&#8220;Crank The Fuzz !&#8221; Series – #1

Dry Line Driver
Black Effect Pedals

Type : Overdrive / Boost

Fuzzawe
Black Effect Pedals

Type : Fuzz

OCD
Fulltone

Type : Overdrive

His Story :

My main fuzz/distortion at the moment is a Dr. No (that’s the brand, it’s a Dutch one) Madfly. What I like about the Madfly, is that its articulation is super nice. In other words: it’s not a completely over the top wooly typical fuzz. It has a distortion like quality to it (Dr. No called the old version, which I have, a distortion pedal; the newer version is called a fuzz), which means that it has attack and definition with some grit, which I like and absolutely prefer.

Over the years, my main fuzz (or distortion/overdrive) sound got nastier and more aggressive. But to be completely honest: it’s pretty rare for one of my main noise boxes (I’ll use this name from now on to make it easy) to remain on my pedalboard for years. I just keep experimenting and switching and tweaking and switching and changing…

I’m actually considering to return to my Dry Line Driver by Black Effect Pedals at our next rehearsals; the main pedal that I used to record for instance our album "Calmer Than You Are". Black Effect Pedals built me a couple of pedals in the past (I used their Fuzzawe on the "Machine/Sungrazer split", I came up with the name of that pedal too by the way) that are pretty awesome. Those pedals have sustain for ages man, fantastic. The Dry Line Driver is a booster/overdrive that I used to push (or actually punish) my Fulltone OCD, whereas the OCD basically functions as a preamp that’s being pushed into distortion by the DLD. Looooots of grittiness in that pedal combination… The fact that I play everything on my neck pickup, automatically makes distortion/overdrive sound more fuzzy.

My ‘clean’ sound is an overdrive pedal that’s always switched on. I keep rotating those as well, from for instance several Boss pedals to the aforementioned Fulltone OCD. The OCD quite recently reclaimed its place on my pedalboard. I then use a noise box either before it to boost the OCD, or after it and use the extra gain input from the OCD. The order depends on the other pedals though. I don’t use several noise boxes for different songs or parts of songs.

It’s pretty simple: clean is OCD (combined with Xotic EP Booster, bought that one some months ago, brings extra clarity and grain) that’s always ON. Noise is Madfly. Simple as that.

When switching from clean to noise, I also want some extra volume for impact and not just extra gain. So I set the volume on my noise box a bit higher than unity volume. You can also get this by lowering the volume on the ‘clean’ pedal, but I like to do this by using clean loud amps (1974 Matamp GT120 and 1974 Ampeg V4-B). More headroom is always better. So the majority of my ‘fuzz’ is being created on my pedalboard.

Additional advantage of this, is the fact that whenever we play on a rental backline (fly-in shows e.g.) I instantly get ‘my’ sound whenever there’s a clean amp/channel available. But, of course, my own amps sound the best! I use the same setup both live and in the studio: nothing fancy happening there. That applies to my pedalboard as well as to my amps and cabs.

Long story short: I’m not your typical fuzz worshipper. I like my sound to have punch, grit, sustain, balls and quite some drive. And I simply can’t get that with just a Big Muff ;). I started out with just a Big Muff, like all of us I guess. But because of the aforementioned reasons, I actually like the Russian/Sovtek version better anyway. But, it’s fun to experiment and I encourage everyone to do this J. Gearheads unite !

Danny - Fever Dog

Website - Facebook - Bandcamp - Instagram - Twitter

His “Noise Boxe” :

Bass Big Muff Pi
Electro-Harmonix

Type : Fuzz

His Story :

My Very first fuzz pedal, which is to this day the only fuzz pedal I've ever owned or played through is a *Bass* Big Muff Pi by Electro-Harmonix. It has a great low end to it. I almost always pair it with a slow Phaser which is what makes up the heavier parts of Fever Dog's "Lady Snowblood/Child of the Netherworlds".

My bassist Nathan actually bought this pedal for himself because Bootsy Collins uses it sometimes, but when he got it in the mail and tried it out he didn't like it through his bass, and gave it to me. (He now uses an Earthquaker Devices 'Talons' overdrive pedal for Guitar.)

Before that I had only used the distortion sounds from my amp and it's safe to say this pedal changed everything for my tone.

Pat - Geezer

His “Noise Boxes” :

Fuzz Hound
Dock Brown Amps

Type : Fuzz

Grizzly Fuzz
StoneFly Effects

Type : Fuzz

His Story :

Alright so if we're talking about fuzz pedals, there are two that I've been using over the last year or so that have really brought a new wrinkle to the Geezer sound.

Dock Brown is a local cat here in Kingston, New York that is just getting his company, Dock Brown Amps, off the ground. About a year ago, he gave me a prototype of his first fuzz pedal, the Fuzz Hound. The pedal initially came with silicon transistors but has since been modified with germanium ones and it comes with 3 control knobs; Volume, Fuzz & a "Carburetor" on the side that really gives the player the ability to dial it in.

Working with this pedal has been a lot of fun and it has really opened up some sonic avenues that weren't there for me before. To check it out in action, listen to Geezer's digital single, "Long Dull Knife" to hear the pedal through a Tele (neck pickup)... brutal heavy blues man!

I also used it to record our cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Miss Lover" for Magnetic Eye Records "The Best Of James Marshall Hendrix" compilation. The solo and outro of the song were recorded with an early 70's Gibson SG and really feature the Fuzz Hound in all it's glory.

A few months ago I was also introduced to Marc-Eric Gagnon and StoneFly Effects out of Montreal, Canada. Marc was sending his new fuzz pedal, the Grizzly Fuzz around as a tourbox and asked if I wanted to be included. The pedal arrived a few weeks later and I was hooked instantly! It's a reproduction of the famous Baldwin Burns Buzzaround made in the late sixties. Most famously used by Robert Fripp on the early King Crimson material.

The circuit is really close to the 3 knob Tone Bender and comes loaded with 3 NOS Germanium NKT213 transistors. With a slanted metal chassis and artwork by David Paul Seymour, this pedal looks as good as it sounds and has become my "go to" fuzz pedal for most live situations. I find it to be insanely smooth but breaks up in all the right places while still being able to distinguish the character of the individual guitar strings. Combined with my PureSalem Guitars TomCat (which has P90's), this pedal will also become a major factor in the recording of Geezer's upcoming album. A new short run of Grizzly Fuzz pedals will be out by next year.

Both companies are one man operations and do this work by hand and with a lot of love. I suggest to one and all fuzz lovers out there to check them out!

Tripp - The Heavy Eyes

Facebook - Bandcamp - Instagram

His “Noise Boxe” :

Ultimate Fuzz Octave
Homebrew Electronics (closed)

Type : Fuzz

His Story :

The Homebrew Electronics UFO (Ultimate Fuzz Octave) Pedal has been in my repertoire since the very first Heavy Eye's recordings. I remember waxing poetic to our Engineer Matt Qualls about how I could never decide on a fuzz pedal and how I was constantly torn between treble-y Fuzz Face-esque garage rock and heavy duty Big Muff stoner fuzz. He kind of just laughed and showed me his UFO (which I later begged him to sell me) and I have been in love ever since.

Basically, you flip the switch one way and you have a vintage sounding fuzz box. Flip it the other direction, and you get a more modern heavy fuzz. Not to mention it has a killer octave effect, which is great for leads. I find all of the sounds so useful, I can't really imagine life without it now.

Pierre-Alexis - Libido Fuzz

His “Noise Boxe” :

Fuzz Face Mini
Jim Dunlop

Type : Fuzz

His Story :

I use a Jim Dunlop Fuzz Face Mini, 1968 model, Vintage Fuzz, silicon, it should be used at full !!! You only can modulate it with your guitar volume. It's very dynamic and very different from one amp to one other. I use it all the time and only change my guitar volume. Best if you like all the Hendrix noise !

I use it with an OR Orange amp and a Telecaster Lite Ash. To me, it's a very singular fuzz. The sound is not linear, sometimes it cuts and give you the sensation of an uncontrollable moment.

Life is dangerous, fuzz is dangerous, increase your libido !

Rhys - Powder For Pigeons

His “Noise Boxe” :

MF Drive
Moog

Type : Overdrive

His Story :

G'day More Fuzz! I'm Rhys. I sing and play guitar in the two piece Aussie/German band Powder For Pigeons. Because we are a Drums/Guitar combo, Fuzz is a really important part of our sound since it helps to fill out the bottom end. Here's a little bit about the pedals I have used and I am currently using:

Usually I change my fuzz pedals up every year or so, just to keep things fresh. In the past, I have messed around with the good old Russian Big Muff, ZVex Fat Fuzz, Earthquake Devices Hoofer and many others. Sadly the Russian Big Muff has just recently gone into retirement as it's getting on in age and not far from leaving for Big Muff heaven.

Most of the time whilst recording I will hook up all kinds of Fuzz/Distortion/Overdrive/Booster pedals together to find the right combo for the song. Over the last few years I always ran Fuzz and Booster pedals together to my main amp when playing live. We like to jam out and switch between Fuzz pedals as Meike's drums are tuned very low, we just check out how different pedals sit with her drum tone.

The pedal I am using at the moment is the Moog MF Drive. We are really enjoying this lil' bugger mostly because of it's versatility - from slightly broken up to full on balls out mud. The gain and output knobs are usually set to around about 3 o'clock and the drive switch is on full. Also, I love the filter knob and peak switch on this pedal for getting some extra grottyness. This is the pedal I run to my main amp and it seems to blend well with the other two amps I'm running. It really suits the kind of tunes we are writing at the moment, because we want to go for something between Overdrive and Fuzz with a tight bottom end that allows the Bass and Midrange amps to sludge out a bit more.

But what ever works for you! Also while I'm at it I'd like to give a big shout out to the guys at Toaster Cables. Since I switched to their cables I have a much stronger signal throughout my chain. But as I mentioned before its important for us to keep things exciting so I guess we'll change up the fuzz pedals again for the next album and tour.

The Fuzz addiction never ends!

Piotrek (bass) - Dopelord

Facebook - Bandcamp - 8merch

His “Noise Boxes” :

Bass Big Muff Pi
Electro-Harmonix

Type : Fuzz

Blower Box
IdiotBox Effects

Type : Distortion

Dual Bass Wah (PBA II)
Morley Pedals

Type : Wah-Wah

His Story :

My bass tone, known to some from our releases is nothing fancy pedal-wise. It’s basically my bass guitar through an EHX Bass Big Muff Pi. No vintage russian muffs from the 70s I’m afraid. I never had enough money to buy shit I wanted so it had to be something cheap but reliable.

The sound you know from the "Black Arts, Riff Worship & Weed Cult" album is my Yamaha Pulser 450 Bass (it's a copy of the Fender Precision Bass, yes Yamaha did that in the 70s/80s) going through a Bass Big Muff Pi, Morley Dual Bass Wah into an Orange Terror Bass 500. That was also my live setup. At some point I added a crazy cheap Nux Phaser Core pedal which sounded pretty rad with my big muff... unfortunately it's crappy made and broke after few months of using.

After recording our second album, I got to try some other fuzz pedals. I didn’t like much the synthy sound of the bass version of the Zvex Wooly Mommoth. For some time, I used the Black Arts Toneworks "Pharaoh Supreme Fuzz", but just simply couldn’t get the sound I wanted. It’s a great pedal, but iI think I just like it better with the guitars (Miodek is using a regular version and it sounds killer with his Laney Plexi).

Recently I obtained a Blower Box Bass Distortion made by IdiotBox Effects and now I’m working on its setup so that it sounds nice with the rest of the band.

As for the setup of the Bass Big Muff Pi... There's no black magic to it. Max the sustain knob and never pass noon with the tone knob (it's about 9 o'clock for me). I also used the "Bass Boost" feature to increase the amount of the lower end. And that's it.

Mario - Firelord

Facebook - Bandcamp - Twitter

His “Noise Boxe” :

70's US Little Big Muff
Electro-Harmonix

Type : Fuzz

His Story :

Firelord's guitar sound is mostly obtained with a '70s (not sure if '75 or a '76 or some year around) USA Big Muff.

This is a very versatile effect, suitable for different genres from vintage rock sounds to extreme stoner or doomish noises. It sounds warm, heavy and loud, and has a very peculiar tone, so you can preserve your sound despite of the stack you could have to use in every circumstance. However, as you can clearly hear in "A Good Day To Die", the opener tune of our brand new EP "Hammer Of Chaos", the sound obtained is a little more dynamic and compressed by using the Muff with a bit of noise suppressor straight to a Genz Benz head.

That's the personal sound I evolved through the years, it's a bit personal, loud and dynamic and very heavy and frightening on stage. Come and listen.

Jakob - Savanah

Facebook - Bandcamp - YouTube

His “Noise Boxes” :

DS-1
Boss

Type : Distortion

Swollen Pickle
Way Huge

Type : Fuzz

V847A
Vox

Type : Wah-Wah

His Story :

For a time of two years I was using the "Way Huge Swollen Pickle Jumbo Fuzz", it´s a Pedal with many settings and dials. The huge and fat sound led to my purchase. Nonetheless, it turned out to be too tricky to get the sound I wanted to achieve.

So i came back to my old classic Boss DS-1 Distortion Pedal, I used to play when i was about 14 years old. As a part-time worker and collegian, it´s not possible to get high-end guitar equipment so I bought a cheap Peavey Valveking Head, modified it, combined it with my down-tuned Drop C Gibson SG Standard plus BOSS DS-1 and was overwhelmed which heavy sound came out of my amp.

Since that time I´m using this pedal on each song we are playing in the distorted parts. That applies to the studio and for live-shows as well.

I like it a lot because it has a fat fuzzy sound in the deeper riff parts and gets a more clear tone when I´m playing solos, which fits perfect to my wah-pedal (VOX v847). There are plenty of great pedals, but unfortunately, I had not the opportunity to test many of them.

Currently the DS-1 is the pedal which harmonizes best with my style of playing.

Thomas - Monolord

Website - Facebook - Bandcamp - Spotify - Instagram - YouTube - Twitter - Shop

His “Noise Boxes” :

Hyper Fuzz FZ-2
Boss

Type : Fuzz

Mini Mudd
Tym Guitars

Type : Fuzz

Classic Fuzz FY-2
Wattson Electronics

Type : Fuzz

His Story :

I use the Boss Hyper Fuzz FZ-2 and have been since the beginning of Monolord.

At the very first rehearsal iI used an old big muff and that was when we wrote the song "Empress Rising". But I am really sick of the big muff sound. It is not crazy enough.

When iI first plugged in the Hyper Fuzz I started laughing cause it sounds so insane. It has all the grit I want but also the low end I want. The Hyper Fuzz has three modes. 1, 2 and boost. I don’t use the boost at all, but the mode 1 and 2 are killer. Mode 1 is more mid scooped, and mode 2 has a lot of mid. Both modes sounds great but have different characteristics. Right now, we are out touring and I suddenly got a feel for mode 2, so right now I go with that.

I also noticed the Hyper Fuzz does not go well with cabs that are a bit bright. My main cab right now is the Orange PPC 4x12 HP (high powered) cab that has 100w speakers and an old Hiwatt cab with fane speakers. The mix between the two is perfect.

When we record, the FZ-2 is essential, and I almost always record two guitars with the two modes and pan them 100% left and right. If I add a third guitar I tend to use something different. Mika and I bring in all the good pedals we have collected during the years and just try them on to see what suits each of the tracks. On "Vaenir" we used a lot of different pedals for lead stuff and chunky rhythm parts. The Mini Mudd by Tym Guitars is one. Watson Electronics Classic Fuzz FY-2 is another. But the left and right panned guitars are always the Hyper Fuzz. When we record I use the same settings on both pedals and amps as I do when we play live. I really love that pedal !

Casey - Bison Machine

His “Noise Boxes” :

Pharaoh
Black Arts Toneworks

Type : Fuzz

Naga Viper Treble Booster
Catalinbread

Type : Boost

His Story :

My favorite fuzz pedal I use in my rig is the Black Arts Toneworks Pharaoh Fuzz. The germanium setting gets that perfect early Grand Funk Railroad tone. It's really a jack of all trades for fuzz, in my opinion. It gets me all the HEAVY I need!

My other go to pedal that never, ever leaves my side is the Catalinbread Naga Viper Treble Booster! That thing is sonic perfection.

My main guitar is a Gibson SG special 70s tribute with the Wolftone Mean and Meaner P90s, into an Orange Rockerverb 100 full stack.

Keep it simple. Keep it safe.

The Outsider...

(Only using the power of his amp to make noise !)

Chris - Mother Engine