this I am killing some of the dynamics of the fuzzes, so I need to be able to tweak it so it can still punch through despite me kinda nerfing it somewhat.

So I'm looking for a fuzz that can do nastiness and just big fuzz, can also be tamed if needed, and that has tweaking options so I can get it to push through my somewhat weird setup and actually stand out. Anyone got any ideas?

[D.o.S.]

It's kind of 'boring', but have you tried a Fuzz Factory?

If you like Big Muffs there are quite a few tweakable Big Muffs out there. The gold standard is the Musket, but that's discontinued.

[andrew00]

I've not actually no, I did think of it but I read recently someone say it's got a sound and is kinda hard to not get that sound, and that put me off a bit!

[fcknoise]

I've not actually no, I did think of it but I read recently someone say it's got a sound and is kinda hard to not get that sound, and that put me off a bit!

Both fuzz factory and musket can do very many sounds. If you like fuzz faces I think the Team Awesome Fuzz Machine could suit you well also, which is essentially a FF, or was, at one point in its life.

That attacking sound is psuhing a big muff. Musket can do it with the pregain boost, but you can boost the shit out of any muff you like and get some similar sounds. A muff with mids control punches through, thats what that knob is for

[MechaGodzilla]

mate, i reckon what you need is
a larger amp

or to set your EQs on the amp+sidecar a bit flatter, so you're letting more low-end heft through as opposed to mostly mids. tbh i love the fuzz on the broadcast, it's full-on but not huge and boomy (which i would say the fuzz war **is**, or at least can be with filter below halfway).

[andrew00]

Yeah part of the issue is I really like the sound of the Sidecard with the cut. It takes the strat into this dirty middy garage rock guitar that sounds really cool. I actually didn't get the Sidecar to do that effect, it was almost a mistake, it just sounds great like that. But yeah it does then have the problem of nerfing the other sounds that come after it.

[frigid midget]

I tried hard to like the fuzz factory; but it's really finnicky and unpredictable, and imo it's got just a really limited range of tones that don't squeel out on you or run off into unwanted oscillation noise...

I found the Mastrotron to be a more useable version of the ff. Not as in more civilised or less gnarly, to the contrary actually. Tons of low ends, plenty of grit, super tweakable,...
Put that in front (or after) your favorite muff and you should be able to cover a helluva lot of ground. Any of the cheap new ehx ones will do. I went with the Opamp version, zero regrets. The Musket would be a great choice as well. Didn't care too much for all the 'subtle' controls myself. It's a pet peeve of mine, but a 'focus' control on a simple fuzz peda...Is a bit gimmicky and silly imo. I know though, I'm weird that way. The musket sounds great, tons of gain, decent eq,...But there's plenty easier available alternatives these days. Everyone and their mother builds tweakable Muff variants.

Don't know if you have looked into tonebender type pedals? My go-to swiss army knife, my only fuzz pedal that can go from 60s garage to stoner rock: Function F(x) Clusterfuzz. The jr version in particular, great stuff.

I'm not familiar with the sidecard btw. The best pedalboard in the world can sound meh when it's going into an amp that doesn't match well for your style and taste

[D.o.S.]

Clusterfuzz is a great shout actually.

[qersty]

I think mechagodzilla is right on this, you need a bigger amp. Like the key to good fuzz (the old school way) is more the stuff around the fuzz. Fuzzes back in the day were used to drive a cooking amp even harder with the addition of fuzz. But like i think a right eq:d fuzz face would work ok with the princeton, fuzz factory too but it may get tinny when you roll back your volume, the gated sounds are bigger tho so that may not be an issue.

How hard are you hitting your princeton tho? tiny fenders dimed is the BEST FUZZ EVAR. I run an 18v power booster into my deluxe and it is nasty!

[coupleonapkins]

I quite liked turning the fuzz war and the iod's fuzz on at the same time. The fuzz war gave that all over growl and the iod's fuzz gave the mid feeling so it wasn't so scooped. I don't really want to have to use two fuzzes at once though, and this setup was really 0-100 where it'd be nice to be able to dial it back sometimes so it's less apocalyptic.

Most huge fuzz tones (at least the modern ones) are the sounds of a boost -> fuzz, which can be more versatile than you'd think (John Dwyer used a Blackface Twin Reverb + a Musicman (but now a Dual Showman & another Showman!), and Ty used a Twin until he moved onto a Super Reverb). I loved the sounds on my IOD as a basis for building up with other dirt, which is what a few people have already said (a fry-the-egg amp tone is a good place to start, but I'm not sure if that particular Princeton can do that, since I remember the OG's excelled at that in the higher volume levels, and the Silverface reissue broke up at lower volumes), but now I usually will grab any boost I have around (usually a Dirge of some sort). Anyway, the Musket is essentially an EHX LPB-1 into a Muff in one box, so if you just need the one, there are endless variations on that theme (i.e. the DBA Thee Fuzz War Overload). However, a one knob dirty boost could do a whole lot, too, save a more expensive route of getting a new amp (always a great option, still, but, yeah).

[ALLisNOISE]

Alright, with your Stapleton, you’ve got a lot more mids than what we typically think of with the “Fender” sound.
Then, you’re pummeling it with the Sidecar; a lows snipping, mid bumping, 808 flavored boost.
Depending on where you’re setting the volume on each one, it doesn’t really leave a lot of “room” for much else.
You already know it’s hobbling your dynamics, so I’d say reevaluate how you approach your gain staging, so it doesn’t turn to mush when you kick on an additional pedal.

What I would do (as the lucky owner of a 63 Bassman, I think we’re in similar tonal territory) is plug into Input 2, nudge the volume up on the amp a little higher than you’re typically comfortable with, then compensate by pulling the volume back on the Sidecar... maybe even give your pinky a workout by riding the volume on the guitar too, if you don’t already. This is essentially “underdriving” and should free up some headroom on your amp for the fuzz pummels!
I LOVE Muffs on my Bassman… but I also love them on ANYthing else too, so your mileage may vary.
Specifically, I think that the Sidecar pushing a lower gain Muff, like a Ram’s Head variant or a Jumbo Bender (what the Fuzz War is based on), would give you a satisfying (and balanced) wall of fuzz with ample volume.
You may wanna shy away from any of the more sub-heavy Muffs like the Russians and the Triangles, as that extra low end would just turn into square wave soup at the input of the amp.
If it isn’t already, you can also put your amp up on a stand, for more clarity.
This will angle it towards your and the audience’s ears and decouple it from the floor, clearing up even more subby mud.
Also, pulling it away from the wall can help with standing waves coming from the back of the cab that cause phasing issues and anemic performance.

Sorry to blast you with EVERYTHING but fuzz recommendations,
but I think you’ve got a fairly good setup for the tones you want to achieve (although the Interstellar OD was always a tad bright for my tastes... ), and I think that paying attention to those little things that you (anyone!) never think to check for goes a long way to being happier with your tone in the long run!

[coldbrightsunlight]

Definitely second the boosted muffs and the clusterfuzz.