I recently just got a used 69 fuzz pedal. I play it through a blues junior with my american standard tele. When I first click on the 69 it has a real nice bity, edgy tone, the longer I play the muddier it gets. Anyone have any suggestions of what could be causing this? I just put a brand new battery in it as well
battery maybe? The funny thing is, tone likes to play with your head! I can find a setting one day and think it's exactly what I wanted and go back in the room the next day and it sounds like poo.... Don't know why or can I explain it..... Tone just likes to mess with people's heads....
I own both a '69 and a '70 pedal. Two things I have found is that if you are using batteries use only the cheap carbon ones like Eveready Heavy duty They last for a long time. Mine have been in for two plus months and I play alot. Make sure to unplug the input though when not in use. Also fuzz pedals are sensitive to input. I have mine first in the chain. They do not like to see a bufferred output. Also one last thing is that the guts are sensitive to temperature changes. Wiggle the fuzz knob a bit ( you will hear crackle, that is normal). By the way what are your settings for the '69 Chris
Or maybe you're just experiencing ear fatigue. You used the terms "biting" and "edgy," which often are pointers toward the tonal high end. A little too much "biting" for too long and your ear starts attenuating the high end and things can start sounding muddy. R A Z
right now I am using the suggest settings, Volume at 12, bias at full, countor at 4, and fuzz at about 4
Try your contour at about 12-1 o clock and see if you prefer that sound more. Also make sure to wiggle the fuzz level around that setting you have till it is louder. I do that right before I start my session or gig and it seems to keep the tone I am looking for more consistent. That is what I prefer and I use the pedal with my guitar volume full and rolled back for blues. The batteries I stated sound much smoother than alkaline and or a power supply. There is a smaller dif between the P.S. and the Eveready batteries. I got 75 of them on ebay for $15. Chris
My settings are volume cranked, bias 4 o'clock, contour 2 o'clock and fuzz 2 o'clock. I think using a higher volume setting may help you. Btw I'm using mine with carbon zinc batteries, with the amp is set for a slight dirty tone and with the '69 first in the chain.
Thanks for all the replies. It does sound alittle better with the volume turned up and the knobs tweaked a bit
I run all of my knobs on my 69' at 3:00 settings. TheGrooveking Oh yea, it must be powered by a non-alkaline battery, to bring out the best in it.
I got bored with the stock sound in my 69' and decided to change a few components. Long story short I now have a OC75 in as the volume transistor and a low-gain silicon (can't remember the model) as the fuzz tranny. Capable of a lot of clean boost with and amazing drive dynamics, where quiet picking is completely clean and hard goes fully mayhem, with all colours between (tones like in Sunshine of your love are quite possible to get). Tried two OC75s first and it sounded amazing, but was way too unstable (had to kick it after activating to get it to work, changing 50% to silicon helped) and went through 15 different types and hFEs of silicons.. Still thinking about if I should upgrade the caps to SoZo or something similar.
