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Yo pals! I’ve been checking out some different drives and fuzzes lately, and happened upon a couple that I like that are described as Lofi - Farm Pedals Black Flag and Dirty Haggard 797. The Black Flag is based on a Selmer Buzz Tone and the 797 is based on a DOD 250, so they’ve got different starting points. Demos are fairly sparse for both of these, but they do seem to cover some similar territory. I guess I’m wondering a few things. From a technical perspective, what components would be used to get a “lofi” drive/fuzz sound? And is calling a dirt pedal of any type “lofi” a convenient way of capitalizing on the current trend of lofi devices? What are some other pedals that have a lofi drive or fuzz sound (perhaps excluding fuzzes/drives that get spitty using the bias control, as that list is likely to be quite long).

Dunn Pvrifier

The VFE distortion3 has a lo/hi fidelity toggle….think this one is in the DOD 250 family, but not sure what makes it ‘lo-fi.’

the_bright_undead wrote:Dunn Pvrifier

This one’s rad. The filter controls can give you a nice am radio kind of sound.

The Walrus Audio 385 has become my go-to for lo-fi sounds, as it has Boost/Cut controls for Bass and Treble with a crispy flavor of gain.
The dark hose, tho, is the Boss PW-2 Power Driver. It's vaguely like a Mk III Tone Bender type of thing, so if I cut the bass and mids controls and keep the gain under control, it nails a small radio kind of tone.

I'd say lofi means that you are getting a (somewhat) limited bandwidth, and that the clipping will have a fuzzier character. I own about 9 million lofi drives after going on an overdrive bender, so if you need one hit me up

chuckjaywalk wrote:The Walrus Audio 385 has become my go-to for lo-fi sounds, as it has Boost/Cut controls for Bass and Treble with a crispy flavor of gain.
The dark hose, tho, is the Boss PW-2 Power Driver. It's vaguely like a Mk III Tone Bender type of thing, so if I cut the bass and mids controls and keep the gain under control, it nails a small radio kind of tone.

I always sleep on Boss. I'll need to check out some demoes of the PW-2.

goroth wrote:I'd say lofi means that you are getting a (somewhat) limited bandwidth, and that the clipping will have a fuzzier character. I own about 9 million lofi drives after going on an overdrive bender, so if you need one hit me up

9 mil, hey? That's major overdrive bender! Any favourites sticking out?

I have a Dirty Haggard Audio 797 arriving today, but have also been getting pretty cool results with the mini at a lower bias and drive setting running into the Midfi Scrape Flutter. That Midfi pedal is underrated; it has such a cool, subtle warbly character at lower settings, and a nice fizzy drive at higher settings.

I have the farm black flag. I don't know if I would even really call it Lofi, so much as just a softly fuzzy overdrive. It sounds pretty cool.

voerking wrote:I have the farm black flag. I don't know if I would even really call it Lofi, so much as just a softly fuzzy overdrive. It sounds pretty cool.

Cool! It's on my short list! Do you have the one or two knob version? I've read somewhere that the pedal is kind of noisy - do you find it to be noisy?

IIRC Apocalypse by DBA can sound Lo-fi-ish with the tone knob set fully CCW or fully CW, but I will suggest to wait for the new pedal from Jero. It can do a lot, and this includes some nasty and highly tweak able lo fi fuzz sounds.

Blood_mountain wrote:

voerking wrote:I have the farm black flag. I don't know if I would even really call it Lofi, so much as just a softly fuzzy overdrive. It sounds pretty cool.

Cool! It's on my short list! Do you have the one or two knob version? I've read somewhere that the pedal is kind of noisy - do you find it to be noisy?

i have the one knob version. i don't find it any more noisy than other comparable fuzzy overdrive type pedals.

voerking wrote:

Blood_mountain wrote:

voerking wrote:I have the farm black flag. I don't know if I would even really call it Lofi, so much as just a softly fuzzy overdrive. It sounds pretty cool.

Cool! It's on my short list! Do you have the one or two knob version? I've read somewhere that the pedal is kind of noisy - do you find it to be noisy?

i have the one knob version. i don't find it any more noisy than other comparable fuzzy overdrive type pedals.

Awesome, thanks for the info! It seems like a cool one, I just wish there were some more comprehensive demos.

Dowi wrote:IIRC Apocalypse by DBA can sound Lo-fi-ish with the tone knob set fully CCW or fully CW, but I will suggest to wait for the new pedal from Jero. It can do a lot, and this includes some nasty and highly tweak able lo fi fuzz sounds.

@Jero

Blood_mountain wrote:

goroth wrote:I'd say lofi means that you are getting a (somewhat) limited bandwidth, and that the clipping will have a fuzzier character. I own about 9 million lofi drives after going on an overdrive bender, so if you need one hit me up

9 mil, hey? That's major overdrive bender! Any favourites sticking out?

I quite like the Oneder Drive, it has a pretty hairy breakup that sounds really cool the whole way through the gain range.
The 797 is nice - anything based on a DoD 250 is cool, but at least with my setup the 797 didn't get very low gain, so depending on what you are after it could work. Be interested to hear what you think of it.
The Stomping Stones Haxan is in the same ballpark, but has an insane gain range and some really fucked up clipping options. That is one of my favourites for sure.
If you have lower gain pickups, or like do blues-lawyer tricks like using your volume knob then the Stomping Stones Virus is also a good choice.
On lower gain levels the Spun Loud Litigator is (in my ears) quite hifi/modern sounding, but the more you turn up the gain the more it sounds like a 60s rock sound, like a Bluesbreaker shitting itself. So if you want to get into moderate overdrive territory then that is a killer option too.
What else? I bought a Rare Buzz Snitch, but it is a modded Rat and to my ears doesn't sound particularly lofi. Sick Rat though. I also picked up a Rare Buzz Piccolo Falsetto, but I dunno, it didn't dig my setup much. It's one of MAE Alex's faves, and that dude fucking knows pedals, but yeah. I use it more as a straight up Rangemaster thing to get Sabbath tones, but from the demos and from the description of the pedal you should be able to do quite a lot more than that, including some nice drive sounds.
I built a DoD 250 clone from a kit, and just fuxoring with the clipping diodes can be fun too. If I trusted my soldering I'd probably have mine on my board