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FEA Photon Fuzz

#41
also, anybody listening to those clips - as nice as they sound through a good set of computer or DAW setup speakers, i have my stuff in the living room coming out of a GS112..... and DAYUM.

thumpy angry GOODness. thanks for the clips!
 
#43
behndy said:
also, anybody listening to those clips - as nice as they sound through a good set of computer or DAW setup speakers, i have my stuff in the living room coming out of a GS112..... and DAYUM.

thumpy angry GOODness. thanks for the clips!
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You're quite welcome good sir! :D
warwick.hoy said:
Listening to that third clip,....yes please.

Active friendly yes?

I usually ask that when a new fuzz pops up.

Sooner or later I'll have the drachma to fund all my fuzz gas purchases.
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Yes, it's active friendly. I created the samples using my MM StingRay which has a pretty hot active output.

I love my 'Ray! :bassist:
 
#45
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Arrived this afternoon at work. Added it to my new "not your daddy's pedalboard" PTMini and, my initial thoughts are very positive. I am full of praise for Frank's pedals, the FEA stuff is top notch and the Photon fuzz is no exception. It is really flexible, we're talking Iron Ether Oxide levels of flexibility (without the gate :( ), but its otherwise got everything from light OD sounds to wall of fuzz to screeching feedbacking octave up fuzz / distortion and the blend and EQ means you have a lot of flexibility and tones in there. It plays beautifully with my MTD (active) and my Ritter (passive) and the fuzz tone is very pleasing. Not as "creamy" as the [sfx] Micro-Fuzz, but more in the brassmaster zone when cranked. Defintely a fuzz to check out. Oh, and driven by the Dual Band Distortion - ball tearingly good!

Further details and clips to follow (although clips could be a couple of weeks as I am away this weekend).
 
#47
Frank loaned me both the Photon Fuzz and the Dual Band Distortion to check out, and I promised him I'd post my thoughts here in the FX forum. That was well over a month ago, and I have been trying to figure out what's held me back from posting anything. I figured it out finally: there is hardly anything to say that isn't totally obvious to anyone familiar with FEA's pedals:

They are noiseless; incredibly versatile; super well-built; attractive; great-sounding; and have uncommon interesting features. They are also expensive, and the array of knobs will intimidate many users.

Also, it is probably obvious from my reviews that I'm a huge fan of FEA stuff in general, so it almost didn't bear mentioning that I give a thumbs-up to these two pedals in particular.

Of the two, the distortion has the widest range of possible sounds, but the flip side is that it can take a while to dial in the sound you want. With the Photon fuzz I was able to find great sounds with almost no effort, quickly, whereas with the Distortion it took me a few minutes.

As with all FEA pedals, you have to use some paint or nail polish to darken the indicator line on the knobs--otherwise it's almost impossible to see where you have the knobs set.

For the Distortion, be sure to look for the thread in which they posted clips of all the tones we requested. It really is amazing how many different sounds you can get out of this thing.

Of course one down side to the array of controls is that it has no memory, no presets, so you have to take detailed notes if you want to be able to recreate a sound later.

It bears repeating that they sound terrific. What good would all the controls be if the tones were uninspiring? They really have as good of a tone as any super-premium pedal on the market--they give you your money's worth.

Are they for everyone? No. Are they for tone-tweakers like me? Hellz yes. :)
 

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#49
Bumping this from the depths, as I never here this pedal mentioned around here lately, and it's one of the best sounding fuzz pedals I've ever heard in clips so I feel it deserves more attention!

None in stock on the FEA site though... hopefully they are still in production?

Anyone else a big fan of this and still have it on their board?

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#51
dannybuoy said:
Bumping this from the depths, as I never here this pedal mentioned around here lately, and it's one of the best sounding fuzz pedals I've ever heard in clips so I feel it deserves more attention!

None in stock on the FEA site though... hopefully they are still in production?

Anyone else a big fan of this and still have it on their board?

Invalid Link Removed
Click to expand...


Thanks dannybouy! The Photon Fuzz will still be in our lineup. I really don't know when the next batch will be built, because we are only working on the compressor backlog for now. When it is back in rotation, it will have a buffered bypass. I have had a few guys contact me that were recording with it and wanted me to eliminate the slight click on the signal when it was activated. The only way I am 100% sure to have a high gain circuit completely silent when switching is with electronic bypass.

-Frank
 
#52
Thanks, hope you get around to them soon! Buffered isn't a problem, as I'm sure it'll be a well designed buffer coming from you. I only have a couple of pedals that don't like buffers before them and they can just go first in line.
 

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