Fuzz Bass - Shaftesbury clone?

blobb

Any recommendations for a good / cheap clone of a Shaftesbury Duo-Fuzz, a la Hugh Hopper / Bill MacCormick (early Softs / Matching Mole).

thanks.

Edit: moved to f/x

timhulio

It's an FY-6 Superfuzz. So look for versions of that circuit. You may want to check-out the Ibanez Standard Fuzz clones too.

I build and sell lots of these, but I don't know if £150 is cheap to you ;-)
http://www.fredric.co.uk/super-unpleasant-companion

ICBM

Boss FZ-2.

The main part of the circuit is a FY-6 copy, but it has additional active EQ - which is important for bass because you can put back the bottom end which otherwise tends to be lost, without blending in clean signal - the usual Boss buffered switching and reliability, and a clean boost mode.

It's now the only pedal I use for bass, normally - and I use it a lot. I rarely use the clean boost, but I use both fuzz modes.

They're not that cheap any more, but you should be able to pick one up for under £100 still I think.

blobb

Thanks guys, some useful info right there.

timhulio

ICBM said:

 put back the bottom end which otherwise tends to be lost

No decent FY6 clone will lose bottom-end, as all the coupling caps are a whopping 10uF. But yeah, the FZ2 is a decent Superfuzz clone albiet without all those octavey overtones.

ICBM

timhulio said:

No decent FY6 clone will lose bottom-end, as all the coupling caps are a whopping 10uF. But yeah, the FZ2 is a decent Superfuzz clone albiet without all those octavey overtones.

My Watson Superfuzz did - not much, but enough to be annoying on bass, and that's a very accurate clone. With the Boss you get the opportunity to boost it as well, not just put it back - I much prefer that to adding clean signal, which a lot of other bass fuzzes do. The FZ-2 does have the octave overtones too, more noticeable on the Fuzz II setting.

blobb

Hmm. Not many FZ-2 about at the moment, couple in EU for £150+. Found a Genevieve FX superfuzz for £75, any thoughts? Has a balance control.

ICBM

Apparently the Behringer SF300 is a copy of the FZ-2, but I’ve never tried one.

blobb

... and only £20 for the SF300! Sounds a bit flabby compared but pretty close. I've got a bit of an oddity in my pedal box somewhere, an Alien Octa-Fuzz. maybe I'll dig that out before deciding.

FatPete

Apparently the BYOC Leeds Fuzz kit is Univox Superfuzz clone if you fancy a bit of DIY.

Coincidentally I just looked mine out of its hiding place to compare it with another kit fuzz, I'll have to try it with bass...

ICBM

blobb said:

... and only £20 for the SF300!

 I know! I'm tempted to get one to see how close it is, since I don't have a spare FZ-2 and I'm slightly paranoid about someone nicking it at a gig.

I just found this YouTube video which makes them sound very similar...

blobb

Cool, when you get one let me know where your next gig is. That would solve both or problems. I'll be the one with dark glasses and a shifty look, hanging around when you're off-loading your gear.

@FatPete Some days I have trouble tying my shoelaces, the chances of me putting one together myself are slim to none. Although I do know how to solder, believe it or not I've got a A level in electronics! and as we all know, if you've got an A level you are fully qualified to practice.

I just hooked up the octa-fuzz, it's got light up alien eyes! It actually does a pretty good Hopper sound, If I can get it together (see previous comment) I'll do a BROTM with it.

ThePrettyDamned

timhulio said:

ICBM said:

 put back the bottom end which otherwise tends to be lost

No decent FY6 clone will lose bottom-end, as all the coupling caps are a whopping 10uF. But yeah, the FZ2 is a decent Superfuzz clone albiet without all those octavey overtones.

The fz2 I played had octaves for days! It was why I didn't buy it...

And I regret it now! 

blobb

....soooo....I went and bought an SF300.

That is indeed the sound I was looking for! Pedal is as cheap and nasty as you would expect for £20........cheers @ICBM top bit of fretboarding.

Now to dig out my Soft Machine records.

ICBM

Just to update this, I too have just bought a SF300... and it sounds as near to identical to the FZ-2 as matching the control settings will allow.

So good I think I will pick up another one when I can be bothered .

blobb

I'm really getting on with mine.

I was put onto the Shaftesbury fuzz by a post Bill McCormick made on his FB page. Back in the day, they didn't have the plethora of f/x we take for granted. They just had guitars and Amps. Echo was pretty much standard and then low quality fuzz boxes came along - Hugh Hopper plugged his bass into a Shaftesbury to keep up with Mike Ratledge and his dirty organ tone. Bill followed suit.

Made me think that back then, if they could make such great sounds with such crappy kit then why do we continually spend small fortunes chasing 'tone'? These guys were pioneers just using whatever they had available, and made it work. 

So I like that it's cheap, I've ditched all other processors and go straight in with the SF300. I do however have an old Ibanez delay in the loop, which is quite a nice thing to have access to, but doesn't deviate from the 'fuzz > amp > echo' mantra I was looking for.

I've had endless fun trying to jam along with Hugh, on various records, failing miserably most of the time! He was such a great bassist and rapidly becoming my #1 guitar hero. All for £20!

Taking the battery cover off is a bit of a faff though.

ICBM

I didn't buy mine at the right time and I had to pay a whole £24 for it . I had bid on a second hand one on Ebay but it went for £22 including postage, so I thought 'why bother?' and just bought a new one.

I actually like the cheap orange plastic-ness of it, it reminds me of a Kay fuzztone I had back in the 80s when those were worth nothing - probably now a small fortune...

The battery cover is a pain - you're supposed to be able to press in the pins with the tip of a jack plug, but it won't go in far enough. But one of the tools on a Swiss Army knife works fine, and I doubt it eats batteries so I can't see it being a real problem.

bbill335

When I hear "bass" and "superfuzz" the absolute best is the SS/BS Buzzz. It's tuned to work with bass/keys as well as it does with a 6 string