Ivor Fuzz by Dustin Francis

[Gilky]

After a horrendous week, I just got an Ivor Germanium from Dustin. It's the 5th or 6th Ivor I have had and the 2nd germanium and my goodness, they never cease to give me a huge smile. What a welcome little break from the problems of the real world. For the record, I kept the BC108 tuned to sound like Gilmour and this germanium is staying, does the Jimi thing like a champ.

Ok so I’m running a fairly clean amp (Victoria victorilux) would you guys run a tube screamer after it? I’m also using a Strat with single coil vmod pickups if that helps

I am running mine into a KingTone Duellist and it sounds incredible with the Tube Screamer side. It just takes the fuzz and puts it on steroids.

 

[Roytaurus]

After a horrendous week, I just got an Ivor Germanium from Dustin. It's the 5th or 6th Ivor I have had and the 2nd germanium and my goodness, they never cease to give me a huge smile. What a welcome little break from the problems of the real world. For the record, I kept the BC108 tuned to sound like Gilmour and this germanium is staying, does the Jimi thing like a champ.





I am running mine into a KingTone Duellist and it sounds incredible with the Tube Screamer side. It just takes the fuzz and puts it on steroids.

Congrats man! I just got mine yesterday and at the right volume it sounds great! Cleans up as well as everyone here claims it to. I’m coming from using Scott Mckeon Fuzz with the ac128 and man do I love this thus far. I might need a different amp tho as my amp is fairly clean.

 

[EXP]

Ok so I’m running a fairly clean amp (Victoria victorilux) would you guys run a tube screamer after it? I’m also using a Strat with single coil vmod pickups if that helps

I have a Victorilux (6L6GC) and would use a MIAB type to juice it up. The Menatone Working Man Blues or KOTB works great with a Fender style amp and stacks well with the Ivor. A Tubescreamer tends to compress/squash the tone of a FF and smoothes out the fuzz too much IMO. If you want to preserve the highs and rawness of the fuzz I personally wouldn’t use a TS.

 

[Roytaurus]

I have a Victorilux (6L6GC) and would use a MIAB type to juice it up. The Menatone Working Man Blues or KOTB works great with a Fender style amp and stacks well with the Ivor. A Tubescreamer tends to compress/squash the tone of a FF and smoothes out the fuzz too much IMO. If you want to preserve the highs and rawness of the fuzz I personally wouldn’t use a TS.

That’s a great idea! I have the el84 model and one of the older ones that only has a treble and bass knob ( no mids.) have you tried something like this with your set up?

 

[EXP]

After a horrendous week, I just got an Ivor Germanium from Dustin. It's the 5th or 6th Ivor I have had and the 2nd germanium and my goodness, they never cease to give me a huge smile. What a welcome little break from the problems of the real world. For the record, I kept the BC108 tuned to sound like Gilmour and this germanium is staying, does the Jimi thing like a champ.

Cool man. Which Jimi? What did you do with the BC-108 that I traded you? I’ll buy that mofo in a heartbeat. I’m on my fourth myself (and as much as I would love a red ‘66 Ivor) it’s hard to imagine it sounding better than my black one.

Which transistors are in your germanium?

 

[Gilky]

Cool man. Which Jimi? What did you do with the BC-108 that I traded you? I’ll buy that mofo in a heartbeat. I’m on my fourth myself (and as much as I would love a red ‘66 Ivor) it’s hard to imagine it sounding better than my black one.

Which transistors are in your germanium?

That BC108 was amazing but I traded it on for a Cornish TES (not straight up), but only because I kept my Dark Blue Gilmour BC108. The germanium has NKT red dot transistors. I was riffing on Manic Depression, Third Stone and a few others and it just sounded glorious. This particular one cleans up so amazingly, to that beautiful glassy clean, but it can go from very very dirty to clean better than any one I have had yet. It's a beautiful thing.

 

[tinkercity]

That’s a great idea! I have the el84 model and one of the older ones that only has a treble and bass knob ( no mids.) have you tried something like this with your set up?

Another great pedal I've found to work really well with Fuzz is the Greer Lightspeed. It should help ease up the headroom on your amp. The XTS Iridium is great too. Alot of people like the Jan Ray but I found it to smooth out the tone too much like the aforementioned Tube Screamer.

The Lightspeed is super natural sounding.

 

[EXP]

That BC108 was amazing but I traded it on for a Cornish TES (not straight up), but only because I kept my Dark Blue Gilmour BC108. The germanium has NKT red dot transistors. I was riffing on Manic Depression, Third Stone and a few others and it just sounded glorious. This particular one cleans up so amazingly, to that beautiful glassy clean, but it can go from very very dirty to clean better than any one I have had yet. It's a beautiful thing.

Is Dustin doing NKT-275’s now? Sounds like my black Ivor..cleans up at 9 and does Manic Depression and AYE for days. What’s the gain structure like, is it smooth or velcro ripping? Mine can get nasty but I usually keep the fuzz at 60% and crank the volume.

Damn I loved that BC-108. But I couldn’t be happier with the Sir Henry. I sent it to Dustin (really cool guy BTW) and he did the Hendrix mods free of charge. He told me the one you had was mellow sounding. The previous owner before you had adjusted the internal trimmers for less throb and bulb gain than stock. Now it’s killer and staying on my board. Fast speed sounds much better now:

 

[EXP]

That’s a great idea! I have the el84 model and one of the older ones that only has a treble and bass knob ( no mids.) have you tried something like this with your set up?

Pretty much the same circuit topography AFAIK the 6L6 version is just louder. Maybe a bit glassier and more bass from the bigger bottles. The Victorilux has a rounder tone than a BF Fender that goes well with a brighter grindy Marshall type drive IMO. It’s darker than my Super Reverb or Twinplex but takes dirt pedals better. The reverb is awesome and probably the best I’ve tried.

 

[Gilky]

Is Dustin doing NKT-275’s now? Sounds like my black Ivor..cleans up at 9 and does Manic Depression and AYE for days. What’s the gain structure like, is it smooth or velcro ripping? Mine can get nasty but I usually keep the fuzz at 60% and crank the volume.

Damn I loved that BC-108. But I couldn’t be happier with the Sir Henry. I sent it to Dustin (really cool guy BTW) and he did the Hendrix mods free of charge. He told me the one you had was mellow sounding. The previous owner before you had adjusted the internal trimmers for less throb and bulb gain than stock. Now it’s killer and staying on my board. Fast speed sounds much better now:

Not sure if it's 275, but they do say NKT and they do have a red dot. I'll try to take a closer look next time I open it up. The tag just says NKT. I don't know enough about transistors but I did look today and saw the NKT and the red dot. It does not sound like velcro, both of the BC183s I had did and it's not my flavor though it was cool with humbuckers.

I am surprised with this one because it cleans up better than the last germanium I had, but it also gets dirtier. I had it with the Duellist after, both on and really pushing hard with that violin sustain, but it just cleans up to an amazing sweet glassy clean with just the volume knob, even with the Duellist still on, I was pretty surprised. It's the raunchiest fuzz I have had that cleans up so well.

 

[EXP]

Not sure if it's 275, but they do say NKT and they do have a red dot. I'll try to take a closer look next time I open it up. The tag just says NKT. I don't know enough about transistors but I did look today and saw the NKT and the red dot. It does not sound like velcro, both of the BC183s I had did and it's not my flavor though it was cool with humbuckers.

I am surprised with this one because it cleans up better than the last germanium I had, but it also gets dirtier. I had it with the Duellist after, both on and really pushing hard with that violin sustain, but it just cleans up to an amazing sweet glassy clean with just the volume knob, even with the Duellist still on, I was pretty surprised. It's the raunchiest fuzz I have had that cleans up so well.

Did it come with the Arbiter tag that has the hfe gain numbers?

I would be surprised if they were red dot NKT-275 his stash dried up pretty quick. Sounds a lot like mine with NKT-212’s; high gain but has the same glassy cleans and is really touch sensitive. It does a great overdrive better than most OD’s I’ve tried. Sometimes I don’t even crank the Marshall..just use the Ivor and roll the volume down to 8-9. Had two BC-183 Ivors (BC-183KA and 183L) but they didn’t clean up as well as the NKT.

 

[Gilky]

It came with the tag but it doesn't say the gain numbers and it just says NKT. Just opened it up...