ilovefuzz.com

incoming

also incoming

Six years later, I decided to try out a Zoia. When it came out, I thought I would probably struggle with the pushbutton interface and the tiny screen, so I got a Beebo instead, to scratch that modular itch. Beebo has been very useful for me, but mostly as a kind of utility tool--my default Beebo patch doesn't process guitar at all, it just has a drum machine, MIDI controls for other pedals, and a stereo insert so I can connect a CD player or radio or what have you.

A week into my Zoia journey, I've sifted through all 1500 patches on Patchstorage, looking to see what's possible and what's already been done. Kind of exhausting, but ultimately worth it. Yes, I'm struggling with the interface, but it sounds like everybody does when they're trying to understand a patch made by somebody else. I have gingerly poked around in the Patch Librarian software, and I have some faith that someday I'll understand what's going on. The main issue I've encountered early on is that a lot of patches are mono, and I'd prefer to have my Zoia in the stereo part of my chain. I'm figuring it out, but on Beebo it's a much simpler process.

Even if I end up just using it as a multieffect curated by other people because I'm too dunderpated to create my own patches, I think it'll be worth it. It's already helped me resist the siren call of the b-stock Lost & Found.

Tall Walls wrote: ↑Tue Feb 17, 2026 5:12 pm The main issue I've encountered early on is that a lot of patches are mono, and I'd prefer to have my Zoia in the stereo part of my chain. I'm figuring it out, but on Beebo it's a much simpler process.

Yeah, stereo-fying patches is a mild annoyance, but not too tough once you know what you're looking for. From experience I will be say make sure to back up any patches you update to a separate folder on the SD before you add other patches, as it's easy to overwrite them.

Otherwise, have fun! I dearly love my Zoia. I wish I had a second one.

alexsga wrote: ↑Sat Feb 14, 2026 9:25 pm
also incoming

Congratulations! This is such a great looking series! I have never had the chance to try one.

Pepe wrote: ↑Thu Feb 19, 2026 2:53 am

alexsga wrote: ↑Sat Feb 14, 2026 9:25 pm
also incoming

Congratulations! This is such a great looking series! I have never had the chance to try one.

i had the mightyMicro delay a few years ago, but someone wanted it in a package trade for his Digitech XP300....was great, like an improvement over the old MD2/3, cute enclosure but very heavy duty! amazingly theres a battery compartment in there too.

this one should be cool, seems like a Exciter circuit w a nice input attenuator

Finally couldn’t resist getting a MXR basssynth… someone was selling one for $25 less than street..

Just received Industrialectric 4046-M. Only tried it for a couple of hours but it's a beast! And it weighs a ton. Like beasts do.

unusually for nowadays i have a couple of things coming in. i sold/traded my Instant Lo-Fi Junky for a Electric Mistress clone…i’d have preferred cash, but i’ve never had that flavor of flanger. i also ordered a Donner looper that was less than $100 on Facebook. i’ve always been suspicious of cheap Chinese pedals, but this seemed legit. i don’t care for Jack White at all, but figure he cares enough about his reputation to not endorse/sig model garbage. it has way more memory than i need and also does drums and metronome. i mostly wanted a freestanding looper for times i want to loop without dealing with the big setup. there’s also a cheap Vevor molded Strat case downstairs i need to unpack, which will go with the green Player II Strat. i wanted a case different from the other flat cases so it’s easier to tell them apart.

the case is decent for a $90 molded case. workmanship is good, aluminum channel edging looks pretty flawless. nice and light. i wouldn’t necessarily trust it if someone threw a mic stand like a javelin like Mark E. Smith, but it should be fine in the back of the Outback. detriments: no inner compartment lid, unreinforced feet with just the ABS contacting the ground. positives: light as the cardboard cases we used on acoustic guitars in the 70s, quite cheap for a molded case with aluminum runners.

i thought folks might want to see the case. the aluminum channels aren't quite perfect, but not to the point it doesn't seal properly. one interesting aspect is that the highly pebbled, somewhat glossy surface looks like metalflake in bright light. not an A1 case, but good enough. since i have so many Strat-style flat cases i try to find ways to tell them apart, and since this one is the only molded electric case i have it makes it easy. there are two identical ones that the Jazzmaster and Hopf live in that i labeled on the end with masking tape. eventually i want to get a Sonic Blue case or something like it for the Hopf which is indeed blue. though i'd rather have a lid on the storage compartments, the interior design looks to keep things in place because the dividers go all the way up to the lid liner. ninety bucks discounted from the Vevor ads on Facebook, but i reckon you can go to vevor.com as well, and nicer than the typical ~$100 wood/particleboard flat cases some of which are downright shabby. note: i wouldn't count on Jazzmasters fitting because the Strat headstock almost touches the end panel, but i'll try it out.

Recently picked up an Eventide Modfactor on the cheap. I used to have an H9 and didn’t really care for the mod algorithms. My tastes/ears must have changed because I’m loving the Modfactor. It’s the perfect balance of easy to dial in and enough options to get to surprising places. I love the ring mod, and the flanger. It’s just a joy to plug in and kill an hour with.

Also purchased the Neural DSP Mesa Mark IIC+ emulation. I gotta say, it’s really fun. I usually play through monitors and it sounds sick; playing Master of Puppets through a Metallica preset brought me back to the first years of playing guitar. And the sound is pretty much spot on, it’s kind of crazy.

Also disabled the IRs and ran the plugin as a preamp into the effects return of my Science Mother- and it sounded insane through the 2x12 cab I have. Just stupid fun.

I’ve contemplated buying a Modfactor just to get Undulator on the floor. I know the Pitchfactor was a pretty satisfying UI for lots of non-menu-dependent depth, so I get how that could make a bunch of difference to the experience.

i have a pile of stuff i need to work my way into. let's see...there's the Fuzzhugger Scalable Pet which i'm puzzled by and the Phantom Octave i haven't even plugged in yet, the Land Harmonic Percolator, the Catalinbread Pads which is an odd little warbly creature, their Naga Viper which i got mainly to try and make the acoustic 12-string sound more "electric" when plugged in but also want to try some Mick Ronson shit with, the Donner Circle looper which arrived yesterday, and the Electric Monkstress flanger i dealt for in B/S/T.

the Pet is a two-channel boost that seems to mainly be for level balancing and mild grit. if i can figure it out it could be quite useful since my guitars have, erm, widely varying output levels some of which need boosted to get up to median e.g. the Kondor with those low-output Japanese single-coils. as with everything else i've tried, it could be that these boxes don't like something about the Princeton which i'm slightly frustrated with. i should probably try different power tubes, preamp tubes, a lower-output tube for the reverb driver, perhaps the Yellowjacket solid-state plug-in rectifier tube replacement i got for the Hammond but preferred the tube sound there, and probably a different reverb tank. the stock tank is 2 springs and long decay, and i don't like it much. i can get a 3-spring shorter-decay unit which should be more pleasing and is only like $35 which beats the hell out of paying for a different speaker or tube-rolling. i swapped in the Hammond reverb head and was surprised at how much i liked it because i was kind of down on its lack of a truly clean "clean tone." in some ways it's my favorite of the 3 working amps (Princeton, Hammond, AC15) and really it could probably do most of what the AC does other than Top Boost and squarewave tremolo. the AC also could probably use a better tank. and i could stand to get more of the preamp tubes (GE, Amperex/Philips, Telefunken) i prefer. not sure what's in there now, but i've had my GE 12AX7s for literal decades so some new blood might be good. i particularly need a couple of good Telefunkens for the EHX Black Finger tube compressor which would benefit from any cleanup i could implement. but right now i need to chill and pay shit off.

i also want to mess more with the Tech21 English Muffy, a Hiwatt-plus-Big Muff amp emulator i got as a freebie when i ordered the Cioks power supply bundle for the big board. the other Character Plus-series boxes IMO are terrible, but the Muffy is surprisingly good at talking like a Hiwatt. it's less board-friendly than the WIIO so it wouldn't sub for that, but it could be great for looping where the recordings never go through an amp except for monitoring.

but right now i'm mulling three new weird things: DBA Moonbeam, EQD Towers, OBNE/Emily Parting/Purrting. i want something that does things i don't expect. there's also the Donner looper which i got so i can fuck with loops without having to get out the looping board. it's stereo I/O which i also generally don't fuck with, but could be tempted if i had a run of stereo reverbs/delays at the end of the chain.

maybe some of this stuff will give me ideas to start working on.