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fuzz pedal

#62
OK, I know that active basses don't work well with fuzz because of the buffer they have. But my bass (a Lakland 55-94) has passive pick-ups and active electronics (like cut/boost bass, mid and treble) BUT most importend....NO buffer....... So it seems its an active bass with no buffer.... Does that work well with fuzz?????

Greets Lex.
 
#64
[surfer voice] It's all in the waves, dude! [/surfer voice]

Click HERE if you want the long, fully detailed explanation.

Essentially, what we call "Overdrive" is mild clipping of the instrument signal's waveform. Distortion is the next step up, and Fuzz can range from heavy clipping to a square wave, which, in the old fuzz pedal days, sometimes resembled synthy sounds.

Here's a normal wave
d101_01.gif


Here's a typical overdrive wave
d101_02.gif


Here's a heavier distortion wave
d101_03.gif


And here's a decent example of some fuzz waves
d101_04.gif


That web page also discusses other effects too, like why tube overdrive is smooth (rounding out the corners where clipping occurs), and how octaves work in terms of waveforms.

I found it using Google :smug:
 
#66
Sort of. With higher drive/gain settings, yup, it does get crazier than distortion does.

At lower drive/gain settings, fuzz pedals are much milder, but it sounds like the amp's breaking up. Kinda hard to describe... you'd really have to hear it.

It's a cool sound, IMO.

Check the "sound samples" sticky in this forum! There's some demos in there.
 
#67
Funkdified said:
so one of the best fuzz for an active bass is the frantone lo-tone classic? Cause my PDDI just isn't cutting it.
Click to expand...
The subdecay flying tomato fuzz was designed to sound good anywhere in signal chain, that's worth looking at.

Also, the MI Audio neo fuzz is both an excellent fuzz in it's own right and works with active basses nicely.
 
#68
cool fuzz

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've been trying fuzzes lately trying to get the Acoustic 360 fuzz from a pedal. I tried sooooo many and settled on one called the Bass Bomb.

The thing about fuzz is that there are two kinds of transistors (please correct me if I'm wrong - this is my understanding)

1) germania transistors: unstable but super groovy hippy fuzz charachteristics

2) silicon transistors: very stable fuzz sound but lacks grooviness (a bit sterile)

I was trying them all and not finding what I was looking for because each has a fatal flaw. (unstable or sterile sounding)

The bass bomb (also labeled as the astro-fuzz (same pedal) is a home brew pedal designed/patented by a guy named Stan (tube amp guru too) here in Boston (His last name is on the pedal but I'm house sitting so I don't have his last name with me). The Bass Bomb/Astro Fuzz combines a silicon transistor for effect stability with a germania transistor for 60's and 70's grooviness.

I sat and compared a whole range of fuzz pedals against the 360 fuzz and the Bass Bomb was easily the winner. It was almost exact. It's da bomb!
__________________
Steve
Click to expand...

Posted by prismacolor2

That's an interesting post I had not seen before. Wonder if it still holds up today?:eyebrow:
 

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