So, Fuzz

[alexsga]

Speaking of fuzz, and the above mentioned Schaller- has anyone dove into the pedals Fredric Effects makes? A shop up in Denver carries their whole line and they look really cool in the flesh- especially the slanted block of cheese boxes. They have a percolator that looks pretty cool, and some versions of the Companion fuzzes and other vintage noise saws.

i had the Percolator, was awesome

[alexsga]

this one

[dub]

Tim’s a good dude, loves his weirdo East German gear.

I should really get one of his pedals one of these days.

[Confuzzled]

I had to fix my shin-ei landmine fuzz this weekend. such splattery fuzzy goodness.

[dubkitty]

back when i first got started with all this i was interested in the Shin-Ei circuits, but decided that that sound didn't work for me. that was back when Fredric only had a couple of pedals, so i had a run through the site just now and rather like the small box Unpleasant Companion and Percolator. i like the simplest versions without bells, whistles, or great big enclosures. still not sure whether either is right for me, but i'm interested. thought the East German preamp was kind of nifty. like the Zappa filter box, but i'm already up to my tootelum in filter pedals.

[le lambin]

I had to fix my shin-ei landmine fuzz this weekend. such splattery fuzzy goodness.

Read this and thought of those landmine pedals:

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/Landm ... _EQAvD_BwE

Anyone have experience with these weirdos? I always see the distortion and chorus out in the wilds.

[le lambin]

Hey fuzz lords I need your help. I’m looking for a fuzz device- really a gain device but I think fuzz is my category. Here is what I’m looking for:

-I like lower gain sounds, like the Fairfield JFET stuff or console-type distortion. I particularly like a bias control to make things splatty. Not a huge fan of high gain, “liquid lead” shit
-I like octave sounds. Up or down or both, all cool.
-I like full frequency gain, lots of bass and treble. Again, overdriven mixers, Hudson Broadcast type sounds. Kind of gross and clangy.

My spidey sense tells me the new Fairfield 20% More is a good candidate- but it’s a lot of moolah and does all kinds of shit- I may get lost. I also noticed the Red Witch Fuzz God 4 (?) that has an octave switch and I know gets splatty.

Y’all are way more educated on this subject than I- am I overlooking a classic? I’d love something simple like a Boss pedal that ticks all the boxes, but that’s probably asking for too much. Any and all suggestions/criticisms are welcome.

[Blackened Soul]

All I remember about the land mines is the distortion was considered one of the better extreme metal pedals at the time they came out.. along the lines of the DOD fx86 deathmetal.. not many dug the size/shape.. for me they seemed pricey at that time as you could still get dods and boss hm2s pretty cheap

[Gone Fission]

All I remember about the land mines is the distortion was considered one of the better extreme metal pedals at the time they came out.. along the lines of the DOD fx86 deathmetal.. not many dug the size/shape.. for me they seemed pricey at that time as you could still get dods and boss hm2s pretty cheap

The H&K Warp Factor? https://equipboard.com/items/hughes-kettner-warp-factor Definitely a dark horse though I’ve seen a few randos praise it years back.

[Gone Fission]

Hey fuzz lords I need your help. I’m looking for a fuzz device- really a gain device but I think fuzz is my category. Here is what I’m looking for:

-I like lower gain sounds, like the Fairfield JFET stuff or console-type distortion. I particularly like a bias control to make things splatty. Not a huge fan of high gain, “liquid lead” shit
-I like octave sounds. Up or down or both, all cool.
-I like full frequency gain, lots of bass and treble. Again, overdriven mixers, Hudson Broadcast type sounds. Kind of gross and clangy.

My spidey sense tells me the new Fairfield 20% More is a good candidate- but it’s a lot of moolah and does all kinds of shit- I may get lost. I also noticed the Red Witch Fuzz God 4 (?) that has an octave switch and I know gets splatty.

Y’all are way more educated on this subject than I- am I overlooking a classic? I’d love something simple like a Boss pedal that ticks all the boxes, but that’s probably asking for too much. Any and all suggestions/criticisms are welcome.

Not on octave, maybe not gross and clangy, and likely spendier than you want, but some of this gets me thinking Lauren Audio’s Mustang and B100 pedals which are flexible, good sounding flavors of console-ish preamp pedals that will fuzz. The B100 is the germanium flavor and does some of the crumbly sound characteristics you would hear in a vintage FF or Tonebender, whereas the Mustang comes off more “normal” to me, though not in a bad way. Kept both.

[dubkitty]

i have MK II and MK III Tonebender clones. i prefer the MK III, but you might find the MK II more to your taste.

i also recently got the Animals Pedal Vintage Van Driving Is Very Fun, a Bluesbreaker-based circuit with a very wide gain range.

[Gone Fission]

Joe Gore’s Vintage Fuzz Detective video on YouTube went through demos of a bunch of DIY-ed vintage germanium fuzz circuits, and despite the conventional wisdom I remember digging the MK 3 and MK 4 Tonebenders more than the MK 2. Caveat that these weren’t tweaked and fine tuned versions as you would find from a bunch of builders in this lane. The apparent range in MK 1 variants people are making gives me option anxiety on dipping my toes in.

[dubkitty]

the MK III has a tone control, which makes all the difference for me. i'm completely confused by the number of MK I variants there are out there.

it just occurred to me that some fuzz that i have a hard time with due to the high-pass filter effect would be much more likeable run through my GE-7/GEB-7. sometimes i'm really slow on the uptake when it comes to using stuff i'm not accustomed to. i bought the Boss EQs to use when looping back in the Cretaceous Era.