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Smitty Fuzz (Maestro op-amp Fuzz Tone Clone) Soundclips

M

Mark Olson

Inactive
Mar 19, 2008
3,080
19
Michigan
soundcloud.com
#1
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A quick very low volume unfortunately clip of the Smitty Fuzz I got from my brother tonight. Burly if static-y at times, but I think it has a cool character.

Clip is done with an SG Bass with FLATS. More clips of this to come, this is a cool pedal, you can find them occasionally on eBay (the builder sells them there) for $95. No I am not the builder, but I think he makes some cool pedals so check them out, I'm curious about his other Maestro Fuzz Tone Clone, the FZ-1S clone.

Oh, and this is a clone of the fuzz that was used on the Black Keys' Thickfreakness album, not that it sounds anything like it on bass, but it sure does on guitar! If you're looking for THE Thickfreakness fuzz, this one does it, I can probably get my brother (guitarist, I don't own a guitar or know how to play one) to do samples of that if anyone is interested.
 
#2
The clip is sweet Mark, and your playing just reminds me of like some epic stoned out jam in the back of a pickup truck in a desert in texas. Basically reminds me of Kyuss a bit. I love it.

The Smitty sounds really good, - just checked out the FZ1s clone on ebay, looks good,if i needed any more fuzz i'd be on that

The FZ1s is excellent too, I had one a few months ago and its the clean balance control that makes the pedal useable on bass. If someone's made a clone then its definitely worth checking out, although the problem with the FZ1s is that its not quite loud enough, so when you find that perfect balance of clean and wet on bass where you have your fundamental and then some crisp fuzz over the top, its just a little too quiet, the fuzz itself doesnt have enough lows to really hold its own on bass, so the blend is essential. Great pedal though and hopefully the clone fixes the volume issue.
 
#3
Hello. My name is Mark Smith and I am the builder of the Smitty Pedal Maestro clones that you have been discussing.

Mark, I'm happy to hear that you like my MFZ fuzz clone. Selling my pedals mostly on eBay I don't get a lot of comments on how people are using the pedals or if they like them other then through eBays Feedback so it is nice to hear about what is going on in the real world.

DosiYanarchy, I have fixed the volume issue in my FZ-1S clone by adding a trim pot to the last transistor. Using a Les Paul with humbuckers unity is now around 2:00 on the volume knob and it does go louder then unity between 3:00 & 6:00. It also helps the pedal sustain better and clean up better when you turn down your guitars volume knob without gating to easily. When I test the pedals after building I dial in the trim pot by playing around the 12th fret on the guitar in the Fuzz 2 position and you can hear the octave jump out more when you hit the sweet spot with the trim pot.


Other then the trim pot and a drop down resistor to prevent popping from true-bypass switching my pedal is an exact clone.
 
#5
Here is a link that shows most of what I am currently building.
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I will be more then happy to answer any questions you might have.

I will also be adding a Sola Sound ToneBender Professional MKII clone to my pedal rotation within the next week or so.
 
#6
Since this is a Bass Forum you guys might be interested in some photos of a Maestro Brassmaster clone that I built for a customer as a special order. I normally hand wire all of my pedals on perf board but the Brassmaster is a pretty complicated circuit so I used the GGG circuit board which the customer was aware of and had no problem with.

I think it looks pretty cool.

I'm not a bass player I play guitar, but I do own a bass and the Brassmaster sounds huge with bass.

Brassmaster1.jpg

Brassmaster2.jpg

Brassmaster3.jpg

Brassmaster4.jpg

Brassmaster5.jpg

Brassmaster7.jpg

Brassmaster8.jpg
 
#13
I build a few different types of fuzzes and many if not most are just barely above unity in their stock form. I don't know what they were thinking. Most of the time it's just a simple component change to make it louder.
 
#14
I tried an FZ-1a and thought it was terrible. BUT long before i tried it i owned this (old thread i started) near the end i turn the drive down a bit.
ampegfuzz said:
This is my first contribution to the effects forum. I finally decided to record a short clip of my fuzz pedal for other people to hear. The audio gets cut off at the end because the wav to mp3 converter only converts 60% of the sound file. But what ever its good enough for my first teeth cutting record and share expirence. So if you like fuzz enjoy!

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8120449

2maestrofuzzbox.gif
Click to expand...
 

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