Secrets of Note Bloom (a la Mr. Soul?)

[superferrite]

I heard the old Buffalo Springfield tune last night for the first time in years and I was wondering if Neil's solo was a fuzz+his Les Paul/Deluxe Reverb or what?
Does anyone have recommendations for that compression/note bloom effect in a box?  Would overdriving a transistor in a fuzz be able to ape this?

[sengo]

I really dig that song myself as well. I've heard they used a Jordan Bosstone fuzz, and I would believe that.

[Processaurus]

Are you talking about how some fuzzes you can get to almost sound quieter when you play harder?  Neil is a king of that type of distortion.  You can get that kind of shutdown sound with a fuzz that gets more asymetrical (and thinner sounding) depending on the volume of the guitar going in, one that I know for sure does that well is the Lovetone Big Cheese/ Geofex Great Cheddar, especially if you run a boost in front of it. 

Another way you could get it is running two fuzzes in parallel, out of phase with each other, with different gain, the attack of the low gain one would cancel out the higher gain one, because they'd be equal volume, then as the low gain one decayed, but the high gain sustained, the higher gain fuzz would fade in.

[Processaurus]

There is the Prescription Electronics Experience pedal, that had a strangely implemented swell function that would couple changin DC onto the output, bizarre!

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=21126.0


There's The Tone God's "Punisher" circuit that varies the power supply to any effect circuit based on envelope, with some experimenting that could definitely make a fuzz change its timbre over a the length of a note.

[doug deeper]

my guess is that its a blond bassman cranked up with studio compression for the main riff,  (i read that they used bassmans somewhere)
all the fuzz stuff in the verses is backwards, and the solo sounds like it could be a bosstone.

[superferrite]

I built a Bosstone because I heard that's what they were using, but I have a seventies Bassman 10--not at all like a tweed bassman (but a cool amp nonetheless).

Still can't get it but thanks for the advice.  Neil is worshiped around here (Tucson) so maybe I'll ask some of the old desert rockers for some input.  And yes, they mostly have tweed Bassman reissues or the real deal.

[petemoore]

  buncha stuff with 'edge'.
  Not too many of them are terribly sharp or jagged.
  The amplitude modulation of certain frequencies [namely treble] when loud low notes are hit does seem 'jagged' in it's ramp up/down times, very nice.
  Tube amp..loaded. See Tweed Deluxe, 5e3, Ampage...in there's a buncha stuff [how to "NY-ize" my 15w amp"] and other stuff about what Mr.Y did with and had done to his amps [6L6'd...EtC.].
  The amp can be, and is where a lot of the work is done which makes the 'distressed output' [compression, distortion, HF attenuation w/high output levels caused by high input levels, slight ducking of mid and other 'peculiar' non-linearities...] sound distressed.
  Could be that a simple fuzz-boost is all it takes to put 'the Edge' the amp is on, right over the top.
  Compression in addition to the compression...if you're really fuzzing and not having the amp do most of the work tasks, otherwise comp I think would level the amp input amounts and reduce it's desirable odd behaviour.
  In boxes:
  PUnisher for kix and dux. Minibooster is self biasing ...
  Fuzz or two, I like FF in general but I've tuned it to do so, many simple fuzzes need tuned and then sound fuzzy like 'I' think though.
  Push hard enough and something will 'buckle', put the punisher on there and push you're guaranteed to have buckling and it makes another parameter you can adjust and help shape your 'edge' with.
  Two FF's might do that.
  Dist+ could be the distortion 'engine', in combo with...
  ...and you might discover a way that does 'it' without the output loading. 
 

[Ben N]

I used to get something like that by overloading the input of a cassette deck--dunno how practical that is.

[petemoore]

  "Woodstock".
  I had to hear it regularly.
  I heard that one and the Juke Box played it every time we were having our chocolate shakes and playing pinball in Bitburg.
  Like everything else 'cool' in [guess it was 1971], it had been out for two years before I heard wind of it, Woodstock got at least 1rst play at the eat-hall on the base when we got there.
  I thought that was Stevens guitar doing those 'soul'ful leads, now I'm thinking maybe that had to be Neil making those sounds.
  Yupp, those tones were gifts, those juke-box quarters were great investments, even now I get back-chills hearing them clearly in memory.

[superferrite]

Thanks for the insights guys.  I have fifty loud watts and running it full out is a bit much for me these days.

Another guy whose tone I admire is Reine Fiske of the band Dungen, and he has something similar going on.  I think he has a strat/fuzzface overloading the preamp of his Echolette before his Marshall.

I'll start stacking things up!

[Caferacernoc]

Yeah, if you can't crank the amp then putting a compressor after the fuzz can be set to simulate that "no, I can't take anymore" sag when you really dig in. Love that sound.

[superferrite]

I GOT IT!

Guitar>Sparkle Boost>GE FuzzRITE>slightly overdriven amp.

I had to get my Fuzzrite going again and build a Sparkle Boost first, then it came easy.  The Ge transistors are squishing to hell, I'd imagine.

[Uma Floresta]

I've been able to get something like that with stacked ROG pedals, like the Professor Tweed and Supreaux, the first in line set very loud to kind of overload the next.

Also got something sort of similar with a Big Muff and a Daddy-O. The key seems to be one pedal pushing putting massive amounts of volume and a bit of dirt into the next pedal.

[trendyironicname]

I know this is probably blasphemy. I really like the song.  And this undoubtedly is brought up by somebody everytime this song is played.  But doesn't it make you want him to bust out with "satisfaction" real quick? 

[puretube]

A nice "bloom" can be emulated by dialing in the "BAL"-knob (P2) near the center-position in "fuzz"-mode
with the "FUZZTAVE"
of thè march-contest...