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Hi Guys

I've not been playing that long and I'm now branching out and getting into fuzz pedals (yet to get one but thinking of Devi Ever Hyperion). I've seen on a lot of youtube demos that most players seem to use a clean channel on their amp and let the fuzz pedals do all the ..er... fuzzing. Is this the norm?

I have a Marshall VS100 with three channels (two are overdrive channels). Would I be wise to stick to the clean channel? or mix the OD channels of the amp with the fuzz?

Opinions and advice on this would be great.

Many thanks

Smarty

Fuzz into distortion sometimes works, sometimes doesn't.

If I want a base to let the pedal shine through, then it's got to be a clean amp.

And I can more readily get the sounds I want from a clean amp - since ironically I often play dead clean with at most a little delay - than I can from a dirty one.

Can add dirt to anything, but can't take it away if it's there.

Yep, get what you mean. Is that why alot of the guys on the forum have 3-4 fuzz pedals, so they can get a variety of fuzz textures but not have them clouded by amp distortion?

No idea why other people have what they have.

I have a board with a dozen fuzzes, and another equivalent amount not on the board, plus rack and other gear.

I have the stuff because I like what it sounds like, and I want that to be transmitted in a way that I expect it to be - coloration from the amp simply that, not destroying what I've built on its own.

Smarty wrote:Yep, get what you mean. Is that why alot of the guys on the forum have 3-4 fuzz pedals, so they can get a variety of fuzz textures but not have them clouded by amp distortion?

Partially I suppose but it's probably mostly the fact that we all have a very serious problem.

Anyway, some fuzzes don't mind a little bit of dirt on the amplifier itself, some like a pristine clean amp to go into.

On the subject of the Hyperion, you're probably gonna want to keep it on the clean channel. It's got more than enough fuzz as it is.

GardenoftheDead wrote:

Smarty wrote:Yep, get what you mean. Is that why alot of the guys on the forum have 3-4 fuzz pedals, so they can get a variety of fuzz textures but not have them clouded by amp distortion?

Partially I suppose but it's probably mostly the fact that we all have a very serious problem. <---this cracked me up!

Anyway, some fuzzes don't mind a little bit of dirt on the amplifier itself, some like a pristine clean amp to go into.

On the subject of the Hyperion, you're probably gonna want to keep it on the clean channel. It's got more than enough fuzz as it is.

Yeah, the Hyperion was sounding pretty raucous on the fuzz box girl's demo I recently watched but it also sounded like it had a bit of versatility to it. I'm mainly into shoegaze/dreampop sound textures but also like a bit of a White Stripes style gentle fuzz tone every now and then. Some of Devi's other fuzz pedals sounded insane and I don't know whether I've technically good enough yet to make proper use of them.

With my VS100 I've mainly been using the OD1 channel as a mild crunch foundation and them jumping to the OD2 with gain cranked up for distortion.

GardenoftheDead wrote:

Smarty wrote:Yep, get what you mean. Is that why alot of the guys on the forum have 3-4 fuzz pedals, so they can get a variety of fuzz textures but not have them clouded by amp distortion?

Partially I suppose but it's probably mostly the fact that we all have a very serious problem.

For me it's just nice to have different textures at my disposal

Smarty wrote:Is that why alot of the guys on the forum have 3-4 fuzz pedals, so they can get a variety of fuzz textures but not have them clouded by amp distortion?

YES... I have 20 Fuzz's just from Tom Fuzzhugger... Clean is the way to go, check out some of the builders here, they all have Fuzz Pedals that are versatile and AWESOME!!!

I think you need a tubey amp with whatever voicing you prefer. Some people prefer to run fuzz into a slightly gritty amp. It's been a little while since I had a real analog fuzz, but it usually sounds nice to push the tubes a bit. I certainly wouldn't rule out amps that can do their own distortion, but ones that have a nice clean tone are where you want to aim.

In the past I found solid state amps tend to make fuzz pedals sound rather harsh and abrasive on many settings. YMMV.

HeavyXIII wrote:
In the past I found solid state amps tend to make fuzz pedals sound rather harsh and abrasive on many settings. YMMV.

Weird confession: I actually like Z.vex Fuzz Factories better going through solid state bass amps.

But yeah, I think upgrading your amp is probably a good idea, but that's not the question you asked and mine is not to judge.

I run my amp slightly grindy, then bash the front end with dirt.
It sings like a goddamn grizzly in heat.
It's all about combinations, some amps will work well dirty with fuzz and others won't.

HeavyXIII wrote:In the past I found solid state amps tend to make fuzz pedals sound rather harsh and abrasive on many settings. YMMV.

Depends a ton on the amp.

I run my not small board through my choice of tube or SS amps, depending on what sound I want.

Most of the time these days it's SS amps, simply because I have an absolutely stupid model of my Deluxe worked out that I can't tell the difference on for the vast majority of stuff.

But even in the old days, the right fuzz through a Roland Jazz Chorus is a truly blissful, evil monster.

I love loud fuzz through a good amount of overdrive, almost distortion, on the amp

Beginners use fuzz into overdriven amps. That smoothes out the fuzz. When you are addicted you start smashing multiple fuzzes into fucking loud clean amps.

All my tube stuff is in storage in the wrong country, so I've been solidstating it up for the past few years.

Peavey rage: everything sounds shit in front of this amp. For whatever reason I can get the input to clip more when I use a JFET buffer than when I go straight into the amp. The weird thing is, the JFET buffer has ca 0,97 gain = it should be (and is) slightly quieter, and should give better headroom into the amp (it clips). Weird. Even The Elements sounds horrid into the Peavey. Which is in itself an achievement.

I also have a Lab Series L11 head as my gigging amp. 200 watts, using the clean channel exclusively. Fuzz sounds great into it. On the other hand, you can't drive the input too hard - with a tube amp some dudes like smashing the input with fuzz, which means that the fuzz is generating additional overdrive/distortion. I tried the mini brute Gnomertron and it had so much output that it sounded like ass whatever I did. It drove the amp into "bad clipping territory" - which can also occur with a tube amp, depends on how you like your clipping. On the other hand, if I run fuzzes so that they have a similar gain to the clean signal, or a little bit boosted, everything sounds great through this amp.

There aren't a whole lot of newly made solid state guitar amps that are really well designed any more - I think it's due to the technology being so cheap that the type of design really suited cheap amps, and so the market was flooded with cheap amps after the initial fascination with the technology (and the good amps, such as the Lab Series, that were a result of that). Thus, anyone after a good amp looked at tubes, and there was never really a market for awesome solid state guitar amps. Tube amps haven't come down a lot in price until recently, and mostly then as a result of outsourced labour. The difference between a tube amp that sounds ass and a solid state is that the nature of tubes is such that if there isn't too much other crap in the circuit pushing them will produce a distortion that is generally interpreted as pleasing, regardless of the design/tube, whereas solid state can sound like Dr ScientistThe Elements or a Boss DS-1. *

Test how things sound with the VS100, but personally I'd run fuzz into the clean channel at close to unity gain.

I'll probably get a tube amp again as I miss the additional harmonics and that little bit of distortion inherent in even a clean signal (few tube amps are linear amplifiers any more), but I'm more than happy with fuzz + solid state.

* This paragraph is built on gross generalisation and unfounded speculation