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Hellos

I've wanted an Algal Bloom forever and have finally just now gotten around to procuring one—my V2 came yesterday. I really, really dig the sound of it so far.

After messing around with it for a little bit, I was struck by how surprisingly (or maybe not surprisingly, considering their rep) nuanced and interactive the controls are compared to pretty much all other fuzzes I've ever played. I've never really felt compelled to ask how other people tune in sounds, rather usually opting to just search/dial on my own, but the AB really got me wondering.

How do you use yours? I feel like I've only really scratched the surface, but I think I gravitate towards the mid to low saturation settings—so much really nice graininess to the tone, and I'm pretty much in love with the note separation on chords at all settings. Gain vs. Bloom—how have you noticed these interacting? Is Bloom bias? Starve also behaves in a way that I didn't expect...

So yep, felt like I'd approach this one as a total noob and just fish for some advice/tales of happy usage. Much appreciated! I've also attached a clip me fairly aimlessly wanking around with the V2 today.

Hey! really nice sounding clip/playing
i just had some emails with Tom about gettin' one of these in my life. can't wait!

Much appreciated!

You'll really enjoy it... I honestly can't believe it took me this long to finally buy one. I'll just lie and pretend I was waiting for the V2

I have an Algal Bloom XS+. I have a V2 on the way. My settings that I like on the Algal are gain maxed, I use it as a main dirt. Absolutely the best fuzz pedal I have found, it always inspires me to new sounds.

tuj wrote:I have an Algal Bloom XS+. I have a V2 on the way. My settings that I like on the Algal are gain maxed, I use it as a main dirt. Absolutely the best fuzz pedal I have found, it always inspires me to new sounds.

Cool! So do you have Bloom maxed as well, and Starve on full voltage?

I've been itching to try out a fuzzhugger for a while and am debating between a doom bloom or an algal bloom. I love my Pharaoh and would be interested in a Bloom for heaviness, but not only heaviness. Can anyone comment on how the Algal Bloom may stack up against a Pharaoh? I'm intrigued by the Doom Bloom, but info on that pedal is still scarce, and the Algal Bloom is so widely praised for it's versatility.

popvulture, ill check out your clip this evening when I get home from work and I will talk a bit about how I use my blooms. I have two v1s that have mods and I love them so!

krr149, I cannot go into specifics on the doom bloom, I don't own one but I got to play with an early proto and there was a fuzzhugger tour box in 2014 that had the production doom bloom, but I can tell you its a bassier/darker tone than the regular algal bloom. if you do baritone or lower tuning and aren't interested in some of the treble splatter the doom bloom might be the way to go. you can shoot tom an email and he will get back to you. it might take a couple days but he will get back to you.

popvulture wrote:

tuj wrote:I have an Algal Bloom XS+. I have a V2 on the way. My settings that I like on the Algal are gain maxed, I use it as a main dirt. Absolutely the best fuzz pedal I have found, it always inspires me to new sounds.

Cool! So do you have Bloom maxed as well, and Starve on full voltage?

Starve at 9-o-clock
Bloom at 3-o-clock
Color at minimum (I believe this is fully silicon clipping)
Gain maxed
Volume to taste.

magiclawnchair, thanks for the response! I appreciate it. I think I'm leaning towards the algal bloom and sticking to my trusty Pharaoh for the heavy tones.

Yeah, the Pharaoh is a muff type pedal, right? So naturally a good bit heavier...

In some instances (I believe on the FH site) I've heard the AB described as a unique fuzz circuit... in others I've heard it described as a silicon Fuzz Face variant. It does sorta fit the bill for the latter—lots of nice overdrive character/volume knob cleanup, but a good bit of snarl on tap.

Whatever the case, I think you can get a great deal of toanz out of the AB.

I am pretty sure the Algal is at least several iterations removed from the Fuzz Face, if not a totally unique take. Not really sure... I get just the best tone out of the XS+, I'll record a demo this afternoon maybe. I haven't had the chance to play a Pharaoh to compare, nor have I played a Doom Bloom, but from what I hear, the Doom is great on bass but a little loose on guitar. As far as my take on heavy goes, I like the Supercollider set on LED clipping; that sounds just massive to me.

Oh for sure, I'd definitely say it was far down the line evolution wise (if not totally unique), was more just wondering about ancestry for comparison's sake. I find that a lot of people pigeonhole pedals due to how they relate to any number of the classics - usually FF / Muff / Bender etc, but I was more just using it to ballpark for heaviness. Knowing that lineage can help a bit, but ultimately just playing/listening will tell.

A buddy of mine who's into super heavy shoegaze / drone / B Standard / Model T kind of thing, and he loves his Doom Bloom. I usually don't dive that much into the low-end heaviness zone in my playing, but I'd still really love to demo a DB sometime... they seem really killer.

It's a fuzz with two transistors.

That's where the fuzz face simarity ends.

Algal is ruleage. Want to get a pimped v2 to go with my v1!

goroth wrote:Algal is ruleage. Want to get a pimped v2 to go with my v1!

Funny. I want a regular V2 to go with my pimped V1.

krr149 wrote:I've been itching to try out a fuzzhugger for a while and am debating between a doom bloom or an algal bloom. I love my Pharaoh and would be interested in a Bloom for heaviness, but not only heaviness. Can anyone comment on how the Algal Bloom may stack up against a Pharaoh? I'm intrigued by the Doom Bloom, but info on that pedal is still scarce, and the Algal Bloom is so widely praised for it's versatility.

Here's a little demo I did between the Doom Bloom and the Pharaoh:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oNS3K6FpRg[/youtube]

Overall the Pharaoh is a lot more versatile, and it does cover a few of the sounds that the Doom Bloom can do. The Doom Bloom can get splattier though, and it's voiced very well for those huge sludge tones. Has a bit more grit, and it's meaner sounding than the Pharaoh. Still has great note separation for chords as well. Honestly I love them both, have them both on my board. I just ordered a Supercollider as well to get it against these two.