NPD Valco KGB Fuzz

[ped]

KGB = Keyboard, Guitar Bass. Super flexible fuzz that I’ve been after for a while. First impressions are that it does everything I’d want it to plus more. Full thoughts in due course as I compare it to the tall font muff. 

 

More info here https://valcofx.com/pages/valco-kgb-fuzz

Not my video below but it shows the bass sounds

 

[ped]

6:23 onwards 

 

 

[Daz39]

I do like a pedal with more than one type of knob/slider/toggle...

[ped]

The more I play this the more I like it!!

 

The impedance switch is one of the best features. It can really alter the character of the fuzz. You can use it to create a more rounded clean sound which makes the fuzz less raspy and more growly, for a driven jazz bass/Geddy Lee kind of vibe, or open it up for a more modern open ended hard edged sound. 
 

Also the polarity switch means even more options - it can cause some phase cancellation which means the clean blended sound really works with the fuzz, giving that kind of dissonant collapsing sound which sounds super thick and rich. 
 

I’ll try and do a video soon. Earlier I had my bass board cranked up and the feel of this thing vibrating through my body was just amazing 😻 

[pantherairsoft]

Crazy enclosure, but awesome sounding pedal. The impedance control must be super useful for swapping between passive and active instruments as well. Seems like a very well thought out pedal!

[ped]

Just noticed the one in the video above doesn’t have the polarity switch. Maybe it’s a prototype? 
 

Yeah it’s quite a big enclosure but I guess it needs to be quite big to allow all the controls. I like big pedals anyway 😂

 

 

[ped]

1 hour ago, pantherairsoft said:

Crazy enclosure, but awesome sounding pedal. The impedance control must be super useful for swapping between passive and active instruments as well. Seems like a very well thought out pedal!

They do quite a clever loop switch pedal with the impedance switch and phase switch too which looks awesome. 
 

https://eastwoodguitars.co.uk/collections/valco-1/products/valco-kgb-loop

[ped]

Not really sure what to do with the 'Dry out' except into a tuner or something... any bright ideas?

[SumOne]

27 minutes ago, ped said:

Not really sure what to do with the 'Dry out' except into a tuner or something... any bright ideas?

 

You could do parallel paths - something like dry into an envelope filter, and fuzz from the wet, and then combine both signals with a blend pedal. Or fuzz to a guitar amp/cab and dry to a bass amp/cab. 

[ped]

16 minutes ago, SumOne said:

 

You could do parallel paths - something like dry into an envelope filter, and fuzz from the wet, and then combine both signals with a blend pedal. Or fuzz to a guitar amp/cab and dry to a bass amp/cab. 

 

AH ok yeah could try that, good excuse to buy more things... cheers!

[Jonge McLengo]

How are you finding it now that the honeymoon period is over? Have to say I do like the versatility of the switchable impedance, neat idea that I’ve not seen implemented elsewhere

[ped]

3 hours ago, Jonge McLengo said:

How are you finding it now that the honeymoon period is over? Have to say I do like the versatility of the switchable impedance, neat idea that I’ve not seen implemented elsewhere

Really enjoying it. It covers lots of sounds. I’ve A/B tested with other drives I really like and it gets really close to them all, and where it’s a bit different I prefer the Valco. It responds better to a passive bass I think, and the blend control has most of the action in a small portion of the travel (or sounds like that to me) but like you say the impedance switch makes everything else change, so it adjusts where and how the clipping happens. I suppose the only issue is that there are too many options so if I didnt have my ‘reference’ pedals to compare to I’d probably feel a bit lost!!!

[Jonge McLengo]

That’s always a problem with do everything pedals, right? Give me a Zoom and I wouldn’t know what you do with it.

 

Do you find that changing the impedance is affected by pedals before it, and does it affect pedals after? Like how old fuzz faces would sound terrible if they weren’t the first in the chain.

[ped]

I know what you mean. Thankfully the controls are all quite intuitive. The pedal has to be first in the chain for the impedance switch to make any difference, I think - and it will affect pedals after it (you can use full clean blend). They also do a loop pedal with the switch for the same purpose. The phase switch is my fave part, it really helps thicken some of the sounds 

[ped]

I finally caved and bought the Loop pedal. It'll be super useful for my Mutron and Muffs which don't have great bypasses. It's got everything I want in a loop pedal and more!

 

 

[ped]

The loop pedal has arrived. I must admit, I don't think they sent me a new one... it has a scratch on the bottom and the faceplate was a bit dirty. I've messaged them to see what's up.

 

Anyway it's great - I have the Mutron in the loop but it'll be really useful as a boost pedal or for guesting pedals on my board. The advantage of having the Mutron in the loop is that I get true bypass and a level control, because the gain control on the Mutron controls the sensitivity of the filter but it increases the volume, and as I like high sensitivity with a fairly low range it's louder than unity gain.

 

Now I think I'm finally ready to build that pedalboard... I might put the comp under the board (only use it occasionally) and replace the TU2 with something smaller.

 

 

[MartinB]

That Boss looks absolutely minuscule in comparison! 🔍

[Jonge McLengo]

I reckon this is the only tuner that would look proportionate:

 

[ped]

10 minutes ago, Jonge McLengo said:

I reckon this is the only tuner that would look proportionate:

 

Actually tempted 

[Daz39]

37 minutes ago, Jonge McLengo said:

I reckon this is the only tuner that would look proportionate:

 

“Michael, shall I engage Pursuit Mode?”

[ped]

Just to update this thread, I just bought a Valco KGB Dist(ortion) to add to my collection. I've found the fuzz so useful and flexible that I wanted to check out the distortion variant too. 

 

In addition to the flexibility of each discrete clipping type, AND the impedance control, this has a variable LPF to control the tone. Quite excited to try it out!

 

 

[BillyBass]

That looks like one of the gadgets Dr No used to try to blow up the world!  You must have a big pedalboard.  I'll be interested to hear your thoughts, I'm on a bit of a distortion search at the moment.

[ped]

On 04/12/2023 at 17:16, BillyBass said:

That looks like one of the gadgets Dr No used to try to blow up the world!  You must have a big pedalboard.  I'll be interested to hear your thoughts, I'm on a bit of a distortion search at the moment.

 

It certainly does, so it must be good, right??

 

RIGHT! It's fantastic. SO many sounds in one box, it does a really nice warmed up overdrive and gets pretty close to the splattery fuzz of the dedicated fuzz pedal. The LPF is really useful in cutting the top end when you get a bit lairy with the distortion. The phase cancellation switch literally doubles the options. Super pleased... the only issues are that the LED is retina burningly bright, same as my other Valco pedals, but dimmed with a stick on filter thing. The more distorted circuits like Germanium and Silicon need a boost in the output dial or putting it another way the Op-amp and LED modes need backing off, but with so many controls that interact it'll be unlikely that I'd adjust it mid gig.

 

I think I'll keep the fuzz next to it, because together they offer a full gamut of OD/Distortion/Fuzz sounds and it'll be nice to have two flavours on tap. 

 

 

[BillyBass]

13 hours ago, ped said:

 

It certainly does, so it must be good, right??

 

RIGHT! It's fantastic. SO many sounds in one box, it does a really nice warmed up overdrive and gets pretty close to the splattery fuzz of the dedicated fuzz pedal. The LPF is really useful in cutting the top end when you get a bit lairy with the distortion. The phase cancellation switch literally doubles the options. Super pleased... the only issues are that the LED is retina burningly bright, same as my other Valco pedals, but dimmed with a stick on filter thing. The more distorted circuits like Germanium and Silicon need a boost in the output dial or putting it another way the Op-amp and LED modes need backing off, but with so many controls that interact it'll be unlikely that I'd adjust it mid gig.

 

I think I'll keep the fuzz next to it, because together they offer a full gamut of OD/Distortion/Fuzz sounds and it'll be nice to have two flavours on tap. 

 

 

So how do they stack?  And do you lose a lot of bass and low mid in use?

 

 

[ped]

4 hours ago, BillyBass said:

So how do they stack?  And do you lose a lot of bass and low mid in use?

 

 

 

I don't often stack pedals so haven't experimented yet. I have the fuzz set for quite a splattery velcro sound so really it doesn't matter what you feed it, bit one thing that does work nicely is turning the fuzz on the bassballs off and using the distortion instead, it's similar but a bit pore peaky.

 

No low end loss, if anything there's a bit of a boost unless you control it. I tend to use some clean blend (which by the way sounds completely in tune with the distorted signal, rather than separate to it). The HPF shaves off the really high end so that you can focus the growl on the low notes, which I prefer. I note that some other pedals allow you to distort the higher frequencies more, which I don't like as much. I tend to find that when playing live I need to increase the treble range to cut through depending on the cab, so the one knob solution should make that a doddle. I use the Tone control on the fuzz in the same way.

 

The mix slider is more interactive on the distortion compared to the fuzz, probably because it caters better for the subtle end of the spectrum. It actually overlaps with the fuzz at extreme settings, but the fuzz sounds absolutely brilliant with the phase inverted and impedance opened up, sort of the opposite is true for the Distortion.