Hey Dave, talk to me about Fuzzes and buffers...

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Gainzilla

Gainzilla

Well-known member
is there any hard and fast rule with Fuzz Face type pedals and buffers? I know that they dont like wirelesses but how do you wire them into Pedalboards and/or racks? Pre buffer? Post Buffer? No buffer? Is there a trick to making them work with wirelesses?

Whats the story ?

Thanks

Kage
 
Don't know anything about wireless, but germanium Fuzz Face type pedals (basically any fuzz/distortion with germanium trannies such as the NKT275 that a lot of Fuzz Faces had) should be FIRST in line, before anything else. It needs to react to the direct signal from your guitar or it will not function properly or just sound like shit. I think germ. tranny pedals need to use Carbon Zinc batteries to sound their best.

There are silicon transistor versions of the Fuzz Face type pedals also (like the Hendrix FF which uses BC108 trannies), and I believe those can be anywhere in the chain.


Dave, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think wahs can be modified to be germanium fuzz friendly, in which case you could maybe run the wah before the fuzz, but I'd put the fuzz first, even before compression.
 
glassjaw7":3hdr7rf3 said:
Don't know anything about wireless, but germanium Fuzz Face type pedals (basically any fuzz/distortion with germanium trannies such as the NKT275 that a lot of Fuzz Faces had) should be FIRST in line, before anything else. It needs to react to the direct signal from your guitar or it will not function properly or just sound like shit. I think germ. tranny pedals need to use Carbon Zinc batteries to sound their best.

There are silicon transistor versions of the Fuzz Face type pedals also (like the Hendrix FF which uses BC108 trannies), and I believe those can be anywhere in the chain.


Dave, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think wahs can be modified to be germanium fuzz friendly, in which case you could maybe run the wah before the fuzz, but I'd put the fuzz first, even before compression.
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Thanks Bro, I knew most of that and I like Germ FF before wah, its ounds awesome that way ( Philip Sayce- Peace Machine)

Id really like to hear what Dave thinks about what I asked about the whole Buffer thing
 
Far as I know, they come pre-buffer and they are worked into racks/boards with a looper or bypass system where when the FF is in use, the buffer is removed from the chain. They don't mix well.
 
Well the best way to use fuzz pedals are first in line with the guitar straight in. Fuzz works great before wahs. It generally hard to use them in big systems because of the wirelesses and such. There is a circuit that can make them work though but it's not quite the same.
 
RACKSYSTEMS":3hjyg97k said:
Well the best way to use fuzz pedals are first in line with the guitar straight in. Fuzz works great before wahs. It generally hard to use them in big systems because of the wirelesses and such. There is a circuit that can make them work though but it's not quite the same.
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Thanks Dave, I have a little Gizmo that swaps the order of my fuzz and wah with one button stomp and I Love the way the Germanium Fuzz face sounds before the wah...

Is a buffer anywhere a bad thing with a fuzz?

Also, can you tell me more about the circuit you mentioned or direct me to where I can read about it?
 
glassjaw7":3iwlht4n said:
There are silicon transistor versions of the Fuzz Face type pedals also (like the Hendrix FF which uses BC108 trannies), and I believe those can be anywhere in the chain.


.
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Silicon Fuzz Faces are just sensitive as the Germs and most definitively needs to be first in your chain. So no wireless for me! :)
 
Think its the 30x18 but might be the 28x16 cant remember.
 
Blix":3fe2cug9 said:
glassjaw7":3fe2cug9 said:
There are silicon transistor versions of the Fuzz Face type pedals also (like the Hendrix FF which uses BC108 trannies), and I believe those can be anywhere in the chain.


.
Click to expand...


Silicon Fuzz Faces are just sensitive as the Germs and most definitively needs to be first in your chain. So no wireless for me! :)
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I see. So, it has more to do with the circuit design then? A Big Muff for example doesn't seem to be bothered by a buffer, but obviously something like a Fuzz Factory or Fuzz Face will not work properly. I didn't realize that the BC108 or similar was also affected. Is it an impedance or efficiency issue?
 
"The first transistor of the fuzzface is the gain stage and the second transistor is a buffer which is providing the feedback to the inverting input of the first transistor. This is actually forming a crude inverting opamp stage, in which the guitar pickups impedance is acting as an input resistance. It is also the reason that different guitars can sound radially different with fuzzface pedals since their pickup impedance may vary greatly from each other. If a buffer is driving the input stage with a different impedance, and that can make it sound different."

-Jack Orman

So no rules apply, the buffer will make your fuzz sound different, use your ears and decide what you like best.
 
I think I remember seeing a vid where Pete Thorn mentioned that a Boss Fuzz could work well when running a wireless unit, but not sure on the ins and outs of why.
 
UberschallEL34":22n8hppf said:
I think I remember seeing a vid where Pete Thorn mentioned that a Boss Fuzz could work well when running a wireless unit, but not sure on the ins and outs of why.
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Because it doesn't use germanium or silicon transistors. Its a solid state pedal to emulate a fuzz sound.
 
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