Best Fuzz Pedal

Dominic

Trombetta Bone machine or Mini Bone - incredibly versatile -smooth,raspy or like a trombone sound 

peteri

First fuzz pedals I've kept for any time - Dunlop Jimi Hendrix and Band of Gypsies.

Got one on each board and they're great

shaunm

peteri said:

First fuzz pedals I've kept for any time - Dunlop Jimi Hendrix and Band of Gypsies.

Got one on each board and they're great

I came here to say this too.

i have tried the Analogman stuff and although they are fantastic and react to the player far better than the BOG, the basic fuzz tone I prefer the BOG. 

Lebarque

@shaunm @peteri  Are you talking about the full size ones or the minis? And is there a tone difference?

peteri

I have the minis - I've tried the full size ones and apart from the obvious differences (the knobs not being graduated in exactly same way) - buggered if I could tell the difference

shaunm

Mini for me too. 

To my ears there's no difference however one needs it's own board and one doesn't.

MikkiMcMurderer

Bucket said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

Also, @Bucket is a fan of some of the more obscure fuzzes like the beebaa and the Ibanez standard. 

I do love those, they sound fabulous. I have a Maxon fuzz which is effectively a Bee Baa clone, which I'd be prepared to part with if there's any interest. Sound-wise, it's kind of like a Muff but a little bit more aggressive, with even more sustain available. Turning the Notch switch on makes it even nastier - it's ludicrous. But it's so scooped it makes you disappear from a mix, so I leave it alone.

Here it is in action:



As TPD says, the Ibanez Standard is pretty mental as well. Not many clones I'm aware of though, and originals are rare and very expensive. And probably not particularly well-built - many of these old Japanese fuzzes were meant to be cheap rubbish, disposable items almost, and I doubt any of the makers were anticipating that they'd become collectors' items. Even by my fuzz-lovin' standards, some of them sound terrible. The Ibanez sounds incredible though. I want one.



My preferred fuzz is this, however - the now-discontinued Rainger FX Son of Freakenstein. I think of it as being closer in spirit to those old MIJ fuzzes than any Western design. Dennis Kayzer's done a demo of that one too - go to 1:10:



That one cuts through a mix like a Stanley knife. You can tune the oscillator to a specific frequency, and it's actually a very effective way of EQing the pedal with a single knob. It's capable of needling high-end frequencies to crushing octave-down sounds, and you can also set it so the mids are heavily boosted and you simply blast through the mix.

And did I mention it has a built-in noise gate? It can be dead silent when you need it, but somehow this doesn't affect the sustain, which is quite enormous. It also cuts in more sharply when you roll the guitar's volume off, which can give you some very interesting, gated, almost clavinet-like synth emulation sounds.

It's probably the coolest and most fun pedal I've ever used, of any type. And it's really very usable for such a mad box of noise.

I'm never ever letting mine go, and he doesn't make them any more, but his new model, the Dr Freakenstein's Dwarf, has the same circuit as far as I know but is much more conveniently packaged.

Thanks for the suggestions all, some really great things here. I managed to try out the son of freakenstein and the dwarf at macaris  on Denmark street today and I went for the dwarf as it sounded fucking monsterous, as good as the son of was, it was more usable but also more gnarly. And the Igor makes it create some very cool turd sounds too!

mburekenge

Does anyone know if the 'BOG' Hendrix fuzz sounds similar to the Fulltone Octafuzz? 

Supposedly the BOG fuzz is 'a version of the Octavio circuit that didn't have the octave up signal.'

I have the Fulltone Octafuzz and love it, both as an octave fuzz, and in standard fuzz mode.

However, I would like to stack it in octave mode with another fuzz.

dogload

I've got this


from Hello Sailor effects. Apparently based on a fuzz face with germanium and silicon. Sounds really nice and buzzy, but as it's about a foot long and fairly heavy (it's made from a warship emergency light!) I only play it at home. Pity, as it's pretty close to the fuzz from the old Japanese fuzz-wah which was my first (long-gone) pedal

Otherwise, I like my recently acquired germanium mini Fuzz Face and Monkey Fuzzle in addition to the Harmonic Percolator clone built by a mate from a kit. 

Ro_S

a silicon Fuzz Face.
a mk 2 or mk3 Tonebender
or derivatives of either

Majorscale

I'm in agreement with @Wazmeister, check out Bearfoot FX's fuzz pedals. I really rate the Pink Purple Fuzz for great tone, can sit anywhere in the chain and doesn't mind buffers!

Flanging_Fred

I admit that I'm not that well versed on fuzz pedals but the Zoom Ultrafuzz is bloody brilliant and a mainstay on my board.

dangriffiths

For Tonebender type (MKIII in this case) I think Pigdog Headley Grange is the best I have tried. Love it. 

Analogman NKT white dot Sunface for a fuzz face. 

Fuzzrocious Grey Stache for muff. 

smallsound/bigsound Buzzz for raspier spitty fuzz and has a nice octave. Based on superfuzz

ESBlonde

Supprised @mike_l hasn't popped in here with a few dozen suggestions. But then he can't decide which is the best dit pedal anyway and is on a mission to own them all.

mike_l

ESBlonde said:

Supprised @mike_l hasn't popped in here with a few dozen suggestions. But then he can't decide which is the best dit pedal anyway and is on a mission to own them all.

mike_l doesn't really get on with fuzz pedals, and has reduced his collection of dirts to 21. Besides, no-one listens to me anyway.

hotpickups

Majorscale said:

I'm in agreement with @Wazmeister, check out Bearfoot FX's fuzz pedals. I really rate the Pink Purple Fuzz for great tone, can sit anywhere in the chain and doesn't mind buffers!

That does sound very good and very usable IMO

Wazmeister

hotpickups said:

Majorscale said:

I'm in agreement with @Wazmeister, check out Bearfoot FX's fuzz pedals. I really rate the Pink Purple Fuzz for great tone, can sit anywhere in the chain and doesn't mind buffers!

That does sound very good and very usable IMO

Superb. 

I love the Barefoot stuff, as is well documented...

Since the arrival of the Cornish P1, I actually have one of these Barefoot Pink Purple up for sale

hubobulous

I love the Suhr Rufus/Reloaded and Frazz Dazzler. One which I've not tried but I think is interesting is the BAE Hot Fuzz. The boost into the fuzz sounds epic:

Winny_Pooh

dangriffiths said:

For Tonebender type (MKIII in this case) I think Pigdog Headley Grange is the best I have tried. Love it. 

£400 for a single fuzz unit. No

bingefeller

What about a fuzzy treble booster of some sort?  Throbak make some nice ones as do Guitar Systems.