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Saw J Mascis in stockholm recently with Dino Jr and I was kind of struck by how meaningless a lot of his changes between effects sounded, but especially changing from one fuzz sound to another. I'm aware that "meaningless" is in the ear of the beholder, but in any case, I found a lot of the time stuff just sounded different, and the difference didn't cause me to appreciate the riff or the songwriting in a different way. It just was.

Nothing wrong with that either.

But I'm interested if anyone has examples where a band changes from one fuzz/distortion to another and you feel "damn, YEAH!"
Not typical quite OD to loud fuzz dynamic changes, but you know, one sound to another similar thing but with different timbre/texture.

Could be a music question but I've put it in gear. Because.

Any thoughts?

Mudhoney do this a bit I think.

Hmmm too early for my brain to work properly yet, but I know I've heard plenty of songs with beefier/bassier fuzzes on the bottom and more nasal or octave-up kind of leads on top with nice separation between the two.

Ok, Cherub Rock. Brain's working a little bit.

But yeah, Mascis's sound seems to just sound like Mascis to me, regardless of what fuzz he's using. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that he's got such a distinctive, melodic style.

Smashing Pumpkins.

That's all I got.


lolz

SY - NYCG&F

Haven't listened to it for awhile, but there's a moment where they/Lee switches dirt textures toward the end of the song and it like being hit by a second wall of bricks...

IIRC, similar tricks on Plastic Sun and RALGS

I'm stumped. I wanted to say Zappa tunes or Selda Bağcan tunes...but those, while dynamic, don't change from one fuzz to another.

This is odd considering if one were to use a circuit voiced like Devi Ever Shoegazer, you would have three different fuzz tones on tap (No knob turning required 1. Soda Meiser 2. Torns Peaker 3. Both).

I've been listening to some old DISCHARGE lately and they utilize different boost frequencies...none of which are fuzz though. Stumped...

Closest I can think of is Mogwai, but they do the "playing this, now I will add this, now a little bit of this" thing. And they have 3 guitars, bass and synth on stage, and that's like cheating.

Yeah, I think Dr. Goroth is thinking almost like a jump cut. I'm going through the mental exercise now and maybe this will translate in my playing.

I don't think Smashing Pumpkins are a good example because their rhythm fuzz guitar tracks don't change in texture throughout the song. They mostly change their dynamics, switch to clean, or add modulation to already existing fuzztone. In general I feel like what goroth is asking for is hard to find because even if there is a fuzz timbre switch up... typically the riff or dynamics in the song change as well. So its hard to tell what makes me go "HELL YEAH".

Here is what I came up with:

theavondon sent a mix cd with this song on it and theres sections where it sounds like they're stepping on the fuck overdrive crackle mode.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQrQWgKt7Eg[/youtube]

There's at least a couple Swirlies recordings that do this. Around 1:40 big bassy fuzz that switches to really crispy fuzz.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWq9-OMijHo[/youtube]

Nada Surf Icebox has a cool rhythm guitar distortion cut in-cut out in the beginning of Icebox

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx-tX00CSiY[/youtube]

I feel like Nine Inch Nails has to have some tunes that do this... honestly the first band that comes to mind that does this notably on recordings is Sum 41 but I wouldn't want to make anyone to listen to pop punk.

Those are cool example Ghost Hip, especially the second one. I was thinking of something similar but with a different starting point. What I have in my head for application is like a saggy trebly fuzz (think DEAD C 'Sky') hit the A/B box to go to a bassy fuzz -> Gated fuzz. I think a track where the gate goes from 0-60 would be cool for riffs (going from the notes melting into each other to something more staccato).

Eivind does sweeps for oscillations all the time. Does that count?

EDIT: There has to be at least one DEAD MEADOW song out there with multiple fuzzez [sic].

I feel like older bands (meaning bands pre-2010) didn't do too much of this because there were fewer fuzzes around back in the day and most people only had a few.

I think the new era of tone-pursuit and a plethora of fuzzes has ended up leading people in different directions. When I think of layered/varied fuzz tones, I think more of people like Tim Hecker or Ben Frost or Oneohtrix Point Never making more abstract/modern soundscape-y stuff and less about classic riff-rock.

Ghost Hip wrote:I don't think Smashing Pumpkins are a good example because their rhythm fuzz guitar tracks don't change in texture throughout the song.

Your mom doesn't change in texture.






Doesn't Trent Reznor layer a lot of fuzz tracks together? I know it sounds like it.

OP is not looking for fuzzed tracks stacked like SP and NIN do, read the original post.

tremolo3 wrote:OP is not looking for fuzzed tracks stacked like SP and NIN do, read the original post.

How dare you call me out on not reading Matt's entire post. Now he's going to know.

He's got me curious however. That's a valid thought and as many shows as I've been too, I can never even tell when a different dirt pedal is used, which actually is crazy now that I think about it.

PeterBregman wrote: When I think of layered/varied fuzz tones, I think more of people like Tim Hecker or Ben Frost or Oneohtrix Point Never making more abstract/modern soundscape-y stuff and less about classic riff-rock.

my thoughts as well. there's probably some riffage where i've enjoyed it as well, but i think usually when i notice fuzz->fuzz and dig it, it's more about the textures than complementing a riff or something.

in rock context there has to be like some obvious muffy fuzz -> gated splattery fuzz song that i just don't remember right now, but should.