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Fuzz Pedal with Tone Knob BEFORE Fuzz Circuit?

fu22ba55

fu22ba55

Apr 16, 2009
2,564
2,990
#1
No matter what fuzz pedal I use (SmallSoundBigSound Team Awesome Fuzz, Wren & Cuff Civil War Fuzz, Sanford & Sunny Bluebeard, etc...) I ALWAYS prefer the sound when the tone knob on my BASS is rolled off 100%.

Rolling off the tone on my bass (when playing with fingers) gives me more of a 'square-wave fuzz-fart fuzz-tuba' sound, which I prefer.

I don't like the sound of fuzz pedals when my bass's tone knob is NOT rolled off.

Does a fuzz pedal already exist wherein when I engage the fuzz pedal, it mimics the behavior of me rolling of my tone pot (on my bass) BEFORE entering the fuzz circuit? (So I can jump into a measure or two of a tune with some fuzz, without having to turn down my tone knob, then turn it back up again...)

Whenever I mess with the tone knob on any muff-variant fuzz pedal, it just alters the tone of the fuzz pedal. I want to alter my BASS's tone BEFORE it hits the fuzz pedal.

Does this question make sense?

Does this fuzz pedal exist?

Thanks, pedal people.
 
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#2
Sorry, I can't directly answer your question. But, if you're handy with a soldering iron, you could very easily build a pre-fuzz "tone knob" pedal. I made one of these for exactly this purpose. It fits in a 1590A size pedal and has a rotary selector knob to let you pick what capacitor you want. If you just wanted the standard .047uf, you could probably even do one of the jacks top mounted! Happy to provide more info if you'd like.
 

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#3
jefkritz said:
Sorry, I can't directly answer your question. But, if you're handy with a soldering iron, you could very easily build a pre-fuzz "tone knob" pedal. I made one of these for exactly this purpose. It fits in a 1590A size pedal and has a rotary selector knob to let you pick what capacitor you want. If you just wanted the standard .047uf, you could probably even do one of the jacks top mounted! Happy to provide more info if you'd like.
Click to expand...
I came in to say this, too. I also prefer tone knob rolled off with fuzz.
 
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#4
jefkritz said:
Sorry, I can't directly answer your question. But, if you're handy with a soldering iron, you could very easily build a pre-fuzz "tone knob" pedal.
Click to expand...

davelowell2 said:
I came in to say this, too. I also prefer tone knob rolled off with fuzz.
Click to expand...

So, with jefkritz's solution above, I'd have to hit TWO pedals each time I want to engage the fuzz, correct?

It would technically work, but I'd prefer to just have one pedal to engage if possible.

(I could create a LOOP that has the tone-pot pedal, and the fuzz pedal, but that seems like more trouble than it's worth.)

It doesn't even have to be a tone pot... it could just be a toggle switch.

Does this pedal already exist somewhere? or is my best bet modifying one of my existing pedals?
 
#6
You could possibly do this with a multi-effects pedal or stompbox, like the zoom MS-60, by programming the signal chain to do what you want. You would be very limited on the fuzz sounds though.

The SA Aftershock might be able to do this as well. I haven't used the pedal myself, but I've heard great things about people programming their favorite dirt sounds into the pedal. You can try asking on the SA thread: Source Audio Sorcerers Society (S.A.S.S) Part 3
 
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#7
fu22ba55 said:
Does this question make sense?
Click to expand...
Yes, perfectly.
fu22ba55 said:
Does this fuzz pedal exist?
Click to expand...
Yes, at my house. :) I've built a few fuzzes, the same effect happens with guitar, so I built one with a tone cap right on the input.

Your best bet is to mod an existing fuzz pedal. Which one do you use? An older pedal that uses through hole circuitry will be easier to mod than a modern one that uses tiny SMD circuit board and components.
 
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#10
Crater said:
Your best bet is to mod an existing fuzz pedal. Which one do you use? An older pedal that uses through hole circuitry will be easier to mod than a modern one that uses tiny SMD circuit board and components.
Click to expand...

I have an old big muff PI (mystery Russian-era I think) that I love the sound of that's been squeezed into a Hammond 1590BB (square) enclosure by a different builder many years ago. That might work? I also have a Wren & Cuff Civil War Muff, (pretty large box) but havent looked inside at the size of the PCB. Would one of those two work? Can I send one to you for some custom trickery?
 
#11
allintime said:
The SA Aftershock might be able to do this as well. I haven't used the pedal myself, but I've heard great things about people programming their favorite dirt sounds into the pedal. You can try asking on the SA thread: Source Audio Sorcerers Society (S.A.S.S) Part 3
Click to expand...

This does look like it might be able to do the trick, albeit it looks like a super-complicated solution. Using DSP and signal-routing via an iPhone app seems LESS future-proof than a good old-fashioned tone pot, but yes it might do the trick as well. Thanks for this.
 
#12
I understand what you are aiming to achieve. While not exactly what you have in mind, you might want to take a look at the Keeley Fuzz Bender. It has an active eq section (post fuzz) that provides +-50 dB cut /boost of lows and highs. That should allow you to dial in exactly what you are looking for. Plus it’s an absolute beast of a fuzz. Good luck!
 
#13
fu22ba55 said:
So, with jefkritz's solution above, I'd have to hit TWO pedals each time I want to engage the fuzz, correct?
Click to expand...
NO, no need...

fu22ba55 said:
It would technically work, but I'd prefer to just have one pedal to engage if possible.

(I could create a LOOP that has the tone-pot pedal, and the fuzz pedal, but that seems like more trouble than it's worth.)
Click to expand...

Answered your own question; but I disagree with the worth of trouble. It's really not much trouble, and totally worth it.

fu22ba55 said:
It doesn't even have to be a tone pot... it could just be a toggle switch.

...
Click to expand...
I'd recommend against just a switch. You could go with internal trim-pots, but different rooms/venues, different situations... I'd stick with an external set of controls.

rratajski said:
You can add your own tone stack to your pedals or ask a small maker to do a custom order for you.
Click to expand...

+1
THIS IS THE WAY TO GO, whether you do it yourself or get someone else to do it for you, especially since your Muff is already rehoused.

IF you have a pedal that you don't want to mess up, a loop-switcher pedal with an EQ section built in would be the ticket — thus you leave the Fuzz pedal on all the time in the looper pedal, once you've adjusted your EQ in rehearsal, at the gig you've got one stomper to hit on the looper.

You can have a bare-bones simple tone control, or something that lets you sculpt the tone more like a 2-knob Baxandall (bass and treble — lost in the mix? mid boost: turn the bass and treble down; need mid-scoop? turn the bass and treble up) OR a 3-band classic tone stack OR 7-band graphic OR gyrator OR... whatever you want.

If the EQ is on the simple side, you could even get away with a low-profile looper enclosure and then set whatever fuzz on top of the looper to save pedalboard real-estate.

The cool thing about the separate looper pedal is that you can swap out whatever fuzz you want at any time and not have to mod multiple pedals in your collection. Dial in the right fuzz for the job at hand er, band.
 
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#16
Yep. I use it with guitar. I'm not stuck in this but sometimes I pick pedals that work with both. JHS and Wampler are really good at keeping the voicing where it won't "mess up" a bass even though they don't label it that way. There are no bass demos that I've seen but I was able to try it out.
 
#19
Feral Feline said:
The cool thing about the separate looper pedal is that you can swap out whatever fuzz you want at any time and not have to mod multiple pedals in your collection. Dial in the right fuzz for the job at hand er, band.
Click to expand...

I think the looper option is my fallback position... I know it will work, but I'm looking to see if something already exists that fits the bill.
 

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