fuzz face and solid state...

[b_rogers]

i got really embarrased today. took my modded multiface to a buddys house to let him hear it. he has a randall solid state amp with a 412 cab. i plugged in and the worst sound possible came out.     i guess it just doesnt like ss?      embarrased, i tried tweeking the eq on the randall, messing with the controls on the fuzz. it just sounded like CRAP!     i thought maybe in transit something came loose or a solder joint cracked. got home and fired it up thru my rig and there it was...creamy, lovely zztop, jimi tone. oh well at least it sounds good thru my rig!  anyone have luck with fuzz and SS?

[petemoore]

Yupp, if I were planning a fuzz build for SS, FF would be bout the last pick.
 I read about and tried the same thing FF>SS=SSukki
 I would go for an OA clipper or Jfet ckt. basically anything sept a FF...
maybe they work [ppl say Line 6's act like tubes for distorters I dunno tho] Just the preamp being tube [first tube anyway] might work good...

[Skreddy]

Yeah; always bring either your whole tube rig or at least a tube preamp when jamming at a SS user's house! :lol:  

:x  Weird, though; huh?  How ff's are so touchy and can either sound like heaven or like dog poop depending on what you use 'em with.  I always find it amazing what a Boss pedal (in bypass mode!) does to a fuzzface when placed before the ff.  Kinda cool, actually.  Worth having as a 'boost' mode on a fuzzface, as a matter of fact...  :wink:   Wonder why nobody's done that one before.  Even a Ge treblebooster in front of a FF is pretty cool; that makes it sound tone-bender-ish.  Why hasn't anybody made a tone bender clone with a switchable first stage?  I've been thinking about doing that for a long time but haven't yet.  

Oh well.  Hey; free idea!

Of course, another idea is an extra buffer stage after the ff which simulates a tube stage, so that the ff sounds the same on every rig.  That would likely remove much of the raw, dangerous vibe that the ff gives off, though, and turn it into just another predictable tone-in-a-can pedal.

[petemoore]

That's nice thing bout FF...can get TB ish with Boost, sounds nice and Fuzzy [all things be-in 'right']...so ya get Boost sounds like Boost FF, and TBish type stuff with 2 switches.
 I don't think I ever got a 'Rangemaster' per se...some Ge boost type try's...figured OC44 withall the right qualities is one of the hardest things to find I can think of...
 However I have Ge Jfet Mosfet LPB1 OA [I think that's it...lol] Boosters that [oh compressors] get biG Satch Fuzzes from my FFs. also gain stage after...

[Bill_F]

Even a Ge treblebooster in front of a FF is pretty cool; that makes it sound tone-bender-ish.  Why hasn't anybody made a tone bender clone with a switchable first stage?  I've been thinking about doing that for a long time but haven't yet.  

That is one of my favorite combinations. A RangeMaster in front of a Fuzz Face. Just sounds HUGE! I've also been toying with the idea of putting a switchable front end booster into the same box with a Fuzz Face.

Bill

[sfr]

i've never owned a tube amp, but I dug out an old re-issue fuzz face i had kicking around, and it sounds dreamy with my SG into it and then into my junker solid state amp.  (Except for the damn radio pickup - got to do something about that)    Doesn't like my full rig, with the big head and two 2x12 cabs.  So I dunno, I wouldn't rule out solid state completely with a FF, but it's defintly not for all amps.  I've been playing the thing with a lot of different amps, and it sounds great through all the tube amps, and with SS amps, it's like, 50/50.  This is a silicon FF, though - so maybe the Ge ones are pickier?

[Doug H]

When I was fooling with the FT70 on the breadboard I thought it sounded great through my SS amp. Of course it uses some diode clipping too, that may help. I always thought my easy face sounded kind of tepid through the SS amp.

Doug

[RDV]

FF types sound real good through my old Peavey Bandit 65. Si or Ge.

Regards

RDV

[Skreddy]

I was just reminded of this thread as I looked at the copy of the Lovetone Big Cheese distortion (at both geofex.com and muzique.com).  It's a silicon fuzzface but with an opamp which buffers both input and output (along with a great deal more tone control than the usual fuzz pedal).  I haven't played with one, but just imagining it, I bet it's like a wall of fuzz.  And no doubt it's not terribly dependent on amp type...

[keko]

it's not just a matter of FF and SS

My first Big muff (tonepad's layout) sounded like CRAP through my Trace Elliot SS input....but when in the effects loop (i.e. preamp first, BMP second) it sounded full, heavy, creamy.

Similar things happended with the same BMP into a Marshall 8080 and a Marshall 8280<--great combo BTW: SS amps, with a 12ax7 single valve preamp. Crapp like hell when into FX loop, great direct.

Too bad I used the box to build another pedal, and now I can't try it with my jcm 900 (not a bad amp)...opamp pre & full tube power amp.

my 60 pesos...about 2 cents  :wink:

[b_rogers]

well for what its worth the amp was a randall "warhead" which i thought only sounded good for chugging out heavy metal. the clean side was only passable..the ff with the fuzz down a little on the clean side of the amp did give a good SRV texas blues tone...

[bwanasonic]

That is one of my favorite combinations. A RangeMaster in front of a Fuzz Face. Just sounds HUGE! I've also been toying with the idea of putting a switchable front end booster into the same box with a Fuzz Face.

I love this combo too, but I usually run the RM AFTER the FF. I also like the AMZ Mosfet boost after Fuzz Face. After reading this I will have to give RM before Fuzz another try. I was toying with idea of a FF/RM in one pedal, but I'd have to make it so you could switch the order of the two effects. Probably not worth the complexity. The other thing I love about this combo is batteries last in these boxes forever. If all I used was these two pedals, I would have no need for wall-warts, and I would use about $10 worth of carbon 9volts a year.  

Kerry M

[ErikMiller]

I met with my first Crucible Fuzz endorser this evening at my girlfriend's place; he was just getting back from a rehearsal and lives in her neighborhood.

He'd not yet heard a production unit, so it was a critical moment, his first listen to this thing I've had in development for months.

I brought over a couple of Crucibles, and a prototype of my MOSFET Linear Boost, to plug into my girlfriends solid state Peavey Jazz Classic amp. Big ol' 15' cast frame speaker, open back. She got it to use with her electrified violin.

All fine, except that I'd never turned the amp on, much less plugged in one of my fuzzboxes, which are a tweaked Fuzz Face variant.

The amp has two input jacks on the front, and one was missing (looked like it had come unscrewed and fallen inside the amp). I plugged into the other one, and sure enough, it sounded like hell. I couldn't get her 335 copy not to screech and howl at ANY audible volume, and the tone was akin to filtered white noise.

Turning down the preamp gain knob helped somewhat, but not enough to satisfy me.

Figuring that the #2 jack might have been a lower gain input, I unplugged the amp and got to work unscrewing the chassis with my Leatherman tool. This was rather puzzling to the girlfriend, who wanted to try her violin through the fuzzbox and was expecting the guitarist/endorser any moment.

As it turned out, the jack was sitting inside the chassis, and I borrowed the nut and washer from the Booster to reattach it. As luck would have it, it was the lower gain input I thought it might be, and my fuzz was its usual delightful self through it.

All the time this was going on, I was thinking of this very thread....

All went well, and I've sold my second pedal to a guy who's very active in the local music scene, both on stage and in the studio. Plays with Billy Talbot and Daevid Allen, among many others. Real nice guy, and he'll give my pedal great exposure. His main amp is a Fender Deluxe, which I know will love that pedal.

But for heaven's sake, I need to be more careful about demoing with those solid state amps. The amp under my bench is a solid state, but there's so much variation in input stages. It's not like with tube amps, where you're about guaranteed to hit a 12AX7 on the way in.

[Brett Clark]

Even speakers changes are a problem

I had tweaked up a fuzz circuit through my Deluxe Reverb. It sounded great.

Shortly thereafter (for unrelated reasons) , the old Jensen C12R in the Deluxe gave out. I installed an old Utah speaker that I had laying around. It sounded OK (not great) by itself, even with the amp cranked into distortion. BUT, my previously great circut sounded unlistenably bad. Thin, harsh,and shrill. Some other overdrive-type circuits were still OK. I got a Celestion Vintage 30 for the amp and all is well - the fuzz sounds great again.

[Yun]

Here's how i build my Fuzz Face(s)

-500K pot for Fuzz, or at least a 10K pot....
-10K resistor instead of that measily 8.2K resistor
-MPSA18 transistors
-Oscar's Bright switch mod

The Fuzz face has Sooooo much potential, man.  It was just Poorly Not "pushed to the limit" .  

But my taste in Fuzz, is that it has to be VERY VERY VERY VERY fuzzy, man.  So it soots my needs, man....

[drew]

I don't have a ton of guitars- all my electrics are single-coils (I like the jangle, give me a break!) and the first time I tried the FF with a humbucker pickup it was pretty great. Not my guitar or amp, in fact, it was my sister's setup for her metal band. A strat with a hacked-on humbucker going thru the FF into a 90W fender SS amp.

Then again, maybe it was the tuning that was dropped by about five or six steps


drew
www.toothpastefordinner.com

[D Wagner]

I love the sound of my Si FF's through SS amps.  I did one for a co-worker who is into the 60's sound, and he was in heaven.  (Yes, he does need a tube amp, but he got a Dunlop wah and the SS amp for $150.  It was all his budget could afford.)  

I used two super high gain 2N5088's (hfe 590-610) in an otherwise stock circuit.  I tried out a lot of transistor pairs and combinations before settling on those, though.

Socket and experiment.  I checked out a dozen 2N5088's and the gain varied from the 450's to the 610's.  (I can't wait to see what my 2N5089's look like.)  That could make a huge difference for you.

Derek

[Gearbuilder]

Hi ,

Why putting an eff'ect before a FF make it sound better?FF are very sensitive with input impedance.Many great guitarist use a Wha before but if you put a true bypass in the wha ,you don't have the buffering effect.Nowadays ,i prefer the Tonebender wich is a FF with a transistor before.If you are lucky to find real old NKT 275 or AC128 ,with good gain and good frequency range OK .I've try several AC 128 or OC 75 or 81
some of the same brand and the same gain doesn't have the same frequency range.Some of them  sound treble,some other sound bassy, cremy,crappy and some ,a few of them ,sound magic !
Silicon too ,BC108,109 or others need to be matched to have a good sound.
It's perhaps your FF  sound crappy,change transistor before you put other FX in front :wink:
Bruno