function f(x) Clusterfuzz / Third Rail [ongoing reviews]

[Tristan]

And now another demo from David Torn, this time it's raunchy good fuzz.

GRMBLWOBWEEPWUBWUBMEAOWBZZZBRMBLTSSSBADDATSJING, that's fantastic!

[culturejam]

So I made my own shitty demo. The first half is just testing out the direct recording "clean tone" of the Yamaha THR10C (which is a fucking amazing piece of gear, btw), and the Clusterfuzz shows up at about 1:30 (comment marks the spot). I don't show much of the full range of the flexibility of tone, but I dialed it in to my sweet spot (which is what I had in mind when I designed the circuit).

Please excuse the shit playing.

[Mrkiammi]

So I made my own shitty demo. The first half is just testing out the direct recording "clean tone" of the Yamaha THR10C (which is a fucking amazing piece of gear, btw), and the Clusterfuzz shows up at about 1:30 (comment marks the spot). I don't show much of the full range of the flexibility of tone, but I dialed it in to my sweet spot (which is what I had in mind when I designed the circuit).

Please excuse the shit playing.

so awesome you have an YAMAHA THR10C, i agree about the yamaha THR10C!! its a killer piece of gear, i use mine more than my tube amp, i use it, with the FLAT "model" and let the pedals do all the work
and it do it very well!!!

Do you have any sweet settings if i want to get that fuzzyness fuzzface wall type of sounds (like gary clark jr or jimi hendrix) ??
or other favorite cluterfuzz settings, you like with THR10C ??

[Chankgeez]

Clip sounds good, culturejam.

I don't show much of the full range of the flexibility of tone, but I dialed it in to my sweet spot (which is what I had in mind when I designed the circuit).

What's your favorite setting there?

[culturejam]

Do you have any sweet settings if i want to get that fuzzyness fuzzface wall type of sounds (like gary clark jr or jimi hendrix) ??
or other favorite cluterfuzz settings, you like with THR10C ??

Funny you mention Gary Clark Jr. We're working on a "Gary Clark Jr in a box" pedal right now. Not sure if we will actually do a full run of it because of the somewhat niche market, but we've got some prototypes done and have tweaked a bit for the next test builds. Most likely, we'll do a run of 20-30 and see what happens.

But for something like that sort of sound (minus the octave) on the Clustefuzz, I would start with 8-bit most of the way up, and then bring up Fuzz until you get the level of gain you want. Should have that "about to meltdown" sound that way.

What's your favorite setting there?

When I first kick it in, I've got it set to my favorite sound out of it (although I like all of what it does). That would be:
Volume - 3 o'clock
Tone - 1 o'clock
Fuzz - 3 o'clock
8-Bit - 10 o'clock
Filter - set to the treble position
Clippers - LED or FET

Then I turn up the Fuzz all the way for maybe 10 seconds, and then I roll the 8-Bit all the way up.

[Mrkiammi]

Sounds very Nice with a Gary Clark in a box
Which clippings for that settings S2?? and what about tone settings ?

[culturejam]

Which clippings for that settings S2?? and what about tone settings ?

The S2 clippers are schottky diodes, which are modern silicon work-alikes to germanium diodes.

The Tone control is a fairly common passive single-pole variable low-pass filter. It's actually very similar to what's in the ProCo Rat.

[Chankgeez]

Volume - 3 o'clock
Tone - 1 o'clock
Fuzz - 3 o'clock
8-Bit - 10 o'clock
Filter - set to the treble position
Clippers - LED or FET

Nice, I'm gonna try this right now.

I was just playing with:

Volume - noon
Tone - fully CCW
Fuzz - 2 o'clock
8-Bit - fully CCW
Filter - set to the left
Clippers - FET

[univalve]

payed for mine today.

[culturejam]

payed for mine today.

Awesome! Did you order from The Sound Lab?

[univalve]

Jupp!

[Chankgeez]

Dis is a little video I made :

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkauUmgXL0M[/youtube]

You are hearing:

Function F(x) Clusterfuzz > Chamber of Sounds ZiNG (Green Ringer) > Dirge boost > ARC Klone

The settings on the Clusterfuzz:

volume: 1:00
tone: noon
fuzz: noon
8-bit: 3:00
filter: to the right
clipping: LED

[tuj]

Got mine today! I think I like the LED or no clipping best right now after a quick play-through, but all the options are GREAT! Love the 8-bit; tell me, what does that control actually do?

[culturejam]

I think I like the LED or no clipping best right now after a quick play-through, but all the options are GREAT! Love the 8-bit; tell me, what does that control actually do?

I prefer LED or FET most of the time.

The 8-Bit control is a limit on how hard the first amp stage drives the second. All the way counter-clockwise, it sounds like a well-biased fuzz (tight, articulate). As you go clockwise, the second amp gets more and more overloaded and starts to get really wooly and loose up to the point were it sounds pretty splatty and synthy (sort of). With 8-bit and Fuzz cranked all the way up, and using a neck pickup, you can also get some octave up in the background (especially playing higher up on the fretboard and/or rolling back your guitar's tone control a bit).

[tuj]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt8jgvcTrXY[/youtube]