Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Fuzz Face

[Mark Olson]

http://www.proguitarshop.com/product...01&CategoryID=

So, end of the month, a good a time as any to buy another pedal! Should have it next week sometime, clips to follow, as usual, and check out the video in the link. I don't expect this to be very much different from my MXR Classic 108 Fuzz, apart from being hand wired and lacking the modern "enhancements", as well as having that cool retro chassis and knobs.

What I want in this Fuzz Face is just something to take to the gig when I don't feel like bringing my whole pedalboard, or to take along to jams and stuff or when I want to sit in with someone where it's kind of a pain to have to haul in the whole board and set it up and everything just for a couple tunes. I find I can do basically everything I need to rock with just a Fuzz Face.

I intend to do more clips with this one to show some more of the cleaner tones you can get with a Fuzz Face by rolling off your guitar's volume (as well as doing what I don't normally do, rolling off the fuzz); the more time I spend with different Fuzz Faces the better I'm getting at getting what I want out of them. They definitely have their own learning curve, and can prove difficult to get what you want out of them. But anyways, I'm excited to try this pedal so I just thought I'd let everyone know what's going on on my end.

[Deluge Of Sound]

Clean tones? Fuzz Face?

[Mark Olson]

Well, cleaner anyway . If you listen to Jimi Hendrix for example, he uses a myriad of tones even with the Fuzz Face on, ranging from clean to overdrive (to me what a tubescreamer wished it sounded like) to all out fuzzed madness. It's been my experience with fuzz faces that they obviously don't clean up as well with, say, my SG Bass with it's humbuckers than a stratocaster would, but even with my Classic 108 Fuzz if I roll the fuzz back some and roll back my guitar's volume, I can get a nice overdrive. This is something I have to experiment more with though.

[Deluge Of Sound]

Oh, don't worry, I know exactly what you're talking about (and you're right on the money using Hendrix as an example). It was just a good occasion to post the picture, especially as my limited experience with the 'Face has been pure fuzz goodness.


Since you've got a lot of experience with this kind of circuit, I have to ask--how does a 'Face typically sit in the mix? I realize there may be too many variables to really answer the question, but I'm assuming (based on my Muff experience) that there's usually a fairly consistent part of the mix that these kinds of pedals occupy (for a BMP its usually 'buried' )...

[Mark Olson]

Live I don't really seem to get lost with the Fuzz Face like I do with a Muff to be honest. I brought a Muff to a gig probably only once and the instant I kicked it on I couldn't hear myself at all, you really can get lost with the muff. I suppose it doesn't hurt that I've got the volume pretty cranked up when I use the Fuzz Face, so that along with my playing kind of "own" the mix. Definitely enough boost available on the Fuzz Face to drown out those silly guitar players, hahaha! But I do intend to experiment more with using the Fuzz Face for some more overdriven tones, and I'll let you know how that works in the mix too. I definitely don't expect it to cut like using something like my Sparkle Drive, but I don't necessarily expect to get buried either.

[Mark Olson]

Just wanted to add to this thread, I've been going back through my old Hendrix DVD's and I've been researching his use of the Fuzz Face, and how much he cleans them up with his volume knob. Like I've said, Fuzz Faces don't clean up so well on bass as on guitar, but in the Isle of Wight DVD, where I would assume it's the time period when Hendrix would have been using Silicon BC108 Fuzz Faces, which tend not to clean up as well as germanium Fuzz Faces, and he actually is able to clean the silicon Fuzz Face all the way up with a Gibson Flying V with humbuckers, which I found interesting, being a humbucker player. It's possible that he backed off the fuzz on the pedal too, so like I said I'm going to be experimenting with rolling off my volume as well as rolling back the fuzz.

[nad]

Originally Posted by Mark Olson

What I want in this Fuzz Face is just something to take to the gig when I don't feel like bringing my whole pedalboard, or to take along to jams and stuff or when I want to sit in with someone where it's kind of a pain to have to haul in the whole board and set it up and everything just for a couple tunes. I find I can do basically everything I need to rock with just a Fuzz Face.

This is what I'm looking to do as well. I'm currently using the Beavis FKR for this, but even on aggressive settings it doesn't really cut as much as I need it to. I'm pretty spoiled by the B:Assmaster so I'm looking into other Brassmaster-based pedals, but maybe I should give a Fuzz Face-ish one a try. I especially liked your Sun Face clips, have been exclusively using a passive bass for months, and am worshipping all things Hendrix as of late, so yes. Indeed. Looking forward to the experiment and associated clips.

In other exciting news, the woman is out to play and I just poured a Kwak.

[rcubed]

My experiment with a Fuzz Face with blend: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7293050

The recording is direct into my MBox2 Mini. It's sounds much better through an amp. I was able to play it at a good volume today through my LMII and 4x10 cab and it holds the bottom really well. The fuzz does get buried more but you can compensate to a certain extent with the fuzz volume.

[nad]

Going back and listening to your Sun Face clips I'm shocked that I haven't picked one of those up by now. That tone, even on 1/2" craptop speakers, is the proverbial bee's knees. I can only assume the Analog.man does things much better than this here Dunlop, but just in case not, this would make a much cheaper solution for my unemployed arse.

Also, this beer kicks like a mule. 8.4% alcohol content is no joke (but definitely is a laughing matter).

[Mark Olson]

My MD 20/20 has 13% alcohol, hahaha! Just need to see if I've got enough bottles of it...

As for the Sun Face vs. Dunlop Fuzz Faces, to be honest I think the Dunlops are perfectly decent, but if smooth is what you want, Analogman is 100% the guy you need to go to. Even his silicon Sun Face was extremely smooth, and the germanium high gain NKT 275 was just way smooth. Myself, I've been going for a rattier, nastier tone, which is why I went with the Dunlop, it's definitely more nasty than the Analogmen. In the future, I may have to try one of these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzouRrr4Vlw

That's extremely nasty I think. Cleans up well though.

Also RE: Fuzz Faces in the mix, I discussed my tone with the Classic 108 Fuzz the other night at a jam with my brother, and he claimed when I kicked it on I buried him. For the record I was playing through somebody's Ampeg B2RE and 4 x 10, and my brother was using a loud little tube amp with my old Fulltone OCD. He should have easily been able to scream over the bass, but I buried him he says. Like I said, enough boost available on the Fuzz Face to drown out those silly guitar players!

[Mark Olson]

I also totally forgot to mention: according to my brother my sound was completely too distorted. Given that we were playing Cortez the Killer and the like, I take that as a very good compliment!

[Mark Olson]

I just wanted to clarify on that last post, my brother is what I'd call a "jazz weenie". What's too much distortion for him is just right for rock and roll .

[OptimusPrime]

Originally Posted by Mark Olson

My MD 20/20 has 13% alcohol, hahaha! Just need to see if I've got enough bottles of it...

For some reason, I feel the need to post this picture.

[Mark Olson]

I liked the Orange Jubilee the best, but all my nearby liquor store carries is the Red Grape Wine. But they've also got Red Irish Rose, $3.29 a bottle and 18% alcohol. Pretty good bang for the buck.

So my Jimi Hendrix Fuzz Face should be arriving tomorrow, and my brother has a gig tomorrow night with one of his bands, I thought I might take the Hendrix Fuzz and go sit in with them. But I did experiment more with the MXR Classic 108 Fuzz, which is the Hendrix Fuzz Face with some modern improvements, and even with my high output humbuckers on my SG Bass I can get a nice thick and creamy overdrive tone when the fuzz is cranked by using the neck pickup only and rolling it back. Rolling it back less will get a nice thick distortion, and of course there's the nice and creamy fuzz when you max out your volume. The surprising thing was that the Fuzz Face didn't get too muddy, even when only using my neck mudbucker. Fuzz Faces are notoriously muddy when using the neck pickup, even sometimes with a stratocaster and it's single coils. Also, I can clean the pedal up completely if i roll the fuzz back a little bit, but the tone does get a little muddy that way.

Also, about the Classic 108 Fuzz, it didn't clean up as well on bass with the buffer engaged. Cleans up maybe to a moderate distortion only when the fuzz is cranked. The buffer kind of sucks with my SG Bass, but it's much more useful with my Jazz to get a nice biting Larry Graham style fuzz tone, which is super cool and worth the price of admission alone I think.

But for the time being, I'm definitely considering widdling down my board to include only one dirt pedal, the Classic 108 Fuzz. As good as the Sparkle Drive I'm using sounds, the overdrive available with the 108 Fuzz is just much thicker and bassier, more full sounding, which is always a good thing when hammering out basslines.

[Mark Olson]

Ok so I got this pedal today, though I have not gotten to play it myself or do soundclips yet. I did let my brother use it at a gig and it sounded very good, not a whole lot of fuzz available even with his humbuckers, but that's how the Classic 108 Fuzz was on guitar, and that pedal gives me PLENTY of fuzz on my SG Bass with it's high output humbuckers. There was nothing about my brother's sound with this pedal that would make me expect it to be very different from the Classic 108 Fuzz, which is a good thing considering I really like that fuzz. I still will do soundclips of just the Jimi Hendrix Fuzz Face, and you can compare them to my Classic 108 Fuzz soundclips and see if you hear much of a difference.

Also, I had my brother try the Jimi Hendrix Fuzz Face with his wah pedal, a Budda Wah, and there were no oscillations or problems with a limited wah sweep with the Fuzz Face engaged after the wah. I am unsure if the Budda Wah has a buffer in it, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't, so this interests me as it seems less wah pedals will have problems with a fuzz face than I thought. Also interesting is the fact that my brother's wah pedal had problems with oscillation when placed before the Classic 108 Fuzz, with and without the buffer on interestingly enough, and for it to not have any problems with this Jimi Hendrix Fuzz Face, that's a little mind boggling. Definitely warrants further experimentation...

[Mark Olson]

So I got to try this thing out, and though it cleans up nicely the tone seems to thin out when I roll back on my guitar's volume. It does sound very good with my volume cranked, a little better than the Classic 108 Fuzz I think, but not too entirely different. I will do soundclips of it anyways, soundclips are coming. But in the meantime, I did some new soundclips for the Classic 108 Fuzz where I clean up the pedal with my guitar's volume control, and the Classic 108 Fuzz seems to stay pretty fat when cleaned up. Check it out here:

MXR Classic 108 Fuzz (Silicon Fuzz Face) SOUNDCLIPS

[OptimusPrime]

Originally Posted by Mark Olson

I liked the Orange Jubilee the best, but all my nearby liquor store carries is the Red Grape Wine. But they've also got Red Irish Rose, $3.29 a bottle and 18% alcohol. Pretty good bang for the buck.

You mean Wild Irish Rose?

[Mark Olson]

Yeah I think so, but after a bottle of MD 20/20 and a bottle of that I don't remember much.