Durham Electronics Crazy Horse Distortion/Fuzz SOUNDCLIPS

Mark Olson · #1 12-09-2008, 03:44 PM

In case you don't see the obvious, Crazy Horse is a reference to Neil Young, who has the $h!tt!est guitar tone, the most grungy, disgusting, loud, rude, annoying, distorted and fuzzed out sound you can imagine. Or in other words, my personal holy grail of tone. I've long wanted to buy myself a Fender 57 Deluxe and just crank the hell out of it and rock (Neil Young uses three guitar amps to achieve his tone, however the 57 Deluxe is the cornerstone of his tone). But! That's where the Crazy Horse pedal comes in. For like 1/10th the cost it's a pedal, designed to give you the $h!tt!est guitar tone, the most grungy, disgusting, loud, rude, annoying, distorted and fuzzed out sound you can imagine. So I HAD to try this pedal on bass.

Warning, these clips are not for the faint of heart! I'll post a poll on here so I can see whether you love or hate this sound, but I expect just as many, if not more people, to HATE this sound!

The settings I used on the pedal are Drive cranked, Fuzz about halfway up, Tone at like two o'clock, Volts cranked, and volume set loud for maximum rock and roll. The Volts control, interestingly enough, will provide sag when turned down, essentially making the sound even more $h!tty (aka more awesome).

So for the first clip I'm just playing a dropped D riff with both pickups on my SG Bass, with the neck pickup rolled down some. Very raw.

The second clip is an abbreviated take of "Powderfinger", a Neil Young song. Imagine a nice country song with a sweet harmonized lick near the end with that terrible guitar tone of Neil Young's. Sweet.

The Third clip is another Neil Young song, Hey Hey, My My. You just have to hear the original, I can't even do it justice with this pedal, Neil's tone is just the worst on that track, it is truly awesome.

Anyways, the clips are to be found here:

http://www.soundclick.com/PsychedelicBassJams

Please let me know what you think, especially if you find these tones offensive!

Chronicle · #2 12-09-2008, 09:12 PM

I think you'd be happy with the Devi Ever BIT

Sounds similar.

lobey · #3 12-09-2008, 09:22 PM

I'm gonna say awesome.

Swift713 · #4 12-09-2008, 10:34 PM

Sounds like a guitar, not enough bass.

Mark Olson · #5 12-10-2008, 09:38 AM

Right! Exactly! It kind of sounds like a cranked 57 Deluxe but it's definitely not as touch sensitive, and kind of has an EQ'd "blanket over the amp" sound which I don't like, but otherwise sounds the way I want it to. It's also very compressed, which works for that nasty fuzzed out tone.

By the way, my brother just got a Retro Sonic vintage Rat clone, and I'm going to snag that from him and try to do some samples of that when I can. So far it's sounded pretty good on guitar, won't know about on bass until I try it though.

themarshall · #6 12-10-2008, 11:01 AM

Woo-hoo. Powderfinger has been a personal favorite of mine for 15+ yrs. Current band covers it.

Sorry, can't really coment on tone - laptop spkrs wang chung. Did seem nice 'n dirty.

Ryan Mohr · #7 12-10-2008, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Olson

Right! Exactly! It kind of sounds like a cranked 57 Deluxe but it's definitely not as touch sensitive, and kind of has an EQ'd "blanket over the amp" sound which I don't like, but otherwise sounds the way I want it to. It's also very compressed, which works for that nasty fuzzed out tone.

By the way, my brother just got a Retro Sonic vintage Rat clone, and I'm going to snag that from him and try to do some samples of that when I can. So far it's sounded pretty good on guitar, won't know about on bass until I try it though.

I can't wait for clips of the RS!

Mark Olson · #8 12-10-2008, 02:04 PM

All indications are that it sounds a bajillion times better than the Keeley modded Rat my brother had previously, which we both agreed sounded worse than the stock Rat 2 on guitar and bass. The only thing is I'm not sure how much the Retro Sonic can clean up, according to my brother the sound is always quite distorted on guitar, and increasing the distortion just kind of thickens the tone. But of course there's probably a world of difference between playing it with some fat humbuckers and with my Jazz Bass with single coils, so I'll be sure to try both.

Also I am excited just to get him talked into buying a distortion pedal again. My brother loves the tone of the dirty channel on his amp, which he's been using a Budda Super Drive, and I think that amp's dirty channel sounds really blah and jazz weenie-ish, not a good fit for our grungish rock band. I did manage to talk him into agreeing to use the Crazy Horse some in the studio, and I know he's excited to use the Retro Sonic too, which just has more character. Sounded a lot like the dirty channel on his Marshall through the Marshall.

Mark Olson · #9 12-10-2008, 02:07 PM

Oh, and I am glad someone else likes Powderfinger too. Even my fiance, who absolutely hates it when I listen to Neil Young, likes the song Powderfinger because of that cool lick with the harmonized thirds.

Mark Olson · #10 12-13-2008, 02:04 AM

Ok, so I know I'm not going to get as many votes on a pedal like this because a lot of people are just going to not understand these clips... though that may be the reaction I'm looking for. But 75% of people liked these tones? That's crazy! I'm shocked!

sutarappa · #11 12-13-2008, 01:02 PM

gentleman fuzz junkie, here. i dig the clips! the dirty bass throat always drowns out any whining from "real" bass players and/or guitar posers.

thanks for sharing!

Mark Olson · #12 12-13-2008, 10:01 PM

Hey thanks! I have to say I'm really digging how that second clip turned out, that harmonized lick sounds so sweet, even on bass! Was thinking about flipping this pedal cause I could use the money, but man, that is sweet!

funkalicious101 · #13 12-13-2008, 10:09 PM

Could this get his "Cowgirl in The Sand" guitar tone (with guitar)? Because that has to be one of the best tones ever.

Mark Olson · #14 12-13-2008, 10:16 PM

I love that song! The Crazy Horse is geared towards the even more distorted later sounds, but yeah, it's nice and compressed like it and can probably give you that Cowgirl in the Sand tone real well, just turn down the drive and fuzz a little bit. If there's any pedal out there that can get you that tone, it's the Crazy Horse.

4stringmangler · #15 12-13-2008, 10:41 PM

good job as usual mark! if i still played guitard, i would own this pedal, great tones to be had for sure!

poor_gear_whore · #16 12-14-2008, 08:39 AM

Nasty as can be. I like it!

Mark Olson · #17 12-14-2008, 07:13 PM

Thanks! So yeah, I am going to keep this pedal. At the very least I can get my brother to use it for some guitar tracks on my band's next album. Give us some different flavors.

musicluver56 · #18 04-15-2011, 08:13 PM

This pedal is fantastic. I ran low on funds because I lost my job and sold one I had. When things got better, bought a replacement. I like that grungy tone Neil Young uses. Play with the dials and you can achieve almost any Fuzz Tone you want. 60's Psych, Hendrix, Blues.
Now I ain't the greatest guitarist, but with all that distortion it is very forgiving of small errors in your playing.
I play a Jay Turser Les Paul (better than Epiphone Les Pauls), because I haven't come across a 50's Gibson at an estate or garage sale, only Hondo's that I fixed and sold off.
Anyway, I have some nice effects including Carls Custom Guitars Phase 90. But the Crazy Horse is my favorite and the Phase 90 my second.

Matt Dean · #19 04-15-2011, 08:36 PM

Love it... and my band plays Powderfinger too!

Mark Olson · #20 04-15-2011, 10:00 PM

Wow yeah old thread. I didn't expect at the time to be making so many soundclips, sorry if you had to go through 17 pages of crap to find those clips. Here they are if anyone else comes along wanting to hear them, Powderfinger:

SoundClick artist: Psychedelic Bass Jams - page with MP3 music downloads

Hey hey, my my:

SoundClick artist: Psychedelic Bass Jams - page with MP3 music downloads

The important thing to note is I'm using a bridge pickup on a reissue SG for these clips, which has basically no low end. It's not just the pedal's fault. The neck pickup is pretty weak in those stock too so it's not like that would have helped too much either. I've since upgraded, would love to do new clips of this if I still had it!