Superfuzzzzzz Bigmuff (fuzz pedal info/recs)

I'm a fan of the Big Muff and its derivatives personally, but I wouldn't recommend it for every sound. Hell, there's a whole subset of arguments about which era Big Muff sounds the best... heheheh.

It sounds like a cop out, but because fuzz is really meant to be right up front so the pedal can respond to your picking as well as possible, the best thing to do on a fuzz search is play as many as you can. Since fuzz pedals are some of the most dependent on your playing style, you really won't know what works best for you until you try a bunch. Active vs passive pickups also has a big effect on which fuzz works best.

That said:

On the severe cheap tip, the DOD Classic Fuzz is a pretty righteous pedal for some kinds of fuzz. I don't know how much I like it for over the top shit, but for slightly fuzzed out chord-work it sounds great. Stay the hell away from the DOD Flashback Fuzz though. It is crap.

If you like the Big Muff sound, the Frantone Sweet is an amazing pedal in the same vein. It's pricey, even used, but it's amazing. Quiet as hell and really really smooth sustain. The biggest gain settings on it are still musical too. It will cut through four bands at once.

The current crop of US made Big Muffs are actually pretty good. (They were designed by Fran from Frantone, incidentally.) The current Russian Big Muffs aren't bad either, but they're not as smooth to my ear. But hey some people actually prefer that.

A lot of friends of mine use the silver Boss Fuzz pedals, either the FZ-2 or FZ-3. I've not played one myself, but most of the guys I know using them care about tone a lot and have the resources to buy a more expensive pedal if they needed to.

I personally don't like Fuzz Faces much. Too touchy, and with the vintage ones, as many of them sound shitty as sound good. There are hundreds of boutiqe Fuzz Face clones out there though... That's true of just about all the famous fuzz pedals (Superfuzz, Big Muff, Fuzz Face, et al).

Do you have an idea of the sound you want to get? Any examples that are close? Like, Hendrix fuzz is very different from Santana fuzz, so if you can think of someone with a fuzzy sound you're aiming close to, it'll be easier to think of stuff you should try.

i've been looking for a bouteek Muff clone for ever, and aside from that dreadful Creamy Dreamer (really just a modded Russian muff with an epoxied board) have come up relatively dry. that Frantone looks/sounds like the biz.

i really like my Voodoo Lab Superfuzz. i don't know if it's a straight clone of the Univox Superfuzz or not, but it has a really good range of wooly/lowdown Sabbath-esque heave all the way up into much more shrill Fuzzface territory. it's somewhat inexpensive and made in usa and true bypass if any of that matters to ya.

so martin, and not to hijack the thread or nothin, but, what's your pick among the recently reissued Foxx Tone Machine - Fender Blender - Ampeg Scrambler? major lust on all three, to be honest...

You know, if you want a really really cheap and pretty freaking accurate Foxx Tone Machine, get the little plastic Danelectro French Toast ocatave distortion pedal. I kid you not, it is very very close to the real thing... In fact the circuit is damned near a clone.

I don't know how I feel about those reissues. It almost seems unfair that their mythical status be undermined, particularly the Scrambler. Also, I have a tiny bit of hmph, I'll admit, on account of I have an original Blender which took me a long time to get at a reasonable price in very nice condition.

I'm pretty sure the Voodoo Lab isn't a straght clone. I'm not that familiar with their stuff though, to be honest, except that I know they make a straight clone of the Boss CE-1. Oh, and I do use two Pedal Powers on my board, but no Voodoo Lab pedals.

Seriously though... that Danelectro can be had for like $25 and it's awesome. I've rehoused one so I don't have to worry about stomping it too hard. Heheheh.

It cost a bit more, but this pedal ate up a new Big Muff in side by side testing. The thing I liked about the Fulltone is that you could floor everything and yet still 'somewhat' pick out notes of a chord. Floor everything on a Big Muff and it just sounded like white noise.

The Fulltone is designed to get Hendrix's 1969 fuzz sound and the Fulltone 70 is based upon Hendrix's 1970 fuzz. This being the case, I would imagine the design is based on the Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face.

http://www.fulltone.com/stpframe.html

But don't forget that all Jimi's fuzz faces were modified by Roger Mayer, so there's no telling how much they resembled a stock Fuzz Face.

I'm also mainly looking to use it for notes rather than chords, and I'm playing a Jazzmaster, if that makes any difference.

http://www.killerrockandroll.com/deathbyaudio/soundwavebreakdown.html

I hate that OD, distortion and fuzz are all used interchangibly sometimes. I mean, the MXR distortion+ is one of my favorite overdrive pedals.

ZR for single notes ye old Jazzmaster->Big Muff is a pretty good combo. I would recommend the old green Russian muff if you like your fuzz a little more raunchy, though those are kinda pricey now. But hey... Jazzmaster through Big Muff is J.Mascis' thing, isn't it? That should give you a ballpark approximation. I'm pretty sure J uses the green Muff and an mid-era (80s most likely) US Muff.

Honestly though, the Sweet is so much better than the current US Big Muff it's worth the extra scratch IMO. You can download some short WAV files to listen here: http://www.frantone.com/sweetsounds.html There is one example of a humbucker Strat playing through the pedal, though there is no Jazzmaster. I promise I don't work for the company or anything either... I just love a couple of the pedals and sing their praises. :)

Also, effector 13 makes some amazingly weird fuzz pedals. A lot can definitely be in the "is that even a fucking guitar" camp: http://www.effector13.com/

I will throw in a recommendation for the Fender Blender, which is fucked-up-crazy, and a ton of fun.

Here's a review I put in the Harmony Central entry. Scroll down to the Dick Destiny entry which is me:

http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/Data/Holowon/Static_Egg-1.html

I have two other fuzzes that are good but which I don't come back to as much. A Nick Greer Black Fuzz -- which is a good-sounding simple silicon transistor circuit, and a HomeBrew UFO, which is a germanium circuit that also has a good octave up. However, the latter is very warm when doing simple fuzz things and mine is really only suited to single coils and P90's. Humbuckers sound to dark unless you're prepared to tweak EQ radically. The latters onboard tone control isn't radical enough.

The Voodoo Labs Proctavia is a lot of fun too. You can adjust the boost of the higher octave. Quite often I lower it and use it as a gnarly fuzz.

My next pedal is the ZVex Fuzz Factory.

The price point on the reissue (and the originals for that matter) is up with the boutique stuff. I always figured that had more to do with the poor sales than a misunderstanding of Fender's outlook on fuzz. That is a good point though, and you're probably right.

I think it's probably also that outside of collectors and maybe fans of Smashing Pumpkins, it's not a hugely well-known pedal to begin with.

Another good option are some of the 80's Ibanez pedals such as 'Metal Charger', and 'Super metal'. Some of these have the fabled JRC4558 chips and if ya find a good one can give you some quality sounds on the cheap. Bit like a Tube Screamer on steroids. Beware the low grade switches and hard mounted pots. They absolutely wont stand up to much abuse. Most are already ratshit.

BTW - watch out for the Rusky Big Muff. It'll fuck yer clean sound if you ever switch it out and only runs on batteries. Another pedal with cheap-ass, plastic, hard mounted jacks and pots. Mind you it has one sound that aint bad at times.

People act like JRC4558 chips are some sort of amazingly hard to find archeological treasure. I've got a box full of them in my basement. Maybe I should be like those dickheads who sell "TS9 conversion kits" on eBay.

I dunno man. If you can hear some amazing difference my hat's off to you.

I wasn't impressed with the Zinky at all though, so perhaps our taste in overdrive/distortion is not the same at all. :)

Also, I like the Russian Muff. At least the early silvery white ones and the green ones I like a lot. The current crop of black ones are alright. You can always swap out the jacks if you can wield a soldering iron...

i think i'm going to pony up for the Frantone Sweet soon. i've been convinced by the great reviews that liken it to a idealized, heavier Big Muff which is JUST what i need.

AND, i think i'm going to take the plunge with the Lovetone Cheese Source. yeah, an assload of cash ($550) but for two really high quality, awesome pedals which are collectors items at this point, it's pretty fair. anyone used one.. or a brown source/big cheese? thoughts?

The only actual fuzz pedal I have (as opposed to distortion/od pedals) is a wyllie rising sun, which is great, but I don't use it very often, I'm really digging totally clean electric guitar, so none of my o/ds are getting much use.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4ogcKx0MMhg/TzJVM1O6zBI/AAAAAAAABPM/6X7DusCpcNw/s1600/fuzzface.jpg
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