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Not happy with fuzz. What is wrong with me?????

Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 8:03 am
by Jwar
So maybe this should be in general or maybe it should be in gear. I don't know.

Lately (the last several months) I have found myself very unhappy with my fuzz pedals. To the point of not turning them on ever. I actually am bothered by how loud they are and they kind of hurt my ears. It's fucking weird! I god damn love fuzz! But for some reason unknown to me, I'm not loving fuzz right now!!! What the fuck!

So I have about every flavor you can have of fuzz but they are all bottom happy, or seem the same in a way. Maybe that's my issue? Maybe not. A lot of them aren't quite smooth enough and it literally makes me cringe to turn them on where before I was pumped. Is this something anyone else has gone through?

My favorite right now is my Darkglass Duality because it's gated as shit and I can make it do weird stuff, but even that is driving me mad lately.

I find myself playing with a tiny bit of overdrive, delay and maybe some other modulation. Loving the modulation and smoothness of it and the way it doesn't screech at me.


Last night I actually considered pulling my board apart and not using it again. Two weeks ago my light burned out in my basement and I couldn't replace it. I needed to replace the whole fixture (have no clue how to do that! LOL). So I was playing by a tiny light with a phaser, bass whammy and an overdrive. I fucking loved it. I played like that for a whole week, maybe two. Now I find my board to be over complicated and has too many options and my fuzz is annoying.

HELP ME!!!!!!! I feel like I'm failing you brothers and sisters!

Re: Not happy with fuzz. What is wrong with me?????

Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 8:11 am
by sonidero
If it's too loud you're too old Granpa...

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/index. ... y.1607964/

Re: Not happy with fuzz. What is wrong with me?????

Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 8:16 am
by backwardsvoyager
i haven't even owned a fuzz pedal in like six months, you shouldn't feel like you're failing anyone, haha.

if you're really enjoying a simple setup like with the phaser/od/whammy then just embrace it for a while without touching the other stuff, then if you feel like something's actually missing you can add it and if not then you can think about tearing down and selling stuff etc.
i liked having a bajillion pedals on a tidy board in my last band but for writing at home that shit was way too frustrating, i only wanted a bit of distortion, flange, echo and that's it. fuzz was awesome playing through a half stack in a loud room but i can't write on my own with that, it's too much. now if i start or join another band i can work upwards from that based on what feels like it would help rather than trying to make a whole bunch of stuff work at once.

the thing with fuzz too is there is just so friggin many different circuits out there that if one thing doesn't quite work you're on an endless quest trying to find the perfect one for you. that can be a lot of time/money that would maybe be better spent in some instances.

Re: Not happy with fuzz. What is wrong with me?????

Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 8:23 am
by DarkAxel
sonidero wrote:If it's too loud you're too old Granpa...

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/index. ... y.1607964/
read a couple of posts and wanted to reg there just to get instantly banned for cussing them the fuck out

Jwar, don't feel bad, don't fight it, DON'T use the fuzz pedals. It's a phase, trust me - it happens :) and one day you'll feel you want to go back and you will and it will feel just great :thumb:

Re: Not happy with fuzz. What is wrong with me?????

Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 8:24 am
by skullservant
I honestly haven't used fuzz in a good while either. And better yet, I like the drive channel on my amp more than any distortion or overdrive or fuzz that I've used, so it's really cut down my need for those types of pedals. I recently put a RAT onto my pedalboard simply for extra gain and feedback during songs :lol:

Re: Not happy with fuzz. What is wrong with me?????

Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 8:27 am
by jrmy
Just roll with it, man. Maybe take the board apart, but don't flip everything just yet. Put the fuzzes aside for a little bit and experiment with stacking ODs. If you're just playing for your own gratification and not trying to replicate sounds consistently (with set songs in a band context), you've got no-one to please but yourself.

And then in a month or two, try a few fuzzes again - maybe you'll hear them differently again.

Re: Not happy with fuzz. What is wrong with me?????

Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 8:42 am
by Chankgeez
I've petitioned Tom (and the White House) to change the name of the forum to "I Sometimes Love Fuzz"

(Thanks, Obama.)

Re: Not happy with fuzz. What is wrong with me?????

Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 8:43 am
by Uncle Grandfather
Grandpa Was A Robot :lol:

Re: Not happy with fuzz. What is wrong with me?????

Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 8:47 am
by backwardsvoyager
Chankgeez wrote:I've petitioned Tom (and the White House) to change the name of the forum to "I Sometimes Love Fuzz"
"I Do Love Fuzz But Realistically I Probably Only Need A Low Gain Distortion"

Re: Not happy with fuzz. What is wrong with me?????

Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 8:56 am
by BoatRich
I've been in the same boat lately. Fuzz really doesn't do it for me on bass vi and I'd rather have an OD/fuzzy distortion with a boost 90% of the time.

Re: Not happy with fuzz. What is wrong with me?????

Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 9:20 am
by Ugly Nora
Nothing is wrong with you jwar (in this context). Fuzz is just another hipster fad like skinny jeans, hashtags, and Obama.

Re: Not happy with fuzz. What is wrong with me?????

Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 9:36 am
by Ev_O)))
I've had this vibe a heap recently.
Every time I hit my fuzz, any kind of tone at useable volume sounded like shit.
As someone who only has one true "GAIN" pedal on his board at anyone time, this fuzz, which is really my favourite fuzz ever (TAFM) is just impracticle and limited in it's applications. I love it. I really fucking love it. But I barely use it because I struggle to work it into the rig without being dissapointed in one way or another.

Then today a friend of mine posted a demo for a pedal he built (JWAR you etched it actually), an Electronic Audio Experiments Bastard Sword, an op-amp distortion which gets kinda fuzzy hen cranked and honestly, I think it will be better suited and I may end up grabbing the shit out of one soon. An I can stack it with my Mini, which I use for gritty boost eq purposes 100% of the time anyway.

It's just a mental hurdle if anything. I would FEEL weird not having a fuzz on my board, but fuck feelings if they are holding me back right?
idk, at least in the end it's only pedals...

Re: Not happy with fuzz. What is wrong with me?????

Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 9:51 am
by Dark Barn
Fuzz is weird, it's the effect I use the least and own the most. Fuzz just gets so cork sniffy when I listen to it playing by myself, in full band context it sounds different. Fuzz is temperamental, some times a fuzz will sound amazing to me, next time it will sound terrible, even at the same settings. It's like I have an emotional relationship with fuzz, other pedals are more like employees. Actually filters do this to me a little bit but not nearly as bipolar as my relationship with fuzzes.

Re: Not happy with fuzz. What is wrong with me?????

Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 9:52 am
by ProCarsteNation
yeah, It's totally fine, you ain't failing anyone.
fuzz won't get mad at you or feel neglected. It'll wait for you in all its hairy glory.
I reckon you still love fuzzzzz, you just don't wanna play with it at the moment.

variety & spice & whatnot.

Re: Not happy with fuzz. What is wrong with me?????

Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 10:07 am
by resincum
posers