Let's talk about fuzz..

[DetroitBlues]

The fuzz pedal... So many variations, its hard to know where to start.

I've had a couple fuzz pedals over the past 20 years or so.  Mainly because of the whole Hendrix or Smashing Pumpkins tone.

However, being a primary humbucker player, I really do not like the sound of it.

What are the tip, tricks, usages, etc people use?  When and why do you use a fuzz pedal?

What are the differences in the options? 

I'm rather curious here.

[TalismanRich]

Lets see.....  

I had an original Fuzz Face.  Got stolen around '72.   I didn't think it was great, but it was one of the few pedals that you had back then.  You didn't have 247 different fuzz pedals!   Replaced it with a Jordan Boss Tone that plugged into the front of the Jaguar.   Great for doing Satisfaction and Inna Gadda Da Vita.   I eventully traded that for an EEPROM burner many years later.   The knobs were broken where the whammy bar would swing around and hit the plastic.    I covered it up later with a piece of Erector set with electrical tape on it to protect it.

Got a Fender Blender.   Very fizzy.  It did fuzz and octave.   I don't know where that pedal went.   I probably left it at the bass players house.   

All told those 3 would probably fetch you 2 or 3 grand today.   At the time,  I was out about $100 total.  Pedals back then were much cheaper!    

Most of the time,  I simply turned my Guild Thunderbird amp to 10 and if you toggled the 3 way tone switch between two settings, it was almost like doing the jumper on a Marshall.   The amp was only about 35 watts, so it would really distort when full up.

Today,   I don't use fuzz,  I prefer the OD.   Klon style and Tube Screamer have been my mainstays, although I really like the Blues Driver that Pete Farmer lent me at PSP.   It wasn't so midrangy like a TS.   Haven't bought one yet but it will happen.   I haven't decided if I'll get the standard or WazaCraft model.  

I have a Soul Food, but I replaced it with a NotaKlon.   It sounded smoother to me, and was less noisy.    

My preference is for a smoother, creamy overdrive, not a harsh biting sound.   I like the sustain for soloing.   

 

[fxdx99]

For me, with a fuzz I've a strat on bridge or middle/bridge pickup.  I don't use hum buckers w/fuzz for perhaps the same reason you don't -  not a sound I really gel with.  Prefer the 'fuzz face' type circuit.  Single note riffs on the low strings for fatness.  Sustain on single note leads up in the cheap seats.  Cleans up when volume rolled back.  Fuzz has a cool sound/vibe/touch to it.  But again, for me, it's 'gotta' be a strat into it.  Even better when paired w/marshall type amp.  

[yoslate]

May have posted this in the past, But since we're focusing on fuzz here.... Never a fan of it, but given this is a Lucinda Williams tune, and I'm a big fan of the fearless Stuart Mathis, I thought...why not get way out of my little box. This is from the Be Good To Yourself project, and since we were tracking nearly thirty songs, I figured I'd better come up with a variety of tones and approaches. I'm pretty much down with what Randy (fdx99) observes in his notes, above. As I recall this track was my Tele for electric rhythm, a Nashville tuned Red Label Yamaha FG-110, and the fuzz was my Nash Strat, bridge pickup, into my Low Power Tweed Twin clone. The fuzz was an MXR Hendrix Octavio, which has a pretty great fuzz! Fuzz is there in a couple of early chords, but doesn't really appear until the guitar outro, last 1:30-ish of the tune. I'm a little proud of this one. The vocalist is eighteen-year-old phenom Māya Beth Atkins. 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by yoslate