Wah into Fuzz tone

[Motterpaul]

I just had a client who had an inductor0based Buddha Wah and also a Germanium Sonus 1968 Jimi Mod Fuzz. These two things would not play together. Both of them like to see an impedance that is coming right off of a guitar, but if you put the Wah before the Fuzz the wah output impedance is too low to drive the Fuzz. So what you need is a buffer before the Fuzztone.

I just installed a FoxRox buffer into the Buddha Wah and suddenly we have a working Wah going into the Germanium Fuzz pedal with all the Wah Wah tone you want. The beauty of the internal buffer is that it turns off when the Wah is off so you Fuzz still gets the guitar straight signal when the Wah is turned off.

Here are the rules; if you have a Germanium Fuzz your Wah will just sound bassy and it will not reproduce the trebly Wah sound. If you have a SILICON Fuzz trone then the Wah will just squeal when you rock it back - completely unusable.

I built the FoxRox by hand and installation was east, and it does work. I saw a lot of messages online that said the FoxRox fixed nothing. Well, they must have done something wrong because the one I built works great.

 

[The-Kid]

I just had a client who had an inductor0based Buddha Wah and also a Germanium Sonus 1968 Jimi Mod Fuzz. These two things would not play together. Both of them like to see an impedance that is coming right off of a guitar, but if you put the Wah before the Fuzz the wah output impedance is too low to drive the Fuzz. So what you need is a buffer before the Fuzztone.

I just installed a FoxRox buffer into the Buddha Wah and suddenly we have a working Wah going into the Germanium Fuzz pedal with all the Wah Wah tone you want. The beauty of the internal buffer is that it turns off when the Wah is off so you Fuzz still gets the guitar straight signal when the Wah is turned off.

Here are the rules; if you have a Germanium Fuzz your Wah will just sound bassy and it will not reproduce the trebly Wah sound. If you have a SILICON Fuzz trone then the Wah will just squeal when you rock it back - completely unusable.

I built the FoxRox by hand and installation was east, and it does work. I saw a lot of messages online that said the FoxRox fixed nothing. Well, they must have done something wrong because the one I built works great.

A good life hack is simply putting a buffered pedal in between a wah and fuzz to rectify impedances.


TS9, Boss or anything with a buffer just works as a faux "fuzz friendly" solution used this way.

 

[Motterpaul]

A good life hack is simply putting a buffered pedal in between a wah and fuzz to rectify impedances.


TS9, Boss or anything with a buffer just works as a faux "fuzz friendly" solution used this way.

Yeah, that is a good way to see if a buffer will help your fuzz work better, but to just add a buffered pedal before the fuzz is not as good as being able to turn the buffer off when not using the WAH. That is why you put the buffer circuit inside the wah and have it power up and switch on only when you turn on the WAH - otherwise, it should not be in front of the fuzz in most cases.

 

[The-Kid]

Yeah, that is a good way to see if a buffer will help your fuzz work better, but to just add a buffered pedal before the fuzz is not as good as being able to turn the buffer off when not using the WAH. That is why you put the buffer circuit inside the wah and have it power up and switch on only when you turn on the WAH - otherwise, it should not be in front of the fuzz in most cases.

Some folks say that about a buffer before a fuzz not sounding good but it just fixes the issues for the most part and it doesnt sound bad either IMO even when not using the wah and just using the fuzz.

YMMV but it just works and doesnt sound half bad.

 

[Big Monk]

I just cleaned up all the offboard wiring on my PedalPCB Tearjerker and made the Mids and Q control externally controlled.

I have one of the PedalPCB JFET buffer add on boards come and it will be wired right after my “Echoes” switch but before the stomp so it turns off when the Wah is off.

I’m using the Tearjerker into a Hybrid Fuzz Face.

 

[John Mark Painter]

If you've got 45 minutes to burn, this is a good one

 

[Motterpaul]

I think the best thing about FoxRox is that it is specifically built to interface with an inductor wah - which has a very low impedance output. I just also wanted to say that the FoxRox does work (I saw some messages implying they tried one and it did nothing).

I also think a good solution is as #5 suggested - use a separate pedal after the wah, but use that pedal to turn on both the buffer and the Wah. That way you can disable the often problematic footswitch under the Wah pedal and just switch on the wah with another pedal.

 

[L0ki]

I put the foxrox buffer into my BBE wah and (very modified) vox wah. It works great!

 

[Bajan]

My RMC10 came with the FoxRox buffer stock, like all Teese wahs. I run it straight into a Monsterpiece NPN silicon fuzz and it works just fine.

 

[Motterpaul]

This is all good to know. When I first started researching buffers for "wahs into fuzz" I saw quite a few posts saying the FoxRox was not a sure-fire fix. I think it might be a little difficult to install inside the wah (you need good instructions) but it worked really well. Even the trimmer gives a surprising amount of play. Also, I just built mine from a schematic so it didn't cost me much at all in materials.