Suggest me a good fuzz pedal

Tiltsta

Tiltsta

Show me your frittatas
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I'm looking to add a fuzz to my pedal collection. Any suggestions as to which to get? The Way Huge Swollen Pickle II looks cool, as it has a lot of adjustment and seems to get some very cool classic sounds as well as deep stoner doom stuff as well. The full tone 70-BC and 69MKII look good, and I think I prefer the sound of the 70 model a little better. Of course, then you have the classic Muff models, the fuzz face, and a kajillion booteek builders.
 
There are just so many options out there. I'm steadily trying to collect them all.

My favorite so far that I own is the M1 Audio Neo Fuzz. However, I also badly want an Earthquaker Hoof and a Mojo Hand Mule.

 
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if you're looking for a muff variant, i can't recommend the Mojo Hand Colossus enough. the RAT gets into fuzz territory, and the ThroBak sToneBender does all the classic Beck and Page sounds. the Mule doesn't quite have enough gain on tap for me (that's why i run two of them).

you may also want to consider the Barber Trifecta, which covers about as much ground as a dirt pedal can.
 
I have a Fulltone '70 and a Bixonic Expandora for fuzz on my board. Both are chained post OD/dist. The '70 is still being made, but the Expandora has gone into pedalboard ether. What I kike about these two are that they sound nice with my Strat, and they play nice with my amp too. I can get more gain than I need with either of 'em. Hence the noise gate in my FX loop. In the wings, I have an EH Muff reissue that I don't really use. I bought it from Daddy's NEW as B stock for 30 bucks.... the guts are genuine and paint on the case has a couple scrapes on it. Big fat hairy deal. The reason I don't have it on my board is that it's noisy with my Strat, and turning down the noisy treb sucks away any tonal character the Strat has.


As for the '70, I can dial in some really glorious, fat, raunchy sound. The best thing about it is the mine truck load of headroom on tap available right on the guitar IF the pedal & amp are dialed in. Set the volume on the guitar low enough, and it will sound almost clean.... if that's the right word. Very small increases on the guitar volume adds more dirt real quick.


The Expandora is a much different specie of fuzz. Mine isn't the very latest rev of it, more the second generation. Mine has the 3 knob tone stack with the 3 selector switches on top. The originals had the switches mounted inside, and I've read it was a major PITA to change anything. It has it's own particular sound, and absolutely loves to be pushed by an OD. I've found out that it has cascaded gain stages, one adding to another. How you set up the switches directly have an effect on how much gain is on tap, and also it's tone to a certain extent. It goes from an OD gain, to distortion gain, to a whacked out fuzz. What's nice is that it's great for leads.... bad side is that it's not so good for rhythm.
 
I have a russian big muff pi, a shin ei wah/fuzz, and the tonebender clone that we built, both of which sound good. I'm not sure how I feel about fuzz. I never use it on a gig.
 
How much do you want to spend and what tones are you looking for? Lots of suggestions in this thread...here are a few that are on my wants list lately

Black Arts Pharaoh
Fuzzhugger Algal Bloom
Creepyfingers Doomidrive & Creepyface
Zvex Fuzz Factory is always a fun pedal too...I still have to get one.
 
Way Huge Red Llama. The Mojo Hand Rev1 posted is actually the same circuit as a Red Llama.

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If you're any good with a soldering iron, you can build your own. Probably the easiest pedal I've built. Schematic can be found here:

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/pdf/ggg_whrl_sc.pdf?phpMyAdmin=78482479fd7e7fc3768044a841b3e85a
 

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Good, and interesting, suggestions so far. The sounds I would like are the classic 60's/70's fuzz tone (without any octave effect), and more modern stoner doom type fuzz sounds. All in one pedal would be helpful. Also, it would be nice if sweet water sold it, as I have a gift certificate there.
 
I really liked my swollen pickle. I think it will do what you need it too...its really tweakable...reasonably priced too.

Sent from my Samsung Epic 4G via Tapatalk.
 
Not much of a Fuzz fan as the sound is to buzzy for me. FWIW I did at one time own a Big Muff Pi in the late 70's. Sold it to my bass player back then, wished I never did.
 
Modern Saint said:
Not much of a Fuzz fan as the sound is to buzzy for me. FWIW I did at one time own a Big Muff Pi in the late 70's. Sold it to my bass player back then, wished I never did.
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You still might want to consider at least checking out a few ZVex Fuzz Factory videos and see what you think. I'm not a huge fuzz user myself, but the unit is really flexible and can get these amazing textures, including some real cone-shredding blistering sorts of tones. A lot of the stuff that this pedal gets are not real buzzy, in my opinion, although it does some buzzy stuff too.
 
I am a fuzz expert. Hell, i'm over at a site called "I Love Fuzz".

Describe in detail what kind of sound you are trying to get? Hendrix? Stoner? crazy wacky guitar fart shit?
 
Kelly said:
I am a fuzz expert. Hell, i'm over at a site called "I Love Fuzz".

Describe in detail what kind of sound you are trying to get? Hendrix? Stoner? crazy wacky guitar fart shit?
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silicon fuzz face that plays well with humbuckers and doesn't get lost in the mix.
 
There is so much out there for fuzz pedals. I guess I am going to have to go to the store and test out a bunch of the suggestions in here.
 
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