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Hey, i got a couple of fuzz pedals and i noticed they sound so different depending on what guitar and amp are used. Anyways, what is generally the best kind of amp for a fuzzbox? I know the leadsinger of The Black Keys (heavy fuzz user) plays through a Fender twin a lot which is a fairly clean amp (and he gets a great sound) but when i plug my guitar and fuzzbox in my vox ac15 on the cleanest setting it sounds like crap. I've been told that fuzzboxes sound best with some tube amp break up, but some guitar amps are really hard to get to overdrive. Any pointers?

Also, on another note, i have this boutique fuzz pedal and its "volume" knob is really wierd because starting from the 12 o clock setting and up is when it gets louder than the guitar on clean. Lower than the 12 o clock mark will just give you lower volumes then your guitar on clean, is this normal for fuzzboxes? thanks

Hey!

I make fuzz pedals. So Does Mike, so I hope he pipes up here, too. I prefer the fender twin reverb in almost all situations. The only tricky aspect is the incredible high end response. You're going to get a lot more sizzle on the top than on your average guitar amp. An amp with great headroom is very usefull with fuzz, the loud-ass signal into a "crunchy" amp, or one with low headroom, can kind of pile up overdrive on top of your fuzz, and muddy your tonez. This also adds some compression, which I am not into very much.

That said, a Bassman (old fashioned tube bassman, not new bass amp bassman) is freaking amazing with fuzzes. It has decent headroom, but just enough "sway" to kind of smooth out a wicked fuzz, into a groovy burly sound, and not too much compression.


As far as your 12 o'clock volume pot, try to see that as an advantage. You can dial in quiet, yet distorted sounds, great for background work and textural passages. As long as it gets loud enough by the end of the pots rotation...

Maybe I'm wierd, I often use quiet/distorted sounds. I imagine changing the value of the volume pot would change the action, but I have always had good luck with 100k Audio pots, which do hit unity gain at noon on a lot of circuits.

The volume issue is pretty normal. Depending onthe circuit and the taper, anything from 9 o clock to maximum could be the same as unity (but that would be a crappy Fuzz box in my opinion).

As for amps I think Aen has nailed it - Fuzz boxes LOVE clean amps. They don't do aswell if there's a bit of grit on your sound, but not altogether awfully, but if your amp is crunchy they sound really muddled and poor. I think a Fender amp or another amp with a decent clean channel is the way to go if you're a fuzzhead.

I love the shit out of both my bassmans. go get a silverface bassman, they can be had for way cheaper than they're worth, and will rock forever without much of a problem. Just get a 3 prong plug installed if you get a really old one. Mine will give me the occasional jolt if I have the polarity switch set wrong........ I really need to do that myself

My ampeg enjoys them.

The peavey BUTCHER loves fuzz, aswell.
Any decent tube amp with decent cleans should play nice with the fuzzies.

Dan from Black Keys actually uses Marshall super leads right now, I got his back on this one. I have an o.g. handwired super bass and a homemade super lead clone and they sound great with any dirtbox I've plugged into them, from a DS-2 to a behringer Big Muff copy to all the settings on my Deucetone RAT, it handles everything pretty naturally. If a fuzz pedal going into "tube amp breakup" is what you're after, hooooooooooly shit. I typically run it cleaner if I want to use dirt pedals though.

Here's a couple pics I took with my phone at Outside Lands in Golden Gate Park, from the front row 'cause I'm just that cool and hard and shit [cue footage of me crying for my mum during the abortion that was Radiohead's performance].