which is a "weirder" octave/distortion...

[Hal]

the green ringer, or the Foxx Tone Machine.  

From the sound clips I've heard, I think the Tone Machine sounds pretty mellow, but the descriptions seem contrary to that.  Not too many people out here like the green ringer, it seems...so...which should I make ?

I'm also kinda looking at the scrambler, but I haven't heard too much about that.

[Paul Marossy]

My vote would be for the Shocktave...  

[Mark Hammer]

The FTM  was for a while Adrian Belew's fuzz of choice.  If you are familiar with his work that should give you some idea of the sorts of things it is capable of.  As fuzzes go, without the octave addition, it is nothing special, which is probably where your impression of it as being "pretty mellow" comes from, but with the octave turned on it can deliver some pleasingly oddball sounds.  

The Green Ringer "works" but I've never knowingly heard any major player rave about it.  Of course that in itself is not a basis for decision, but I have to say the only thing I like about it is the fact that it doesn't require many parts to "work".  It work better if you stick a booster ahead of it, but at that point the two units combined start to turn into a bigger overall parts count and you're up in FTM range as far as complexity and cost go.

The Scrambler is certainly "wilder", but where the FTM is the sort of thing that makes you think "I wonder how that riff would sound?", the Scrambler is the sort of thing that one can quickly grow weary of.  Think of the FTM as being like a halfback who can play offense and defense, and the Scrambler as being like a place kicker you bring in for field goals and nothing more.

[Mark Hammer]

The FTM  was for a while Adrian Belew's fuzz of choice.  If you are familiar with his work that should give you some idea of the sorts of things it is capable of.  As fuzzes go, without the octave addition, it is nothing special, which is probably where your impression of it as being "pretty mellow" comes from, but with the octave turned on it can deliver some pleasingly oddball sounds.  

The Green Ringer "works" but I've never knowingly heard any major player rave about it.  Of course that in itself is not a basis for decision, but I have to say the only thing I like about it is the fact that it doesn't require many parts to "work".  It work better if you stick a booster ahead of it, but at that point the two units combined start to turn into a bigger overall parts count and you're up in FTM range as far as complexity and cost go.

The Scrambler is certainly "wilder", but where the FTM is the sort of thing that makes you think "I wonder how that riff would sound?", the Scrambler is the sort of thing that one can quickly grow weary of.  Think of the FTM as being like a halfback who can play offense and defense, and the Scrambler as being like a place kicker you bring in for field goals and nothing more.

I tend to trust Paul's taste, and Joe Davisson's designs, so perhaps I ought to look into the Shocktave.  At the moment though, I have no opinion.  The Shocktave has a flip-flop in there so I gather it is an octave down unit not octave up.

[B Tremblay]

The Green Ringer "works" but I've never knowingly heard any major player rave about it.

Didn't Zappa have a Green Ringer onboard in one of his guitars?

[nightingale]

if you go to the nightingale band site in my signature,
and listen to the "emerald shadow" mp3..
i use a green ringer behind a 3knob tonebender for the droning octave sound in the rhythm part.. it definately sounds unique.

hope this helps,

[hairyandy]

I've never heard anyone who's played an original FTM describe it as "mellow".  I have an old Foxx Fuzz Wah that used to sound amazing (something is f*cked with it and I haven't fixed it yet).  The fuzz part of it is the FTM and it's complete over-the-top, fuzzed-out madness----easily as gainy and as loud as my first issue Univox SuperFuzz...

[Hal]

thanks for the suggestions, guys.  The shocktave looks simple enough - I'll get one on breadboard before I  build the FTM on vero that I was planning on doing.  I wasn't attached to octave up, like I said, just weird.  Its not for my own music - I'm playing backups in my friend's band...he's like...a "pop singer" or something, idk, but he's really talented and has shows booked already, so its cool :-D...weird distortion is for one small part of one song...

Hairyandy - yea, but I'm not looking for mundane fuzz, I'm looking for weird sounds.

[j0shua]

i like Shocktave , is more cool

Hmmm i think Fuzz and Distortion are not same effect, but have the same theory......

[smashinator]

I've built a scrambler and think it's awesome, especially if you put it in front of another distortion.  mmmmmmm, fake feedback.

[Paul Marossy]

What's kind of cool about the Shocktave is that the more you turn up the knob, the weirder the noises get. All kinds of nifty sounding intermodulation and stuff!  :wink:

And, of course, it's a very simple build.

[petemoore]

Shocktave is really great octave down. Tracking compared to the OC=2 is better, I love the tone of this pedal.
 Green Ringer needs Fuzz tuned to it or something, I wasn't real happy with it for stage unless I predialed the fuzz knob, then unity was funny IIRC. Had one boxed for a time. Next time I'd consider putting a FF before it in the same box and on the same Bypass. I thought though, very cool sounding pedal as far as wierd. Got gobs of 'Ghost tone' out of mine.
 There's the SOU or OUSB, I'm diggin' the OUSB, EZ to get one going, I used a Dual OA, nice Octave Splat, but seems mellow in that it doesn't go Bonk Hard onthe speakers when I attack a note...Great Octa-Ring tones. Great Dynamics.
 SuperFuzz is harder to do one of, but P.D.Wicked once it's tweeked.
 Tychobrahe Octavia is one of my favorites, this one with FF in front, volume down some, is Wild Splatty, Ghost Toney, harmonics and octaves melting into each other, sensative to dynamics...I like it.