Best Fuzz?

[drweller]

Best Fuzz? Loaded question, I know. :P

I'm not an aficionado by ANY stretch of the imagination - and barely a fan. Find some good uses...and find I need a nice fuzz. So, chime in with your thoughts.

Used in conjunction with typically EL84 based amps. Largely Single coil pups, but more and more use with humbucker guitars. Strat/Tele/LP styles. Music style doesn't matter - all over the board...but feel free to group by styles if you find that's appropriate.

Appreciate the insights!

Cheers!

[abnerfm]

The "Bias" knob on the Fulltone '69 helps you with humbuckers.

[StompBoxBlues]

As does the input impedance AND bias knobs on the Neo and GI fuzz.

For me personally, and I have the '69, GI, and Neo, among others, and (as I recently started a thread mentioning how much difference it makes playing single-coil or humbuckers in fuzzes especially...you did GREAT by asking for exactly the guitars you plan on using...very smart!) I would say the best of the lot is the GI Fuzz. Check out it's features....it has tone shaping, and most important you can tailor input AND output for the guitar you use, it is easy to set, and I find (though it has the same knobs as the Neo, the Neo is less flexible soundwise) it can go from Hendrix, Cream, to something else.

Another one...but it is harder to learn but has a ton of great sounds, is the Fuzz Factory.

'69 is Fulltone.
GI and Neo are MI Audio
Fuzz Factory is made by Zvex.

ALL are great, and all can be used with both main types of guitar, but for my money (and money...the MI Audio are inexpensive relatively for a fuzz, and no waiting list!...I think they don't make the '69 any more due to lack of good transistors for it)..

[freeradical]

Look, first start with a Big Muff and a Fuzz Face type circuit and get an idea of what the differences between them. Find what your preferences might be and go from there. You will have a frame of reference that you can communicate with other fuzz users.

[tjmicsak]

Check out the MJM site as they cover a vast amount of fuzz territory and they are representitive of the Germanium Fuzz Face, the Silicon Fuzz Face, the Tone Benders, and the Shin Ei (Univox Superfuzz) all in the same place. There is also a great link to a page of all the Muffs in audio samples to compare them.

http://www.stompunderfoot.com/BIG_MUFFS.html

Fuzzes work directly with the pickups and are very responsive to output so a good fuzz will be controlled by your guitar volume pot and clean up when rolled back. This means a higher output of the humbuckers will give a stronger wooly fuzz than the single coils. This can sound good at times but other times it may seem way to congested. You can either roll back the HB guitar or find a unit with a "pre gain" control, which is simply having a second "guitar pot" on the unit itself to reduce the initial input while keeping the guitar pot on 10.

Germanium transistors are responsive to temperature. They increasingly leak and drift as they warm up from hot weather or an outdoor gig. A great feature to have is a bias adjustment knob to readjust the transistor and keep it in the "sweet spot". With Silicon transistors you won't have this issue, but Si transistors are a bit brighter and don't have as good a clean up response with the volume pot. They do clean up, but not to the point of a chimey clean that some nice Ge transistors will- more like to the point of a gritty/dirty clean.

[acwild]

That is a very loaded question but here's my picks.

Low gain - Sun Face NKT
Mid to high - Dice Works Finale
Off the wall - ZVex Fuzz Factory

[drweller]

That is a very loaded question...

Yes, yes it is. :agree ;)

Appreciate the comments - keep 'em coming.

DW.

[ChaseTMP]

I looove my Penny Pedals Fingerprint, through my AC30.

The Keeley Fuzz Head sounded great but, on the OD side of fuzz.

I wasn't a big fan of the Skreddy Mayo, through the Vox.

[Jumblefingers]

That is a very loaded question but here's my picks.

Low gain - Sun Face NKT
Mid to high - Dice Works Finale
Off the wall - ZVex Fuzz Factory

This is really good advice for you...only thing I would change is the new Mastotron bv Zvex as opposed to Fuzz Factory as it really covers a ton of ground. In fact, it is where I would start. Be prepared to spend some time tweaking...worth the effort.

[Steven]

IMHO there is no best - it all depends on what youre after in terms of fuzz sounds and what other gear you wanna use the fuzz with. My fuzz search has ended in this: I´m a Fuzz face kind of guy - mostly germanium fuzzes and I (mostly) use this rig: 1965 strat or James Tyler BW2K or different Teles > Analogman Sunface NKT275 fuzz > Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret > Badcat Tremcat with Celestion Gold speaker. IMHO almost all fuzzes sound harsh and trebly into a clean amp so unless you´re running a cranked old style non master volume amp you will need a dirt pedal to stack the fuzz into. The best I have found is the Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret. Many dirt pedals sound like crap when you put a fuzz into it.

YMMV of course.

[drweller]

Good thoughts.

I run all the amps with a little hair - back off the guitar volume to clean them up, and kick on other drives to get 'em furry.

Am after a few different Fuzz flavors - silicone, germanium, maybe a couple varieties of each. They seem to be quite picky about amps, guitars, other items in the signal path. So, a bit of variety will be nice for various applications.

[Burgs]

I'm another believer in the 'no best fuzz' philosophy. There are just different fuzzes for different applications, that's all. However, I have to fly the flag once again for the Dice Works Fuzz Epic (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owrADxUj4cY) as it offers a heap of different flavours; perhaps more so than any other box I've come across. You would be hard pressed not to find a suitable flavor for all of your axes.