ilovefuzz.com

Spill the dang beans. Weave me a rich tapestry of its sound. I'm idly thinking about Fuzzrite type pedals and this one seems like it might be a great modern refinement?

detailed personal opinion: meh

I have merkin. It's great. I think Catalinbread added an extra gain to the vintage Fuzzrite circuit.

yum, yum, yum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMe2Sfe8c9A

p.s. if you're interested in a more direct clone of the Fuzzrite, PM me.

Had it for a short while, wasn't really impressed by it. Felt that it lacked character or whatever. But it didn't suck, you might dig it.

And Elvind August has secretly revealed his opinions of friendship

Haha, yeah.

Nah, if you wanna use it as a kinda stereotypical old-school fuzz for the occasional 60s psych rock or Stooges sound, it would probably do the job. But if you're looking for a great fuzz to use often, I would look elsewhere. I dunno, but remember that I returned it after a couple of days. Might be that I didn't find the sweet spots, but that shouldn't really have been too hard with such a simple layout.

haha "if you're into characterless boring pedals then you'll love it!"

Yeah I thought the Catalinbread video for it didn't make it sound very interesting, but in the Chicago Music Exchange one it sounds pretty different/awesome. Maybe this is a pedal made or broken by amp choice. What do you think, Ro_S?

Merkin fuzz! I would have a hard time putting a pedal on my board named after a pubic wig that hookers used to hide their std,s from the punters. It sounds like a good modern clone of a classic. Though I would get someone on the shark tank to build you a decent fuzzrite clone. I think you would get better value for your money and a better sounding pedal.

KaosCill8r wrote:Merkin fuzz! I would have a hard time putting a pedal on my board named after a pubic wig that hookers used to hide their std,s from the punters. It sounds like a good modern clone of a classic. Though I would get someone on the shark tank to build you a decent fuzzrite clone. I think you would get better value for your money and a better sounding pedal.

Yeah not a bad idea.

There's also the Mahoney Fuzztite (née Acid Tone) which is cheaper and the builder claims to have done a lot of experimenting, hopefully addressing any limitations of the circuit, so that's cool. I wonder how that one is...

Yeah, or check the newly developed Fuzz Righteous from culturejam right here on ILF, it seems pretty badass.

Eivind August wrote:if you wanna use it as a kinda stereotypical old-school fuzz for the occasional 60s psych rock or Stooges sound, it would probably do the job. But if you're looking for a great fuzz to use often, I would look elsewhere.

Are you suggesting that you wouldn't use a Stooges fuzz often, and/or that it isn't a great fuzz?

Eivind August wrote: Nah, if you wanna use it as a kinda stereotypical old-school fuzz for the occasional 60s psych rock or Stooges sound, it would probably do the job. But if you're looking for a great fuzz to use often, I would look elsewhere. I dunno, but remember that I returned it after a couple of days. Might be that I didn't find the sweet spots, but that shouldn't really have been too hard with such a simple layout.

friendship wrote:Yeah I thought the Catalinbread video for it didn't make it sound very interesting, but in the Chicago Music Exchange one it sounds pretty different/awesome. Maybe this is a pedal made or broken by amp choice. What do you think, Ro_S?

Well I love that 60s garage/psych sound, so that's why I appreciate the Merkin so much. It's right up my alley and I'm a pretty rudimentary player and it suits me.

The Merkin is a keeper for me. I also like the Fuzzrite circuit a lot too.

Their applications aren't as versatile as many other fuzzes. But If I had to limit myself to handful of fuzzes, this is one fuzz type I'd certainly want to include.

Catalinbread - and I'd apply this to Earthquaker Devices too - seem to have an excellent design ear for vintage style and musical sounds, so I trust them to do a good job with re-working and improving an old circuit.

I didn't think too much of the Chicago Music Exch demo. Maybe listen to other demos.

I do a couple of Fuzzrite clones; I'll PM you.

Well, the reason I bought it was to get those garage-y Stooges tones and the 60s era psychedelic rock sound. What I meant is that it feels like a boring version of that sound, like something you would hear from a half-arsed coverband or whatever. It wasn't... wild enough? I think what I like about alot of those old school tones are that they have subtle flaws and idiosyncrasies, didn't reallt get that from the Merkin. To me it sounded a bit flat. But as has been mentioned, might have been combination of amp and sucky playing on my part that made it fail for me.

i had one - returned it because i'm a super knob twiddler. I mostly returned it because it was very horrible on bass and (bass) synth. I ended up with a scarab deluxe for those kinda tones