(NPD)Nice Fuzz, Shame About the Wah!

Bellycaster

My new Suhr Rufus pedal arrived and I wasn't disappointed when I plugged into it, sounds great going into the Bogner Amp. I can't compare it to anything as I have never owned or used a Fuzz before, so I can't muse about Germaniums and Silicones etc.

I just did a Fuzz song Medley and tried to get a good replication of tones from classic Fuzz songs/solos etc and it lived up to the job, you could certainly bang this on in a cover band scenario. It has a fair bit a Volume Boost with the Level setting and it does clean up nicely when rolled to about 8, you can get a nice funky "Spank" sound rolled off too.

Now the Downside. As long as you don't own a Dunlop CAE MC404 Wah and you want to use it with your Rufus, you'll be fine. Either the MC404 is not Fuzz Friendly or the Rufus is not Wah Friendly, I don;t know. The Fuzz first in line going straight into the Wah sounds awful, really over exaggerated sweep on the wah and harsh sounding, not pleasant on the ears. I was expecting Voodoo Chile, what I got was an abomination of a "sound".

The Wah first in line into the Fuzz was just as bad, different, but equally as awful, it sounded like this in this vid from 00:33(not me obviously) horrid clipping and squelching.

Euuuuurgh! I know a Sunface can sound better than that.

I am also 100% sure that a Wah and Fuzz can sound decent, but not my pair.

Bellycaster

Continued:

Back to the Fuzz alone, it did a great: 

Blur - There's no other way

OCS -100 Mile High City

Isley Brothers - Summer Breeze & Who's That Lady

Commodores - Easy

Floyd - Time

Doors - Hello, I love You

Jamiroquai - High Times (Solo)

Sabbath - Paranoid

More songs too, I've forgot.

Tons of versatility with the Red(Fat) and Green settings. I'd recommend this, but careful with what Wah you have.

Maybe you could tell me your Fuzz - Wah combinations, I really didn't expect these results and am baffled that 2 high quality pedals can sound so bad together. When I have my wah in front of my Bogner pedals on the PB, the tones are great and the Wah in front of the Amps gain is also beaut too. My experiment with this here was only using Guitar to the 2 pedals(both ways round) to front of Amp, both batteries fine.

Cheers.

ICBM

This is a well-known problem with vintage-style fuzzes and wahs. You need to buffer the fuzz input from the wah output, which is usually best done with a buffer circuit inside the wah so it's only there when the wah is on and not when you're only using the fuzz, since a buffer tends to spoil the tone of that as well! Essentially the problem is with the sheer crudeness of the fuzz circuit, but it's the wah that really brings it out.

Foxrox do a simple buffer kit to go in the wah, there may be others.

http://www.foxroxelectronics.com/FWR.html

guitarfishbay

Wahs and some fuzz circuits don't really work well together. I think it is a buffering issue but someone with the technical knowledge can correct me. I even found regular Boss pedals to mess with my Fuzz Face, so I ended up selling it as it was only getting used to noodle with at home. I do like fuzz though, I thought going guitar -> fuzz -> amp sounded ace.

Bellycaster

Thanks both of you.

@ICBM ;

I'll look into the buffer thing, cheers

@guitarfishbay

The pedal does sound great as long as the wah is not engaged, I'm sure it will still sound great with another 15ft of signal when it's in front of the pedalboard too.

As a matter of interest, I found someone who has a MC404 and a London Fuzz and is getting a great tone, so the mc404 might not be completely fuzz unfriendly. He has his tone slightly breaking up even before the Fuzz is engaged though and I think the Cry Baby still edges it for the better sound in this demo. Notice the fuzz sounds horrid after the wah again.

I can't believe I didn't look for stuff like this vid before deciding on a Fuzz, but then again, I had no idea it would be an issue in the first place. We live and learn.

:-B

MrSwanson

Easy fix, sell me the fuzz ;-)

Bellycaster

MrSwanson said:

Easy fix, sell me the fuzz ;-)

I'll just leave you this

capo4th

Urrgghh the bare foot wah user

Bellycaster

capo4th;272179" said:

Urrgghh the bare foot wah user

I know, he could have at least put his socks on, the sod!