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Need an aggressive fuzz

6-3-2

6-3-2

Sep 20, 2003
1,460
1,461
#1
I've had an Aguilar Fuzzistor since way back when the pandemic started. Since then my pedal board as grown from 3 to 8 pedals. In that time I've realized that while the Fuzzistor is a well-made pedal, it's also pretty tame. It's a very smooth fuzz. Most of the time I'd rather turn up my distortion pedal, an EWS Stormy, than use the Aguilar fuzz.

So, I'm now in search of a fuzz pedal that's more aggressive and ideally could retain the high-mid punch that I love in my J tone. Ideally it would have top-mounted jacks and be in a similar ballpark in terms of build quality.
 
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#2
Do you like a smooth fuzz or a gated style fuzz?

i really like the black arts tone works pharaoh, as it retains a lot of mids. It is on the smoother side of fuzzes though, but that doesn’t mean it’s a polite fuzz by any means.

the Darkglass duality may be a good option, as it has two different fuzz voices you can switch between.
 
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#4
Lammchop93 said:
Do you like a smooth fuzz or a gated style fuzz?

i really like the black arts tone works pharaoh, as it retains a lot of mids. It is on the smoother side of fuzzes though, but that doesn’t mean it’s a polite fuzz by any means.

the Darkglass duality may be a good option, as it has two different fuzz voices you can switch between.
Click to expand...
From what I can tell, gated fuzz is not my sound. Love it when people like Jack White use it, but it colors the sound too much for me.

The Black Arts Tone Works pedal sounds great though! You still get the flavor of the instrument, which is what I don't like about the Aguilar. It scrubs all the instrument's tone away and the blend knob just adds string noise to my ears.
 
#9
el murdoque said:
Fjord Fuzz Fenris - if you dare!

OBNE Haunt - if you don't.
Click to expand...

Beyond the Haunt, there's also the Alpha Haunt. I don't own it, unfortunately, but it sounds amazing and is maybe the most versatile fuzz I've ever seen - there are gate, bias, clean blend and many Eq options available.

I like the sound of the Pharaoh Fuzz, too, but it's not as aggressive as the Haunt.

I've got a Walrus Jupiter v2 on its way, also sounds great, quite versatile and retains loads of low end, but again, less aggressive than the Haunt.
 
#10
I have used about 2dozen fuzzes over the years (of all brands and types, superfuzz, muff, rat, wholly mammoth... and just got an EH Ripped Speaker. Very happy face. There are also 4 or 5 overdrives I must have one of on the board, but this RS (actually a more controlable version of Devi Ever torns peaker...) has a very high likelihood of being a must. It combines a stable distortion with some low bias pinch or crackle, but with with a good mix of low end clean. It also does lofi with the trebel up. ...similar to DOD Caricossa but more stable. (My #1 for DOOM fuzz is MXR Brown Acid, those that know, know, but they are now unavaiable) Yea my big board would now have Brown Acid, Mastotron and Ripped Speaker.
 
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#17
Get an Ultrawave or an Aftershock. What I love about the source audio pedals is that I can make whatever sound I’m hearing online. Or pull an existing preset and tweak it.
Especially with how much money it saves me when I see a new, interesting pedal. Now I think, “oh I can make my source audio pedal(s) do that.” And spend some time, but not more money!
 
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