Through the emotional ringer with Fuzz

[gerraguitar]

Just spent the past 2 hours playing with a strat, the King of tone, a peppermint fuzz, and a twin reverb...

I've been working on trying to gel better with fuzz, I don't hate fuzz but I can't seem to get along with this particular one. I had a straight up Dunlop FF for awhile but ditched it. What this tells me is I simply am just trying to make this fuzz work for me when I'm clearly more used to/familiar with a fuzz face style pedal. I like the pep fuzz when I do leads and LOVE how it cleans up, and I really don't wanna part with it.

My question(s)........legit, what does everyone do?!? I also am aware that a twin isn't going to produce the best results, so that means to throw an OD or something in the mix. How do you keep it from sounding like mud? What have you found makes a good fuzz and OD for clean amps. Am I just not a fuzz person? Have I not come across the 'right' pedal? I feel I'm trying to fit a circular peg through a square hole...but I'm also not to ally inept either, not to ride my own horse.

Sorry for most likely beating a dead horse. I feel someone will answer with I should simply just try other pedals, but I would much rather have a better understanding before I go switching my rig around.

Thanks.

 

[Fuzzr]

You don't pick the fuzz
The fuzz picks you.

 

[gerraguitar]

You don't pick the fuzz
The fuzz picks you.

Is there an application?

 

[FuzzFaceJ]

maybe you should look into a Sunface, they have an input trimmer that can dial out the woofiness. can tailor the fuzz for nearly any amp or guitar combo I've tried.

 

[AXXA]

I would say fuzz takes some experimentation to really get what you're after. It sounds like you've only tried 2, which are both essentially fuzz faces. If you are pretty close to where you want to be, try stacking with other pedals, tweaking guitar and amp controls etc. Maybe even try another fuzz face type. But if you feel like you don't have the fuzz sound you want at all, then start looking into muffs, benders, and other circuits. A million flavors out there, for better or worse.

FWIW, I use a Twin for most of my fuzzes, but some feel a dirtier amp is the way to go. I prefer the Twin, even with fuzz faces.

 

[la noise]

What's your chain like? Is your KOT before or after the Pep?

 

[jdel77]

Of all dirt pedals (boost, overdrive, distortion and fuzz) I would say fuzz is most amp and speakers dependent.
And of all amps and speaker combinations, the frequency band affected most is mids.
Ergo, some, none or lots of mids will uttertly dictate what a fuzz pedal sounds like.
I wouldn't run a fuzz into a Twin.
They are mid scooped amps with an emphasis on lows and highs. You put a mid scooped fuzz into one of those and your pants will flap from the low end flub as you cover your ears to block out the shrieking highs.
But into a Vox, Marshall, Orange or Hiwatt, those same fuzz pedals become saliva inducing!
Because of the amp mids.

Take your pedals into a music store and try a range of amps.

 

[FuzzFaceJ]

Fuzz faces in general seem to love Marshalls

 

[arcduelist]

Run the fuzz into the KOT set at low/med gain. Gary Clark Jr does that and he gets amazing fuzz tones. He switched out the KOT for a TS9 at the moment though.

 

[gerraguitar]

I used to run it before the fuzz but have switched to running after it. I do think that I just haven't found a fuzz that I can work with. I am looking at getting a SunFace and some muff variants, recently started getting hooked on a bender too.

I enjoy what fuzz sounds like, someone mentioned GCJr, who is at the front of the pack for myself. Thanks for the input, Hallmark should consider a new line of "get well soon" cards or such occasions.