Page 1 of 1

the classic fuzz + wah question

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2011 11:15 am
by seventstrat
Whats up everyone?

I'm new here, I love fuzz pedals and I've played a bunch of different ones. Currently I'm using a custom made fuzz face clone, the guy who made it makes diabolical devices pedals. Very cool pedal. It's basically a fuzz face with 4 germanium transistors instead of 2.

Anyway I recently picked up a Gig-FX Mega Wah pedal which sounds phenomenal, and right now I'm running the pedals as Wah->Fuzz->Delay. When I play my '76 strat through it, it sounds great. When I play my Gibson LP Studio, it sounds badass but whenever I turn up the volume past say 5, it starts to get all oscilatey.

From what I researched, I think it has to do with the buffer on the wah boosting my already hot signal from the gibson humbuckers too high for the fuzz. I've read about the mods you could do for your wah, but I don't really want to mess with modding my brand new pedal. Does anyone know of any other ways to remedy this?

I figured this would be the place to ask, a forum dedicated to fuzzes! badass!

Re: the classic fuzz + wah question

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2011 11:39 am
by John Lyons
A buffer does not add gain. What it does is isolate the circuitry that come after it.
So usually a buffer is used to keep a guitar bright and at a high input impedance.
In general a buffer before a wah will help with isolation... depends on the circuit though.
The wah itself may be oscillating.
Does the issue only happen with the LP?

Re: the classic fuzz + wah question

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2011 11:44 am
by seventstrat
yeah it's only on the LP. I can play the strat on 10 and its just real fuzzy and nice. Without the wah in the chain, I could play the LP on 10 with the fuzz fine (no oscillation)

Re: the classic fuzz + wah question

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2011 5:55 pm
by John Lyons
Do you have a boss (or another buffered pedal) you can put between the wah and the fuzz (in standby as boss pedals are buffered
in standby as well as "On"). This way you can see how the wah works while being buffered at it's output.

Re: the classic fuzz + wah question

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2011 6:02 pm
by seventstrat
Unfortunately I don't. As of right now I've just been playing with the guitar volume around 5 or less, its basically the same sound as what it sounded like w/o the wah on 10. I guess I really just lost some rollback volume, and gained a weird oscillation effect for free! haha

If you think of anything else that I could try, I'd be down. But I don't have any boss pedals lying around, I've only got the fuzz wah and delay...very minimalist haha

also I checked out some of your pedals, very cool dude.

Re: the classic fuzz + wah question

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2011 7:50 pm
by John Lyons
also I checked out some of your pedals, very cool dude.
Thanks!

Oh, do you have a boss TU2 tuner or other? They Are buffered as well.
Beg, borrow or steal a boss pedal and try it out between the Wah and Fuzz Face.
Not really another way to do it besides another buffered pedal or pulling out a soldering iron...