Octave up fuzz with a mid range crunch?

[SirTarquin]

Curious if such a thing exists. In my mind, it has the thick slightly gated buzzsaw fuzz sound of a Brassmaster circuit but with a tamer high end and more prominent and crunchy sounding mids like in some overdrive pedals. I used to have a B:ASSMASTER for a while but ended up selling it since I could never get a usable sound I liked from it, it always felt way too out of control in a fizzy, bee-like way, and I definitely couldn't get the sound I just described.
I've thought for a while now that the SA After Shock could probably achieve this, but it is a digital pedal that is sort of a Swiss Army Knife of dirt (albeit a very good one, I'll admit) and I was wondering if there was already something designed specifically with this type of sound in mind (I.E., the difference between something that's designed to do a lot of things very well and something designed to do one specific thing extremely well).

 

[bassbrad]

I have searched far and wide for the same sort of thing for a solo/melody tone and never found one pedal that quite did it. Like you I tried the Brassmaster both original and several modified clones, the Aftershock, Octron and a few others that shall remain nameless. I tries the UniBass, Quint Machine, everything EHX ever made, Roger Mayer's Octavia as well as other Octavia clones. I have had several pedals built that never hit the mark.

I think if time and resources allowed working with @rratajski at Fuzzrocious would be a great opportunity given his experiences and success with different dirt, filter, tone and octave circuits.

 

[Swimming Bird]

Disnortion Micro.

 

[SirTarquin]

This is the sound that inspired the quest (starts around 2:58). I actually managed to get in touch with the bassist who recorded it and he said he did actually use the B:ASSMASTER for that sound, but I was never able to get mine to sound any like that. Maybe I needed the germanium version instead?

 

[foal30]

Def try before buy

but Wounded Paw has a fuzz with octave up
where you blend in some O/D
Battering Ram

 

[rratajski]

I think if time and resources allowed working with @rratajski at Fuzzrocious would be a great opportunity given his experiences and success with different dirt, filter, tone and octave circuits.

Yup, we make octave fuzzes in lots of different setups as custom orders.
Happy to talk more - [email protected].

In terms of not getting the sound you hear on the album from your setup, to get that player's sound, you'd be playing the same bass, same pickups, same amp, same cab, and maybe even bi-amping. You just gotta do you best with what you got .

 

[Randy Ward]

Prescription experience works for me in that it probably as close as I could get with that sound you describe. But it is kind of hard to set up I keep telling myself to get some kind of locks. I have an original but there is now a reissue available

 

[SirTarquin]

Yup, we make octave fuzzes in lots of different setups as custom orders.
Happy to talk more - [email protected].

In terms of not getting the sound you hear on the album from your setup, to get that player's sound, you'd be playing the same bass, same pickups, same amp, same cab, and maybe even bi-amping. You just gotta do you best with what you got .

Yes, I agree. That was the very first pedal I ever bought several years ago, so I didn't know as much about effects and tone then as I do now. The one picture I saw of his set up had him with what looked like a reissue 60s Fender Jazz running through the B:assmaster (looking at it again, it has black knobs instead of brown and no visible light so maybe it was one of the very first made which maybe makes a difference, or it was a double germanium version) to a SVT Classic amp. It's not a 60s reissue, but I do have a Jazz bass at least. Maybe the amp was overdriven a bit and that's what gave it's crunch and somehow toned down the high end. Again, looking more closely at the image again, it looks like the EQ on the amp had the bass turned up with the treble turned down, so that could have made all the difference. Provided the same set up was used for recording, that is.

So yeah, maybe a custom set up that combines the B:Assmaster or just Brassmaster with a SVT style overdrive with some extended tonal control is how to achieve this sound. It would definitely be something I'd have to think a while on though. I don't have that much room left on my board for anything larger than average.

 

[Rambazamba]

You want a Foxx Tone Machine.

 

[Woodsbass]

Anyone tried the Diamond f-Octave? That's the one that caught my eye.

 

[theunknowndude]

The bead fuzz is exactly this...
Switch does a bass and mids boost and you can Also use the tone knob to tone down the high end...
it’s still a brassmaster clone by any means but the switch can bring it back into more mids focused

 

[sifrancis]

The bead fuzz is exactly this...
Switch does a bass and mids boost and you can Also use the tone knob to tone down the high end...
it’s still a brassmaster clone by any means but the switch can bring it back into more mids focused

I'll second that - the Hiero Effects BEAD = Brassmaster + greater tonal control over mids and high end.

 

[SirTarquin]

The bead fuzz is exactly this...
Switch does a bass and mids boost and you can Also use the tone knob to tone down the high end...
it’s still a brassmaster clone by any means but the switch can bring it back into more mids focused

I'll second that - the Hiero Effects BEAD = Brassmaster + greater tonal control over mids and high end.

I'm actually looking into it. The videos were promising, but there aren't many of them. Then saw there's a v2 version with an additional treble control and a gate. Not to mention a real compact size. This one might be the closest option to what's in my head currently available without ordering something custom.