Bass Fuzz

[NFB-418]

I'm looking into purchasing a decent bass fuzz pedal/stompbox. So far the MXR El Grande is at the top of the list. Any recommendations?

[teb]

When it comes to fuzz and bass, I think there is only one clear leader.....

[cjj]

Yeah, ol' John Bolin makes some fine fuzz...

'course, sometimes you've gotta give it a trim...

[NFB-418]

Gee, imagine my excitement when I saw that there were replies to my thread.

[cjj]

Oops, sorry about that...

Actually, I was hoping someone would add some useful comments here too. I've heard good things about the Electroharmonix Bass Big Muff PI and the Boss ODB-3, but since the nearest music store to me is over 200 miles away, I haven't been able to check them out. There are a number of youtube videos of various bass distortion pedals, which give you an idea what they sound like, but it's hard to really know until you try one out yourself...

[elreydlp]

+1 for the Big Muff Pi. Great all-around Distorion/Fuzz.
I also like my Ibanez Tone-loc FZ-7 for guitar. I'll try it with my Bari when I get home tonight.
The tried and true Rat is also hard to beat.

[blueflamerick]

While not specifically a bass pedal, I think that my Diamond Fireburst fuzz sounds nice with my 4003.

[FretlessOnly]

While I don't have a specific recommendation, one thing to be aware of is what the use of the fuzz does to your presence in the mix. I've tried a few over the years, and they all seem to take the low end oomph away, which leaves your bass souding like a low distorted guitar rather than a distorted bass (if that makes any sense).

Not being an electronics sort, I don't know if fuzz, by its very definition, removes this low end punch, but I suspect that there are some pedals that provide fuzz without removing so much of the low end.

You can counteract some of this by boosting the gain on the fuzz, which effectively makes the fuzz sound louder than your standard bass sound, but it's a fine line - you can easily become too loud and still be left without that bone-crunching low that most of us crave.

One solution, if you have a 4001 or 4003, would be to run it in stereo and just use the fuzz on the bridge pickup. But that's not a cheap solution if you end up needing a second rig. You could also split the signal and then de-split it back to mono for use with a single rig (I suppose you could, anyway...).

[BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS]

i used to use a friend's foxx fuzz pedal to do early genesis in a cover band around '83. sounded very rutherford with my '64. it had a kind of velour material sprayed on the casing, so it was actually fuzzy...literally !

[FretlessOnly]

Ronbo: I have one of the foxx fuzz/wah/volume reissues from about three years ago (a blue fuzzy one). It too removed a good deal of my low end. It also has one of the cheapest switches in the wah on/off pedal position. I've had more problems with that pedal in the last two years than any other pedal I've ever had, and I've had some for about 20 years now.

Their customer service was no help.

I will admit that it sounds pretty good on certain settings, but it is oddly not compatible with other Boss pedals in certain configurations (I have been unable to pin down exactly which ones and got lazy trying) and squeels and howls at the wrong times...I keep it under my futon now.

[cjj]

While I don't have a specific recommendation, one thing to be aware of is what the use of the fuzz does to your presence in the mix. I've tried a few over the years, and they all seem to take the low end oomph away, which leaves your bass souding like a low distorted guitar rather than a distorted bass (if that makes any sense).

Not being an electronics sort, I don't know if fuzz, by its very definition, removes this low end punch, but I suspect that there are some pedals that provide fuzz without removing so much of the low end.

You can counteract some of this by boosting the gain on the fuzz, which effectively makes the fuzz sound louder than your standard bass sound, but it's a fine line - you can easily become too loud and still be left without that bone-crunching low that most of us crave.

One solution, if you have a 4001 or 4003, would be to run it in stereo and just use the fuzz on the bridge pickup. But that's not a cheap solution if you end up needing a second rig. You could also split the signal and then de-split it back to mono for use with a single rig (I suppose you could, anyway...).

This is actually something to think about, something I've noticed, but never really thought about. The nature of fuzz, or distortion, which is essentially overdriving amplification stages into clipping, produces high frequency harmonics. Depending on the circuit design, it might even remove low frequencies.

Now, even if the low frequencies are still there, the overall output will be skewed towards the higher frequencies by the addition of all the distortion harmonics. In other words, for the same volume, there will be an overall increase in high frequency content and a decrease in low frequencies.

So, as John mentioned, you need to do something fancy to overcome this. Splitting the signal and running one half to the fuzz, and then to a mixer with the unaffected to another mixer channel would work, but you'd need a mixer. If your amp has an effects loop with some sort of variable mix for the effects, that would work too - Sansamps can do this to some extent. I suppose there might be a fuzz pedal that can do this too, I was looking at octave pedals and a few of them do this, but I can't say I've seen it on a fuzz pedal (but I haven't looked either).

Interesting...

[BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS]

Ronbo: I have one of the foxx fuzz/wah/volume reissues from about three years ago (a blue fuzzy one). It too removed a good deal of my low end. It also has one of the cheapest switches in the wah on/off pedal position. I've had more problems with that pedal in the last two years than any other pedal I've ever had, and I've had some for about 20 years now.

Their customer service was no help.

I will admit that it sounds pretty good on certain settings, but it is oddly not compatible with other Boss pedals in certain configurations (I have been unable to pin down exactly which ones and got lazy trying) and squeels and howls at the wrong times...I keep it under my futon now.

yepper, that's da one only this was original...'60's or early '70's. too bad re-issue stuff scrimp on parts quality.

[FretlessOnly]

I believe they were originally made only for a couple of years in the early '70s. John Wetton used one of them back in the '72-'74 incarnation of King Crimson to the point of annhilation of everything as we know it. From all accounts he gave it a pretty good work-out night after night and it held up just fine.

[woodyng]

while not specifically a fuzz box,i have a tech 21 vt pedal on order that i hope will occasionally fill the bill for fuzz needs,but mostly i am getting it to impart a bit o tube crunch to my markbass combo. it claims to have some extreme settings that would probably sound pretty much like a fuzz. there are a couple of youtube videos that demo it-some good some not so much,but it seems to have a pretty wide array of sounds available. i am hoping for a tone similar to rick prices's (even tho he mostly used a pbass)

[FretlessOnly]

Woody: I've got one, and it fits the bill very nicely for tube crunch. I've not been able to get an acceptable fuzz sound from it. Either too hot or too crackly; like a sneaky gnome putting rusty butter knives through my speakers - not that "dirty milkshake" fuzz that I can add pepper sauce to when I want it.

But, it is a fine pedal for what it does well. You can really mimic some great 70s amp sounds for short $ with it.

The fOXX fuzz/wah/volume does give me a great dirty fuzz, but I've explained the problems with that above.