Fuzz - One confusing effect

[emperor_black]

Primarily a metal player...luhvvee distortion!! But I can never understand who or why someone would still like to use a Fuzz pedal. It just sounds like too much clipping to the point of noise. Anyone use it? I think Hendrix used it. But the poor guy did not have access to modern day distortion. If he did, you think he'd still use it?

Listen to this video...especially at 2:25. Point me to some great tones done with fuzz pedal will ya?

[Devotee]

If i remember correctly, Hendrix used to use a Fuzz Face.

Personally, i think fuzz is better suited to single notes rather than chords or polyphonic sounds in general. Any kind of distortion is essentially just soft signal clipping and fuzz is merely a harder clip which gives a more buzzy sound.

[emperor_black]

:idea: Now I know what's inside a Krankenstein.

[Hellbat]

Every time I see people say "name a song with fuzz" all I can think of is...

I built my own germanium fuzz (fuzzface copy) back in the early 80's. I couldn't get a good tone out of it though! I thought I did a shitty job building it for all these years but it sounds like it was doing exactly what it should have been.

[Twitch]

Sounds to me like if thats the tone youre after, you could save yourself a shit ton of money and buy a kazoo. And now for a kazoo solo.....

[Hellbat]

Well you have to remember at the end of the 60's and into the late 70's it was the only way to get your guitar to sound like a synth. It's a limited effect though. You can only really use it for single note stuff or at most 2 note power chords. More than that and you don't hear the notes, just the hair.

[toejam]

Sounds to me like if thats the tone youre after, you could save yourself a shit ton of money and buy a kazoo. And now for a kazoo solo.....

Saigon Kick used a kazoo! @ 2:52

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp8kD0YpAGY

[toejam]

Point me to some great tones done with fuzz pedal will ya?

Monster Magnet uses a lot of fuzz!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf49V2yB3Z4

[rstites]

Fuzz is pretty much limited to single notes or perhaps some two note power chords. A lot of early Sabbath solos are fuzz. If you try one yourself, there are a few things that can really make or break them. The best ones are pretty sensitive to volume changes form the guitar, so roll the volume back a bit and see what happens. Sometimes that'll roll it back to a nice smooth distortion sound. Second, they were built for running low output pickups into low gain amps. They are never going to be a good match for high output pickups or high gain amps, let alone the combination of the two.

Btw, I've gotten some great results from fuzzes into amps on the edge of breakup, where the natural compression of the amp smooths out the edges of the fuzz. In no case, have I ever gotten any kind of good metal sound from one. They all kill the lows (or at least the definition of the lows) pretty badly.

[warlok]

I can't see what any of the videos posted are from work but I think of Doobie Bros., China Grove when I think of fuzz.

[Hellbat]

I found a new video from a band that uses Fuzz. I guess no shock that they play stoner rock/metal...

[toejam]

I found a new video from a band that uses Fuzz. I guess no shock that they play stoner rock/metal...

That's awesome! I love bands like that.

[Endrik]

Listen to this video...especially at 2:25. Point me to some great tones done with fuzz pedal will ya?

Every fuzz tone in that video sounded great.