I have a top grade Sonus germanium nkt275 fuzz as a faithful recreation of a 68 fuzzface (tested against 4 original 67/68 ff units each with its own sound and the sonus didn't feel out of place). Can't do better than that, right? Well, I'd like to suggest there are some pedals that can help modify (improve to my ears) the fuzz. With an eye on other modern fuzz makers I have the impression that some of these pedals are being incorporated into the ff circuit. Could someone please confirm this?
The first pedal is one you are warned to keep afar from fuzz: a buffer.
I have a wah/fuzz buffer from screaminFX. Its job is to fix the oscillation problem between wah and fuzz, similar to the Foxrox wah mod and the like. You set it at the right level and leave it at that. Some wahs offer it as an external feature such as the sonus greyfox. The screaminFX buffer gives mild overdrive at lower settings better than any drive I've heard, and full on explosive bursting fuzz at higher levels with an extra notch to help with bigmuffs I'm told. I added a true bypass as I was convinced it changed the clean wah tone, a change in tone some wah builders distinguish between 67/69 wahs. The bypass also allows me to dial in the fuzz most similar to the unbuffered fuzz. It gets close but isn't as wooly, the difference between the original Hendrix recording of Fire compared to later ones.
The second pedal I use to improve the fuzz is the chase tone secret Preamp. Placed afterwards it gives more hair and definition to the fuzz, more ammunition before it all explodes into the amp. I have suggested that the sp should be considered as part of the amp's circuit for bringing fuzz alive.
Some compressors and overdrive can't handle a fuzz. Some eqs too. Vibes and wahs too. Effect on fuzz is probably best suited for another thread. Here I hope we can suggest some pedals that can be incorporated into the fuzz signal to modify/improve it.
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