radiophonic Posted June 10, 2019 Share Posted June 10, 2019 What are people using? Historically I've had the Okto Nojs, which includes a pretty unique fuzz-half. I've no idea what it's based on but it has quite a rich, almost nasal mid range. Unfortunately you can't adjust the gate, so I always needed a second fuzz for routine heaviness. The solution was the ZVex Mastotron, but it's very dry and I always found it benefited from a blend with the ON when doing the filter-synth thing. Now I have an OC2, so the ON is off the board and I'm looking for alternatives. Nothing Muff related, needs to have an adjustable gate tonally distinct from the Mastotron. Unpleasant Surprise is on my radar as an oddball. Fuzzrocious Blast Furnace is a possibility too. Anything else I should be considering. Ideally something I can actually buy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itu Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 https://www.spruceeffects.com/effects/old-growth-fuzz/ https://amptweaker.com/bass-tightfuzz/ The first is for the hi-Z basses, another for lo-Z. I have an old Dean Markley Overlord tube for fun. I tried quite a few before choosing these. Dark Glass Microtubes B3K, age old Muff, Vemuram, Way Huge Pork Loin etc. but most of them had some issues with adjustments or sound. Dark Glass Duality was very interesting but when I had the money, there was not one around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest oZZma Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 On 10/06/2019 at 09:12, radiophonic said: What are people using? Historically I've had the Okto Nojs, which includes a pretty unique fuzz-half. I've no idea what it's based on but it has quite a rich, almost nasal mid range. Unfortunately you can't adjust the gate, so I always needed a second fuzz for routine heaviness. The solution was the ZVex Mastotron, but it's very dry and I always found it benefited from a blend with the ON when doing the filter-synth thing. Now I have an OC2, so the ON is off the board and I'm looking for alternatives. Nothing Muff related, needs to have an adjustable gate tonally distinct from the Mastotron. Unpleasant Surprise is on my radar as an oddball. Fuzzrocious Blast Furnace is a possibility too. Anything else I should be considering. Ideally something I can actually buy... Iron Ether Oxide has adjustable gate ("Morph" knob) Anyways the Fairfield Unpleasant Surprise is a great option,, it's on my radar too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quatschmacher Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 (edited) On 10/06/2019 at 08:12, radiophonic said: What are people using? Historically I've had the Okto Nojs, which includes a pretty unique fuzz-half. I've no idea what it's based on but it has quite a rich, almost nasal mid range. Unfortunately you can't adjust the gate, so I always needed a second fuzz for routine heaviness. The solution was the ZVex Mastotron, but it's very dry and I always found it benefited from a blend with the ON when doing the filter-synth thing. Now I have an OC2, so the ON is off the board and I'm looking for alternatives. Nothing Muff related, needs to have an adjustable gate tonally distinct from the Mastotron. Unpleasant Surprise is on my radar as an oddball. Fuzzrocious Blast Furnace is a possibility too. Anything else I should be considering. Ideally something I can actually buy... Run it into a gate pedal such as TC Sentry, that’s what I did. I set up a toneprint which has an instant cutoff. Edited June 11, 2019 by Quatschmacher Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quatschmacher Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 Check out the Red Witch Zeus. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiophonic Posted June 11, 2019 Author Share Posted June 11, 2019 4 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said: Run it into a gate pedal such as TC Sentry, that’s what I did. I set up a toneprint which has an instant cutoff. Does the external gate approach work? I associate gating in a fuzz with starving the cathode, which would add a lot of randomness of the probability of a note being sustained at a given frequency. I'd assumed a noise gate would be too smooth. I don't really have room for a gate pedal anyway, but I'm curious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cuzzie Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 Demon Pedals - The Pavarti Gamechanger Audio - Plasma Pedal Tech21 - Red Ripper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quatschmacher Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 52 minutes ago, radiophonic said: Does the external gate approach work? I associate gating in a fuzz with starving the cathode, which would add a lot of randomness of the probability of a note being sustained at a given frequency. I'd assumed a noise gate would be too smooth. I don't really have room for a gate pedal anyway, but I'm curious. Depends what you’re trying to achieve. I was looking for something which cuts the note off dead upon release and avoids bleed when the filter is open at the beginning of a downsweep; the Sentry can do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quatschmacher Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 Just now, Cuzzie said: Demon Pedals - The Pavarti Gamechanger Audio - Plasma Pedal Tech21 - Red Ripper Red Ripper is great (I think Sam Wilkes uses one) but isn’t gated which is why I didn’t keep it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiophonic Posted June 11, 2019 Author Share Posted June 11, 2019 I'd love an Oxide. but I've never had the $$$ when one came up. The Zeus looks very interesting - similar to the Okto Nojs but with control of the gate. The octave sounds very OC2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest oZZma Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 1 minute ago, radiophonic said: I'd love an Oxide. but I've never had the $$$ when one came up. The Zeus looks very interesting - similar to the Okto Nojs but with control of the gate. The octave sounds very OC2. I didn't have all that $$$ to buy it new. I lied in ambush like a vulture and found it used Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quatschmacher Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 1 hour ago, radiophonic said: I'd love an Oxide. but I've never had the $$$ when one came up. The Zeus looks very interesting - similar to the Okto Nojs but with control of the gate. The octave sounds very OC2. Zeus was one of the nicest sounding and best tracking Octavers I have tried. The frustration was that the gain control was via internal trimpot. The fuzz sounded tight and pretty nasty, but not at all settings; due to the nature of the circuit there were some settings which were totally unusable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonse Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 Chunk Systems Brown Dog 😉 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannybuoy Posted June 12, 2019 Share Posted June 12, 2019 (edited) Tried the Diabolik? Best thing for me by far, over the Oxide, Mastotron, Brown Dog and a few others I’ve tried. Also a big fan of the Prunes & Custard, which has a similar sound to the Red Ripper. Edited June 15, 2019 by dannybuoy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byo Posted June 14, 2019 Share Posted June 14, 2019 (edited) Amazing options here, I have some of them myself. An odd one that I combine with my octavers is the CoPilot FX ORBIT which is a gated fuzz with a VCO. Crazy pedal this is. I got the older 5-knob version after finding out that John Davis (JoJo Mayer's NERVE) had it on his board (many years ago) and watching his video below. Edited June 14, 2019 by Byo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannybuoy Posted June 15, 2019 Share Posted June 15, 2019 I’ve had both versions of the Orbit - the new one is better as a fuzz since it has a blend, but unfortunately it doesn’t have the switch that makes it do those laser noises! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiophonic Posted June 16, 2019 Author Share Posted June 16, 2019 (edited) Diabolik and P&C look promising I must say. Both are still actually available too, although not cheap. The P&C is in the same ballpark as I'm expecting the new Source Audio C4 to be, which seems anomalous. I guess they have to ship from NZ though. I spent some time tweaking last night and found that I got better results with the Mastotron if I disengaged the subs and let the OC2 do all the work. Nice results with the 3 voice harmony on the PS6 and now my DD500 is working as a digital octave down and a detune chorus, I don't have to worry about changing modes under stage lighting either. I've got a couple of months of getting sounds together while we prep the next album and before we resume gigging and I'm hoping the C4 is out soon so I can decide whether to stay on the fuzz path or jump into a digital solution. Edited June 16, 2019 by radiophonic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GisserD Posted June 16, 2019 Share Posted June 16, 2019 There's a Redwitch fuzz god 2 on ebay going cheap.... https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F283511406327 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiophonic Posted June 17, 2019 Author Share Posted June 17, 2019 20 hours ago, GisserD said: There's a Redwitch fuzz god 2 on ebay going cheap.... https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F283511406327 Boo. Blinked and I missed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quatschmacher Posted June 25, 2019 Share Posted June 25, 2019 On 17/06/2019 at 07:26, radiophonic said: Boo. Blinked and I missed it. I know of a Zeus for £100. Let me know if you are interested and I can send you the details. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiophonic Posted June 25, 2019 Author Share Posted June 25, 2019 1 hour ago, Quatschmacher said: I know of a Zeus for £100. Let me know if you are interested and I can send you the details. My ES5 has developed a fault so I'm in no-spend limbo until I've worked out what the issue is... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GisserD Posted June 25, 2019 Share Posted June 25, 2019 Tried a factory reset? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dapper Bandit Posted June 26, 2019 Share Posted June 26, 2019 On 11/06/2019 at 12:49, Jonse said: Chunk Systems Brown Dog 😉 Having tried a few, this is the fuzz that has stayed with me the longest and probably will never leave my side. It's a real shame Chunk is no more as this was a real gem of a pedal and they're getting very hard to find now. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiophonic Posted June 26, 2019 Author Share Posted June 26, 2019 13 hours ago, GisserD said: Tried a factory reset? It's the 'Enter' switch that's glitching, so I can't do a reset. I'm talking to Roland. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dosi Y'Anarchy Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 The Chunk Systems Brown Dog is excellent but quite rare and not cheap now if you can find one. The Fairfield Circuitry Unpleasant Suprise is great but although it does do the gated thing excellently, I felt it was more of a "noise" fuzz rather than a synth fuzz, if that makes any sense? I did a video where I used it a bit But didn't have the gate set high. It's here if you're interested: I've had a few mastotrons but always felt they benefitted from a clean blend as I couldn't get them to balance in a mix otherwise. The little bear bs-1 is a woolly mammoth clone that is pretty cheap but I quite enjoyed for the time I had it. The Redwitch Zeus was great as quite tweakable when you consider the trim pots. But as you already have the ON, I don't know if there's any point to having a functionally similar pedal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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