Belated NFD!
Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 9:51 pm
So this came in Thur. before work and I got to play with it briefly. At first I was surprised at the output, it seemed weak. So I adjusted the bias, and voila. It's not a hot pedal, but once you get the volume above 2:30-3:00 you start boosting your signal a bit depending on the bias setting. Options I got are on/off pot, yellow LED, top mount jacks, high gain white dot NKT275 trannies.
With a little volume, and my P90 Jr into the Tremoverbs clean channel it sounded awesome, and I totally got the hype. This is definitely the best sounding Fuzz Face I've ever played. It's incredibly rich, juicy, and smooth once the fuzz is set over 3:00. But it still retains a nice bite.
On first plug in I was immediately glad I opted for the brighter high gain whites over the low gain whites or high gain reds. I don't think anything darker/smoother would've worked for my rig and the music I play. It's got plenty of smokey dark crackling thick fuzz with the volume and fuzz set high in the higher bias settings.
I got to take it with the Tremo and 4x12 with alnico Fanes/G12H(55)'s out to the garage the Fri. night, and really open up the amp jamming with my buddy for a few hours. Fuck me, this thing is just ridiculously delicious.
I played it straight up into the clean channel, but with the clean channel set up like a NMV with gain low but not pristine clean (like 11:00) and the power section pushed pretty hard (2:00).
With the fuzz just at or a little above 3/4 and the volume near max I got an awesome thick but biting fuzz, but backing down the volume on the Jr cleaned everything right up, and gave me gorgeous sparkling clean with nice responsiveness to touch. A little extra attack ads grit and texture. What was impressive was that the clean up didn't neuter the tone/volume at all. It was still loud, and rich sounding.
It's definitely more responsive than the Twin Bender to cleanup/touch. The Twin Bender does clean up some, but it's a ruder sound by far. The Twinbender on the Mk 1.5 Fat setting does cop a lot of the same vibe too, but again it's a coarser splattier ruder fuzz, with more aggressive attack to the notes.
Not that the Sun Face doesn't cut through, once again I'm glad I chose the brighter high gain tranny option. If you're looking at these and your amp is on the smoother/darker side, definitely go with the high gain white dot, or maybe the similar sounding TIUK if you don't want to spend the extra $$$. That's (TIUK) what Brian (sp?) at Analog Man originally recommended to me on the phone.
