Triple blend fuzz?

OptimusPrime · #1 06-24-2008, 12:45 PM

Well, I just bought an old Ampeg V-2. I'm really liking the clean tone. The way the distortion acts is interesting. I don't necessarily like it, but it gave me an idea. There's plenty of low end because it only effects the highs. Probably because it's a guitar amp. I really don't like how it sounds, the fuzz is brittle and thin, but you can hear your original signal under it. So first I thought I'd like to have a fuzz built that didn't effect the highs, only the lows and mids would be effected. I don't like thin and brittle fuzz. I thought it could be interesting. But then I remembered how Dirk Lance old setup. He blended his Big Muff fuzz with all those Eden preamps he had, but each was focused on lows, low mids and high mids (I know I'm not explaining that good enough/right). And that gave me another idea ... what about a fuzz that had 3 blend controls? 1 for highs, 1 for mids and 1 for lows. Anyone think this is a good idea? I would probably set the highs pretty clean, and the mids and lows very fuzzed out. I'd also like to boost the mids when I turned on the fuzz. I'm thinking modded Big Muff?

sonicvi · #2 06-24-2008, 01:18 PM

There is a fuzz that does this. It's called the Quadrafuzz by Paia, designed by Craig Anderton. Basically it splits your signal into four signals and distorts them seperately. I've never heard one and it would probably need the distortion bands to be retuned for bass. It's a rackmount unit but could probably built into a large pedal enclosure. It's available as a kit only from www.paia.com.

OptimusPrime · #3 06-24-2008, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sonicvi

There is a fuzz that does this. It's called the Quadrafuzz by Paia, designed by Craig Anderton. Basically it splits your signal into four signals and distorts them seperately. I've never heard one and it would probably need the distortion bands to be retuned for bass. It's a rackmount unit but could probably built into a large pedal enclosure. It's available as a kit only from www.paia.com.

Hmmm, intriguing.

tomvelsor · #4 06-24-2008, 02:42 PM

the idea of only distorting lows is kinda cool..but im not sure if itd work? might be awesome though. i could sorta experiment with this..i use a messdrive, not a lot of highs at all, but s*^#$loads of lows..if i split my signal into two amps, i could EQ the clean amp to have a lot of high end tweeter volume, and cut the lows. 2nd amp turn off the tweeter and let the messdrive pump the fuzz..

ill give this a try later..unfourtunately i dont have any mics to record it though.

JmJ · #5 06-24-2008, 03:08 PM

I read somewhere that the bass player from the Polyphonic Spree made his own "crossover pedal" to send highs through distortion & keep lows unadulterated. I was intrigued by this concept as well.
This kind of needs to happen in our lifetime.

OptimusPrime · #6 06-24-2008, 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JmJ

I read somewhere that the bass player from the Polyphonic Spree made his own "crossover pedal" to send highs through distortion & keep lows unadulterated. I was intrigued by this concept as well.
This kind of needs to happen in our lifetime.

That's the exact opposite of what I want.

It's what this V-2 does. Damn guitar amp.

(It was in the bass section at Sam Ash, and I was out of town with no computer to research with, and I ended up just going for it, and then I get home and learn it's a guitar amp.)

JmJ · #7 06-24-2008, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OptimusPrime

That's the exact opposite of what I want.

It's what this V-2 does. Damn guitar amp.

(It was in the bass section at Sam Ash, and I was out of town with no computer to research with, and I ended up just going for it, and then I get home and learn it's a guitar amp.)

With the pedal I described being merely a frequency crossover you could send the lows through your distortion circuit as desired
(sorry, thought you were me for a second).

OptimusPrime · #8 06-25-2008, 06:11 AM

Bump.

roflol · #9 06-25-2008, 10:05 AM

hmm so something that would split your signal with 3 band filters? then have a distortion tailored for each of these frequencys and you can blend in as much of these as you want with your clean signal? thats gonna end up in one huge enclosure ;p i could have a go at building one of these but it'd take a pretty long time

OptimusPrime · #10 06-25-2008, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roflol

hmm so something that would split your signal with 3 band filters? then have a distortion tailored for each of these frequencys and you can blend in as much of these as you want with your clean signal? thats gonna end up in one huge enclosure ;p i could have a go at building one of these but it'd take a pretty long time

So the clean signal would have to be split first? Then each channel would be fuzzed and then clean blended? Would I need a way to control how all the signals are recombined?

BeauZooka · #11 06-25-2008, 12:27 PM

I have a quadrafuzz that I built about 12 years ago for guitar, but I have not tried it on bass. If you are playing guitar you can play more complex chords and have less nasty intermodular distortion. The 4 frequency bands are split up to suit a guitar more than bass and since most bass players are playing single notes it may be needlessly complicated for bass use.
And it is a pretty involved build project. If you play guitar too then it might be worth it.

OptimusPrime · #12 06-25-2008, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BeauZooka

I have a quadrafuzz that I built about 12 years ago for guitar, but I have not tried it on bass. If you are playing guitar you can play more complex chords and have less nasty intermodular distortion. The 4 frequency bands are split up to suit a guitar more than bass and since most bass players are playing single notes it may be needlessly complicated for bass use.
And it is a pretty involved build project. If you play guitar too then it might be worth it.

Doesn't seem worth it. I'm going to have it built from a Big Muff. I basically want this in a box.

BeauZooka · #13 06-25-2008, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OptimusPrime

Doesn't seem worth it. I'm going to have it built from a Big Muff. I basically want this in a box.

If your box is 10ft x 10ft x 20ft maybe!

OptimusPrime · #14 06-25-2008, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BeauZooka

If your box is 10ft x 10ft x 20ft maybe!

http://www.pedalpartsplus.com/mm5/me...ory_Code=ENC16

or

http://www.pedalpartsplus.com/mm5/me...ory_Code=ENC17

Maybe.

spentron · #15 06-25-2008, 07:40 PM

I'm thinking you want to filter the [i]output[i] of the various fuzzes, "post-distortion", otherwise you'll still get the dirty high end. If they have tone controls.... The input signals EQ some too maybe. But then crushing a fuzz with a very bassy tone has its own appeal.

Willem · #16 06-25-2008, 09:13 PM

the ashdown drive plus splits the signal in two and I believe that you can get dirty lows with clean highs and vice versa...

cheapbasslovin · #17 06-26-2008, 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OptimusPrime

Doesn't seem worth it. I'm going to have it built from a Big Muff. I basically want this in a box.

Oh, that's all you want? Shoot, man, that ought to almost go together by itself.

Is this what the question in the post yer pedalboard thread was about? You gonna try to do this piecemeal and then see if you can put it together? That would be neat.

roflol · #18 06-26-2008, 04:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OptimusPrime

So the clean signal would have to be split first? Then each channel would be fuzzed and then clean blended? Would I need a way to control how all the signals are recombined?

could have a blend for the lows highs etc would end up a lil complicated depending on how much control you'd want over the fuzz aspect of each of them to