I have been mesin around with the big muff fuzz pedal and find it makes a good fuzz tone with gain. It doesn't seem to be very dynamic. I am curious to know if there is a fuzz pedal that is more transparent and offers better pick pressure sensitivity for blues style music. Some information i have found suggests a "fuzz face" pedal is good for blues. Anyone have experience with fuzz and blues willing to share their knowledge.
I've been using a Fulltone '69 Pedal (germanium transistor Fuzz Face variant) for blues based music for the past 15 years or so. It does not offer the amount of fuzz that a BMP does but it's a very dynamic, responsive pedal. It cleans up based on guitar volume and picking dynamics better than any other dirt pedal I've played, by far. Seriously- even with the fuzz set to max, it'll go fully clean with most of my guitars and amps.
A couple of nice features with the '69 Pedal are the Bias and Contour controls. Lowering the Bias allows the pedal to work better with wahs. Raising the Contour helps the pedal cut through the mix.
Mine is an older one from 1999 but I owned a recent one for a short while and, while it didn't sound quite as incredible to my ears, I would've loved it if I didn't have mine and that might just be because I'm so used to it.
A close second for me would be the Keeley Fuzz Head. This pedal is somewhere between an overdrive and a fuzz pedal. It also cleans up very well.
I saw the 69 on your pedal board, but I didn't know what it was. Good to know. For me the BMP has too much fuzz and gain for blues. It pretty much makes it own stand alone sound and while I can hear a dirt pedal through it the BMP dominates the tone. I would like a fuzz pedal that allows the dirt pedal to dominate the tone with a fuzzy overlay and fuzzy edges. I will see if you tube has a demo video of the fulltone 69.Originally Posted by Don
If you check out videos on YouTube make sure that they show the pedal used at different guitar volume level settings. That's a really important aspect of this pedal for me, and I think you'll appreciate it too.
+1 on a GE fuzz face, only thing is they basically require 9v batteries as they are positive center pin and will blow up your power if you dont have them on a dedicated line (seriously).
I use a Wren & Cuff, a bit higher gain and has a bass cut. Analogman Sun Faces with the higher gain transistors would be my second choice.
If you want a lower gain big muff, I'd highly recommend either the Wren & Cuff Tall Font Russian or the Stomp Under Foot Green Russian; these sovtek based muffs have considerably less gain than say a violet/triangle muff, and more mids. Great pedals.
Honestly though if you need a simple solution you aren't going to beat the Tall Font Russian. Fuzz Faces are tricky and the silicon ones do not sound that good to me (they do their thing well, I just dont like that thing). A low gain muff is always killer. A low gain GE fuzz face is sometimes killer, sometimes intolerable.
I got a germanium fuzz face in my chain.
What I can say is that I love the sound... When it sounds good.
Germ fuzzes are probably the most unstable, temperamental and moody pedals you can get. Tone varies highly depending on the power and local temperature/humidity conditons.
I ditched it because I never knew how it would sound until I got on the stage and switched everything on. I play many fuzz songs and in some gigs my tone was awesome, in others it was noisy and irritatingly thin. Sometimes the SOB swallows the bass and gets all trebly and hums like a beehive. Awful.
Another thing I've noticed: it sounds wonderfully rich with humbuckers, not so much with single coils.
I get a less fuzzy but much more trustworthy "fuzz" tone using the amp's gain or other crude dirt pedals.
I think i am going to pass on germanium units. I read the same that they are heat sensitive and can fail if too hot or change tone when least expected. I found a video of the fulltone 69. It does sound more like a dirt pedal than a fuzz pedal. I need to hear one live. I then heard the full tone 70. I think i liked its tone better. It seemed smoother more like the BMP but not as fat as the BMP. I think i am going to experiment. I moved the BMP to the front of the dirt pedal chain. I will experiment tomorrow after work to see what the different location in the chain sounds like. If i can't get a sound i like for blues out of the BMP I will keep looking and testing pedals.
My Fulltone '69 and the newer one that I tried are/were very stable except when it is very hot out and in direct sunlight. In that case, I have a silicone Fuzz Face variant (Fulltone '70 or BMF Sisyphuzz) in my bag. Unfortunately, they don't respond like the '69.
For me, in my experience so far, I vastly prefer germanium in order to get the variety of sounds that I want playing live from a fuzz pedal.
I was fortunate, I didn't really know what to expect from the '69 Pedal when I bought mine used back in 2000 or so. I just lucked out that it was the pedal for me.
Screwing around at home, if I want a little more extreme fuzz, I use a Soul-Bender, Big Muff, HBE UFO, Fuzz Factory clone and a Fuzzrite clone.
If you want more fuzz than a Fuzz Face I recommend that you check out the Soul Bender or other Tone Bender MKII and MKIII variants.
Thanks Don. Sounds like your are very pleased with your FT69. I will need to hear these pedals in person to determine their actual tone or find an online dealers who will accept returns if they're not what I'm looking for. Listening through a laptop has its drawbacks.
These ft69 mk1 pedals are few and far. None in Craig's list none in the local music stores and maybe four to six used available online. I found a 97 and a few mid 2000 models. I may have buy one to hear it. What songs was it used in?
Thanks Sergio. I play single coil guitars. What about the jimmy hendrix model seems like it would be voiced for single coils.
My advice is: try every pedal until you find what rocks your boat.
Fuzz is a VERY cool kind of dirt, but in fact it ain't easy to tame the germanium pedals, and the silicone ones aren't just as cool.
ThanksSergio. Good to know. I agree fuzz is a very cool sound.
I found the Green Russian on a reasonably good quality video. I think it is a nice sounding pedal, but it seems to be voiced for a type of modern rock which it does very well. I don't think it has a dirty blues type of voice. Thanks for the tip.
This is opposite of what most players say about Fuzz Faces. I find mine Fuzz Face type pedals to work well with either, though I play guitars with single coil pickups most of the time.
This is the bottom line! Like everything else related to music, fuzz is a very personal thing.
@Don. What popular songs were played using the FT69? I cannot seem to find a quality video to hear the tone it generates. I found a 97 $300 and a 2007 $250 with the same germanium transistors in both. Was the newer pedal you owned the mk1 or the mk2?
I don't know what popular songs would've featured it. Mine is a big box original that I bought in 2000 or so for $120 (it seemed expensive at the time). I would not pay $250-300 for one. I'd buy the MKII. That's what the newer one was. When I used it in rehearsals you couldn't tell them apart. The difference was very subtle.
Interesting. I myself could never get no satisfaction from mine with my strats (no pun intended) but it seemed to sound cooler with the SG I used to own
Thanks for the info. I was really struggling with the thought of paying $250 plus for a 69 pedal. With the exception of a few pedals i own all of them were purchased at a substantial discount.
fuzz face clones are made by lots of reputable dealers.
I assure you, you CANNOT do better than Analogman. You see his Sun Faces on tons of pro boards. He will build you a brand new one for 185.
You can do as well (like I said, I use a W&C, which was about the same price, it's about as good but rather than a bias knob it has a bass cut, which is good for a home player), but you cannot do better.
@Don. Does the FT69 sound like this guitar? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovYi2ptyWsI
My '69 Pedal can get pretty close to that. My BMF Sisyphuzz (silicon) gets a little closer. It's less "wooly" that the '69 and '70.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote