fuzz problem

accidentprone13 · #1 12-03-2012, 09:29 PM

So I searched the forum and couldn't really find anything similar to my problem, so pardon me for starting a new thread.

Basically, I play in a band with a guy who runs a pedal company with his brother-in-law, which is a dream come true, because I'm a pedal dork, and love being their test dummy. Anyways, they built me a double fuzz (two fuzz circuits in one pedal) and the first circuit has a treble boost switch on it.

When I first started using it, I was in love with it and it sounded incredible, the best distortion I could get. (We're playing doom metal, so we need a ton of it) But now I'm getting a really weird reaction from the pedal, and I can't remember tweaking anything on my amp or on the pedal or anything.

The problem goes like this: We're playing anywhere from Drop D to C standard, so lots of low end, but when I'm playing on the 4th string, I get almost like a putter sound... I hate to be vulgar, but it sounds as if the bass is farting if that makes sense? It sounds like it's too much overdrive in my amp, but if I back off the overdrive knob or the volume knob on my pedal, I get a similar noise. We're going to take a look at it next time we practice and see what's up, but I thought I would consult you guys too, as he's more used to working with guitars. (The battery's not dying, it's powered by a OneSpot by the way.)

Anyways, is my bass tuned too low? Should I EQ around the fuzz and see if I need to boost my bottom end or mid's? I have tweaked a little bit of everything and am not getting any better results. (even turned on the compression knob on my head, which just makes it impossible to keep up volume wise...) What do y'all think?

NKUSigEp · #2 12-03-2012, 10:15 PM

There's a series of troubleshooting steps you'll have to go through figuring this one out. Start with the basics...check batteries and cables, check to make sure the amp isn't distorting, check the fuzz with another instrument and going through another amp. Once you figure out what the source of the distortion is, you can figure out what you need to do to fix it.

I don't think it's eq'ing or too low frequencies since it seems to have changed in sound without you physically changing anything. What you're describing sounds like you've blown a speaker but there could be a couple things that have similar symptoms.

accidentprone13 · #3 12-04-2012, 12:07 PM

I played my bass and put my ear in front of each speaker and it doesn't sound like any are blown? I don't know if that's a bad way of checking for a blown speaker or not though haha

HolmeBass · #4 12-04-2012, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by accidentprone13

I played my bass and put my ear in front of each speaker and it doesn't sound like any are blown? I don't know if that's a bad way of checking for a blown speaker or not though haha

That's how I'd do it, but with no distortion/OD/fuzz running, just a clean signal. That would make the blown speaker easier to identify.

accidentprone13 · #5 12-04-2012, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HolmeBass

That's how I'd do it, but with no distortion/OD/fuzz running, just a clean signal. That would make the blown speaker easier to identify.

Yeah, that's how I was doing it. They all sounded like they were working to me.