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Super bassy fuzz?

Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 6:45 pm
by william
Hello.

My girlfriend and I are both shoegaze obsessed guitar nerds, and are starting a band pretty much based around that. a friend will be playing drums, but we want to keep it a 3 piece, so itll be a 2 guitars vocals and drums set up, pretty much. she'll be playing rhythm on her mustang with lace sensors, through probably a marshall tube combo, i will be playing noise and melodies and singing on mostly my melody maker w/vibrola thru my fender hot rod DX. pretty much the MBV setup, but without debbie.

we want to play really loud, a wall of fuzz type sound, and our focus will be largely on low end. it will be waaay less state of the art than loveless, for instance. think of it more along the lines of "you made me realise." like shitgaze with thundering low end (instead of none at all)

so here's the point:

we have looked at various boxes, namely the frantone creampuff, and death by audio fuzzwar, for low end heavy rhythm tones. i would love a zvex wooly mammoth for this application, but frankly cant justify the cost. has anyone any experience with either of these pedals, or other low endy rhythm leaning fuzzes?

mostly that will be her end of the deal, i am looking at the more insano 1 or two notes at a time pedals, like the mellowtone wolf computer, fender blender, TGD, wattson fuzztone, etc. lately ive been into the wattson, i love the fuzz on TJAMC records, and they used a shin ei, which it is modeled after. i know that the mellowtone guy, aen, and the wattson guy all post on here, i like the idea of helping out some guy, rather than fender, so i probably will go with one of them, and then maybe get the others later. seems like they each cover a different sort of territory, and im into variety.


im really excited about this project. any input is appreciated!

Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 7:56 pm
by roachello
I gots the Wooly Mammoth and love it all sorts. I got mine at the scratch n dent bin so it wasn't as expensive as the og, but still a little pricey. The fuzz factory also sounds awesome with bass! I haven't tried it yet, but what about an Electro Harmonix Bass Big Muff? I think it goes for about $80.

P.S. U should get your gf to sign up. I would love to have another girl to talk guitars with!

[youtube][/youtube]

Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 8:00 pm
by aen
im comig out with a bass fuzz here pretrty soon, clled hair of the dog. it has a clean blend on it, too.

http://bestnetworx.com/uploader/files/63/Cig-Guitar.mp3

here it is rippin up my little sissy practice amp. I;ve done a couple tweaks since then so its even more bassy.

Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 8:02 pm
by william
roachello wrote:I gots the Wooly Mammoth and love it all sorts. I got mine at the scratch n dent bin so it wasn't as expensive as the og, but still a little pricey. The fuzz factory also sounds awesome with bass! I haven't tried it yet, but what about an Electro Harmonix Bass Big Muff? I think it goes for about $80.

P.S. U should get your gf to sign up. I would love to have another girl to talk guitars with!
she reads the boards, im sure she'll sign up soon! are you presently the only girl?

do you use the wooly mammoth with bass or guitar? because i specifically need a fuzz that works with guitar and really boosts the low end, if that happens to be a bass fuzz thats cool, im just trying to se where you're coming from.

Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 8:10 pm
by william
aen wrote:im comig out with a bass fuzz here pretrty soon, clled hair of the dog. it has a clean blend on it, too.

http://bestnetworx.com/uploader/files/63/Cig-Guitar.mp3

here it is rippin up my little sissy practice amp. I;ve done a couple tweaks since then so its even more bassy.

whoooaa thats awesome


when are you getting that one done? is that just guitar in the byte? what is the tuning? i want!

Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 8:19 pm
by benecol
If you like the Mammoth but can't justify the cost, you should maybe speak to Mike of this parish...

Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 8:47 pm
by aen
william wrote:
aen wrote:im comig out with a bass fuzz here pretrty soon, clled hair of the dog. it has a clean blend on it, too.

http://bestnetworx.com/uploader/files/63/Cig-Guitar.mp3

here it is rippin up my little sissy practice amp. I;ve done a couple tweaks since then so its even more bassy.

whoooaa thats awesome


when are you getting that one done? is that just guitar in the byte? what is the tuning? i want!
The guitar is my old warhorse "The Beast" a tele custom II tuned B F# B B. I should have them in stores in the end of january to mid febuary. I also remembered that i was running a power struggle at the end there to get the oscillations, so it won't do that trick all on it's own :oops:

Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 9:24 pm
by Mike
Mammoths handle bass and guitar equally well and sound great i think. The pinch knob can give you some octave up and gated sounds too. I made a video demo of it but can't link it now as am posting from my phone. Do a search for coupletones fuzzbox on youtube

Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 9:26 pm
by william
out of curiousity, what gauge strings do you use on that tele to get tuned so low? i tried it after seeing your TGD demo but it went all spaghetti. are the low b's the same octave? what are the upper two strings, b e?

can't wait for this pedal, if she likes it she'll probably get it. sounds better than the fuzz war and more interesting than the creampuff.

do you have any other clips or demos of TGD, besides the one on tone factor? id like to hear more, i might get that one too.

thanks aen!

Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 9:38 pm
by william
Mike wrote:Mammoths handle bass and guitar equally well and sound great i think. The pinch knob can give you some octave up and gated sounds too. I made a video demo of it but can't link it now as am posting from my phone. Do a search for coupletones fuzzbox on youtube
ive been told i should contact you regarding things... regarding mammoths. not sure why. why?

Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 9:42 pm
by benecol
PMed.

Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 9:45 pm
by william
benecol wrote:PMed.
ah yes. good. :oops:

Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 9:47 pm
by benecol
Five more posts now.

Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 10:21 pm
by roachello
william wrote:
roachello wrote:I gots the Wooly Mammoth and love it all sorts. I got mine at the scratch n dent bin so it wasn't as expensive as the og, but still a little pricey. The fuzz factory also sounds awesome with bass! I haven't tried it yet, but what about an Electro Harmonix Bass Big Muff? I think it goes for about $80.

P.S. U should get your gf to sign up. I would love to have another girl to talk guitars with!
she reads the boards, im sure she'll sign up soon! are you presently the only girl?

do you use the wooly mammoth with bass or guitar? because i specifically need a fuzz that works with guitar and really boosts the low end, if that happens to be a bass fuzz thats cool, im just trying to se where you're coming from.
I'm girl #2. Heavium is waaay more knowledgeable. I use it on bass but it also sounds really good on guitar. Sometimes I switch with my bf, he uses my bass fuzz on guitar, and I use his ff on bass. For guitar, I love the fuzz factory, but keep an eye out on ebay or the zvex scratch n dent section on the website, sometimes you can get decent deals.

Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 11:46 pm
by kim
tgd works well for a bassy fuzz with.. fuzz settings :P hell it even makes a mustang gutiar sound like a bass lol

Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 12:02 am
by euan
Dano French Toast was making Tims guitar sound like a bass today. When I tried it, it certainly was funky.

Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 12:17 am
by kim
also an mxr blue box can work well on bass though it does sound a little bit more nasal and tight and less hairy than tgd, also the blue box almost needs a parallel clean sound if you wanna use it live because otherwise you'll get lost in the mix, for recording you don't because you can tweak it enough anyway but live fuzz on bass is always a bit of a bitch. even if you think it sounds great and retains bass when you're playing through it and jamming with a drummer but not in a band setting. add distorted or fuzzy guitars and drums and it's like 'hey where did the bass go ?' haha.
a sansamp bass driver doesn't get lost in the mix with a heavy drive but it doesn't get any more insane than just a hairy overdrive, no fuzz. ..but i do love its overdrive sound

Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 12:18 am
by Doog
A superbassy fuzz on guitar is never gonna fill up the low end like a bass because the notes aren't in the right frequency range- even running a guitar through a massive fat bass stack with all the low dials cranked isn't gonna do it.

You'll get definately get closer with lower tunings though or octave pedals, will make a big difference.

Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 12:34 am
by kim
ah thought you needed a fuzz for bass not a fuzz to make a guitar sound like a bass

well... not like you can't create a wall of sound without an actual bass guitar but no pedals or amp will make a guitar sound like a bass.

maybe check out the mxr bue box though, if you want a guitar to sound low and with single notes, it's a bit unpredictable though but i think it's great. also wanna mention that behringer bass synth, works alright on guitar only it doesn't track the highs well but on the low with single notes it sounds very bassy.

also check out a frantone peach fuzz, tons of low

Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 1:02 am
by william
i dont want a fuzz that makes a guitar sound like a bass, or a fuzz that sounds good with bass guitar. i want a fuzz that boosts low end, or at least doesnt drop it, like most fuzzes. guess i shouldve made that more clear, sorry. appreciate all the interest and input though!

anyway, i just want the bassiest fuzz possible, probably i will do some aen style downtuning as well, i guess what im talking about is bass presence. but i don't necessarily want it to sound like there is A bass at all. might lay some down when recording, or switch off on bass live for certain songs, but alot of my favorite bands dont have basses.


times new viking
no age
beat happening
early velvet underground

these bands have low end, TNV has analog synth, beat happening has superlow vocals, no age... well, not really no age, but they are still great and very listenable, even without low end. VU had downtuned guitars, and organ (occasional bass)

we will achieve our low end thru downtuned guitars, the biggest kick drum we can find, and probably some keys occasionally. i have noticed that even with standard tuning, the lower frequencies lose presence with most fuzzes and distortions, and when i can dial them in they are surprising.


EDIT: Thanks again for all the responses and suggestions! I am reading all and taking it all in, even if i don't respond to each one. Thanks for the interest, really!