MXR El Grande Bass Fuzz Soundclips

[Mark Olson]

These are low volume soundclips as it's too late to record anything decent right now. If the low or high end is lacking it's because I don't have my stuff loud enough to get everything pumping in a way that sounds good. All the same I thought these clips would give you an idea. I'll try to do better ones when I can if I have time.

First off, El Grande Bass Fuzz, Mustang bass with precision pickup:

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If these next two clips don't sound like they have as much low end, it's because I'm using the other channel on my amp which doesn't have as much. First is the El Grande with the Wilson Freaker Wah:

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then with the 12 Position Bass Q wah instead:

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[Thunderscreech]

Hmm, tasty. Almost makes me wish I'd never sold/traded mine (whatever I did)...Almost, mind you.

 

[waleross]

Sounded great! I am going to hook mine up first thing in the am................................

 

[Mark Olson]

Thanks! I'm liking this pedal. I'll try to do some more decent clips when I can, possibly saturday.

 

[vegas532]

I guess the El Grande caught a lot of flak for having "too much gain". For the money, it's a fantastic fuzz pedal!

 

[RCCollins]

it's not that it has "too much gain" per se, but more the issue that any setting 9 o'clock or higher is absurdly high gain already

 

[Mark Olson]

Yeah it's definitely not for the meek. But I do think it's a great deal if you want some ballsy fuzz.

I got some free time but it's after 1:30 am here so still low volume clips (I'm at my apartment). Bridge pickup SG Bass:

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Both pickups SG Bass for heavy riffs:

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all these clips are with the fuzz at about 9 o'clock, tone a bit above noon by the way.

 

[sutarappa]

cool soundclips!

I guess the El Grande caught a lot of flak for having "too much gain". For the money, it's a fantastic fuzz pedal!

agreed. "too much gain," eh? how does that work? hmm... does the name, "El Grande Bass Fuzz," hint at a mild overdrive? flak off, creamy dreamer!

 

[Mark Olson]

Thanks. I still intend to do some decent clips but I've been very busy lately until late at night.

 

[Mark Olson]

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SG Bass both pickups, heavily distorted for a Cream tune.

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Bridge pickup on the SG

 

[RCCollins]

cool soundclips!



agreed. "too much gain," eh? how does that work? hmm... does the name, "El Grande Bass Fuzz," hint at a mild overdrive? flak off, creamy dreamer!

yeah but the taper of its gain knob makes it downright DANGEROUS for use with some folk's rigs!

 

[Mark Olson]

By gain knob do you mean volume or fuzz knob?

If you mean the volume knob, on the other hand that boost is handy if you've got a cranked tube amp and want to boost it into total armageddon.

 

[Mark Olson]

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Put some flats on the SG Bass so I thought I'd do the Cream again, but this time with the fuzz at minimum. I'm only using the neck pickup for this. I know I ought to use the bridge too for that, but what's in the neck position now has the bite I'd need for this on it's own, though it doesn't have the depth and girth of a real old mudbucker. I want some more depth and mud so I'm thinking about putting one of these in there:

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[Mark Olson]

Oh I also did it fingerstyle that time, like Jack.

 

[Mark Olson]

One thing you might notice about reviews for this pedal is people looking at the price tag and assuming it has just an average, run of the mill sound. What you need to understand is when any of these guitar pedals are modified for bass, there's always a trade off of character that comes with the added low end. It's the same with Tubescreamers or anything really, that's part of the reason they don't just put big old output/input caps in everything standard. You lose a lot of the character the fuzz naturally has, and that's a big part of the reason why I like to use guitar fuzz boxes, with their stock caps, and just crank up the volume into a compressed tube amp. Depending on the pedal, you can sometimes get full low end and the natural character of the fuzz that way.

Anyways, I did a couple of clips with this fuzz with a slide, and these clips show a little more of the natural character of the fuzz in all it's sh!tty transistory raging glory. Check it out:

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and

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So it's not that this pedal doesn't have character, just like with any pedal that's not entirely bass friendly when you mod it for bass you can't hear it over all that low end!

 

[vegas532]

I love hearing bass played with a slide...one of my personal favorites in my own "trick bag". The hard part, of course, is playing in a project where they allow you to use it.

 

[Mark Olson]

Those clips are with flatwounds too, which I don't think are too great for slide playing. Guess you have to start your own project!

 

[Crystalman85]

Awesome sound samples you got there. the mxr el grande bass fuzz sounds killer.

 

[Mark Olson]

Thanks! I like this pedal, but I really love Fuzz Faces, and I'm looking for my next Fuzz Face to compare to this.

 

[fitz420]

mark, have you tried a mojo hand huckleberry v2. its a really good fuzz face variant that works well with bass. capable of a whole bunch of different sounds.