ilovefuzz.com

Yeah I know, this'll totally win me a "most original thread title of the year" price

Don't particulalrly *need* anything, but it looks like I've got a free spot on my board for something fun. Got a bigger board, and also replaced a big pedal with a small one, yeay:)

Anyway, I'm good on modulation and verb/dlay (or at least I will be if I found the two last toys on my wish list, wich I already reserved the board real estate for). And you can never have too many dirt pedals, right?

Without going into my taste or style of music (totally irrelevant here, trust me), here's what I already plan for my board, so you know what NOT to recommend me:

Hotcake, FZ-2, Mastotron, Elements. The elements might move to my home rig actually. As good as it is, I can put it's versatility to better use at home rather than for my other stuff, which doesn't really need any non-fuzz dirt at all, aside from what the hotcake my amp can give me.

Here's what I'm looking for:

-Small. There's enough gnarly peds out there too chose from, so I can afford to be picky and not make other compromises in terms of pedal board space.
-Different enough the FZ-2 and Mastortron.
-Cheap. Just because I'm convinced I don't have to spend a lot for this extra GAS purchase. I'm not anti-boutique or anything, far from it actually. But I'm not hung up on a particular fashionable brand either, and I dont want and can't spend too much right now.
-Brutal. As you can tell from my current fuzz selection, I'm not into subtelty. So a straight fuzz face clone or whatevr isn't an option here.
-Easily available in the UK/EU, preferably used.
-Nothing that sounds super rad on its own but dissapears as soon as a second instrument joins in. Which is why I don't jive with most muffs of even fuzz face type effects. One thing that my current dirt peds have in common: They cut through, no matter what. Ditched a ton of nice fuzz pedals because they made me dissapear in a loud messy mix. Don't know what it is exactly, but I think I probably want to steer clear from stuff with too much emphesis on one particular frequecy band, or a mid or bass sag or whatever.

One canditate I tought of that might fit the discription and seems like a fun noise maker, even though it may not be super useable, which I'm super fine with:
MXR Blue Box. Modded that is, which apparantly is super easy and turns it from extremely unmusical into something that's still octavy and wild but more 'open', less muddy sounding.

Or maybe some sort of hotrodded tonebender? Don't even know if the mastotron or FZ-2 can do anything remotely tonebender-ish if I tweak and stack em or whatever, but I highly doubt it. Anyway, advice and suggestions in that direction would be appreciated. Other ideas would be great too, I don't really have a clue what to look for except maybe the blue box...

In short -and yeah, srry for rambling on like this- : I'm missing out on octave fuzz goodness, and I'm sure there's other classic shades of fuzz I also don't have covered. I'm not after anything in paricular, as long as it can sound a bit over the top and crazy, in a different way than what I'm used to. You mahfakkas haven't let me down in the past, so I'm sure you'll come through for me once again. Fire away...

imho tonebender mkII are the best variety of/and sounding of the lot....i found the Acid Fuzz version to be my favorite version. that said look into a buzzaround clone, a tonebender with some real hair on its balls, check out Ghost Effects in the UK.

an os mutantes clone would also add some really nice variety, look at fredric effects.

a nice jordan bosstone clone would get you some tasty tones, mahoney makes great clones.

the selmer Buzztone is great, think of early syd barrett...jimmy behan built me a super nice version.

good luck

PS, to keep me bussy untill I get some more ideas for clips to check and what not:

Which is THE blue box version to look for anyway? Vintage = pricey, no led or dc plug? New/dunlop = Just sounds a bit different, and supposedly has a slight volume drop...? So should I just look for a script logo reissue than?

Thanks. What I didn't say, since it's not really a deal breaker or anything, and I didn't want to exclude all the good options from the get go: I'd rather not get a diy clone, or anything else that's not easy to flip with little loss. For obvious reasons that is. I'd be hoarding everything if I could afford to, but the sad reality is that unused stuff has to make place to fund fresh stuff

So yeah, resale value is pretty high up the list too. I'm checking out Ghos Effects as I'm typing this though, and those peds look far from diy or generic, even if they're based on classic cricuits. Thanks for the tip, I'll look into it, as well as those other ones you mensioned.

Edit: If it's acidfuzz.com you're refering to for a good MKII replica I'm afraid I'll have to pass. Dispite the rad lookin vintage-y encosures en undoubtfully ditto sounds, they're not exacly "cheap and easily available on the EU used market"

For Tonebenders, given forum rep, I was surprised as hell that I preferred the mk III to the mk II build in Joe Gore's "Fuzz Detective" video. Individual builders will vary, but that was an eye opener. The mk II seemed a bit too distortion, not enough fuzz for my tastes.

The Buzzaround or related Dizzy Tone is indeed good tip for what I think you're going for. And very versatile. IIRC, Ghost Effects does a clone that's supposed to be awesome.

Rec. #1 Have someone build you an octane. Should meet all of the criteria, gets you into octave territory albeit in the opposite direction of the Blue Box.

Rec. #2. Something from the Tone Machine family. Years (15?!) ago Dano French Toast > FZ-2 > Fender Twin was my rig. Evil. Dano is fine; Dano in TB loop is better; build from someone in the Shark Tank (some of the LaoWiz stuff looks damn sexy) is

Rec. #3. Fryette SAS. I rec this thing in nearly every damn thread and with good reason. It's killer, and there is (afaik) NOTHING else like it. It's not tiny, but not huge (approx 5"x5"); it's not incredibly expensive, going rate is $50-150; they are hard to find as they were made in small numbers and have been discontinued, but it's worth it.

Uncle Grandfather wrote:imho tonebender mkII are the best variety of/and sounding of the lot....i found the Acid Fuzz version to be my favorite version. that said look into a buzzaround clone, a tonebender with some real hair on its balls, check out Ghost Effects in the UK.

an os mutantes clone would also add some really nice variety, look at fredric effects.

a nice jordan bosstone clone would get you some tasty tones, mahoney makes great clones.

the selmer Buzztone is great, think of early syd barrett...jimmy behan built me a super nice version.

good luck

Do you have the Frederic Effects os mutantes?
If so, I'd like to hear a demo from you!

I'd check out the Fuzzhugger stuff.
I have a discount code that you can use if you order direct from Thom.

sylnau wrote: Do you have the Frederic Effects os mutantes?
If so, I'd like to hear a demo from you!

I think he's done a Fredric Os Mutantes demo.

That's a good choice of fuzz.

MEC wrote:I'd check out the Fuzzhugger stuff.
I have a discount code that you can use if you order direct from Thom.

Velcrobot!!!

Chankgeez wrote:

sylnau wrote: Do you have the Frederic Effects os mutantes?
If so, I'd like to hear a demo from you!

I think he's done a Fredric Os Mutantes demo.

That's a good choice of fuzz.

this. its on the youtube page, i'd link to it but I don't know if I know how. Its a great sounding pedal, but its VERY limited in tone sculpting options. It's just a Volume control....but does have a toggle switch that swaps tones from low heavy to high heavy. Even so, it sounds amazing!

oh, it was easy to link. here is by itself
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-9mkUh-l0I[/youtube]

and here it is compared to a creepy fingers build.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYodsqgjwpo[/youtube]

frigid midget wrote:Edit: If it's acidfuzz.com you're refering to for a good MKII replica I'm afraid I'll have to pass. Dispite the rad lookin vintage-y encosures en undoubtfully ditto sounds, they're not exacly "cheap and easily available on the EU used market"

fwiw, i actually bought mine from a nice fellow in Greece for a considerable discount. It sounds so harmonically rich, just incredible. All of the John Curl @ Acid Fuzz pedals that I own are top tier builds and sound like it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3l6N1TEt-M[/youtube]

What I thought of: tone machine or maybe an unpleasant surprise.

If you can find any used Lastgasp Art Laboratories fuzz pedals, i would highly recommend you go for it.
They don't really sound quite like any other brand of fuzz, and tend to sit nicely in a mix.

backwardsvoyager wrote:If you can find any used Lastgasp Art Laboratories fuzz pedals, i would highly recommend you go for it.
They don't really sound quite like any other brand of fuzz, and tend to sit nicely in a mix.

so much this