daniel_allan1967's Reviews
8 reviews Back to daniel_allan1967's Equipboard
this pedal is the mordern fuzz face,by that i mean people will be making and talking about for the next 50 years!
Ok,so I just made two of these and I'm absolutely loving the Fuzz Factory,I've always been a bit trad when it came to fuzzes but when I got asked to make one recently for someone and tested it I comu fall in love with it,I just had to have one of that space age oscillation fuzz on my broad,...a great modern fuzz I think Jimi Hendrix would have adored had it been available in the 60s,I think that pritty much say it all!
great set of boosters and overdrives,all the tone of the old boss stomp boxes!
This is great for given you access to all those old boss pedal tones. I know I've lost a lot of the original boss stompboxs I've owned over the years,but with this I can get all the overdrives and boosters (as well as some of the more idiosyncratic pedals boss have released) in one floorboard.. it's a great bit of kit that I use all the time along side my other pedals!....great for overdrive tones!
I have use the mini disk version, but all the features are the same
Ive always preferred using hardware to capture recording as aposed to daws, and when I got this a few years back I was really chuffed becuse it was a basic 4track recorder that let me get thing down easily and quickly.
Its a good machine and well worth the £60 I paid for it the only down side with the mini disk version I have is the limited availability of md data disks, a standard mini disk only lets you record on 2 of the 4 tracks, while having a data disk gives you the full 4 tracks, the problm is companys like sony stopped making them 3 or 4 years back, so I guess mine will be like the wire recoreding machine in a 100 years time :-( I still love it though!!!
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great classic fuzz that can give mild octave fuzz sounds.
Please note that im reviewing a pedal I built to the same spec as the original superfuzz...I really love this fuzz for the mild upper octave sounds the circuit can archive. I also like the more standred fuzz tones on offer here thanks to six 2n3904 npn silicon transistors.its a truly great fuzz that has much in common with the old shin ei fuzzes from the past, if you love fuzz this pedal is a absolute must!!
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I had the exact fuzz pictured and mine was anything but subtle when the internal trim pot was calibrated correctly to produce the octaving effect. The vintage ones produce a blitzkrieg of squealing octave.... in a good way. Kudos on your build, man!
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I saw on your 'want list' that you are looking for a companion fuzz.... its not as cool as you think it will be... you used to be able to get these all day for 10 to 20 bucks and I owned one during the period where I had the superfuzzz, both acquired as gifts from friends who scored them at yard sales for change... of course, my super showed up in need of repairs, some solder joints had come loose from the board, but still, I can't believe how valuable this stuff is now, ANYWAY, the superfuzz is a much better circuit, infinitely more musical, but if you are in a noise band or just want an effect to add color to a few notes in the studio the companion fuzz is worth seeking out or building... when the value shot up I sold mine during my great fuzz box purge of 2014
I know the prices of some of these pedals are really off the wall,especially when you think about whats actually inside them,but I know sometimes it just has to be done when the money's right and someones willing to pay money,although when I think about whats actually in some of these fuzzes and how cheaply some vintage fuzzes where made,(green russain big muffs for example,$400!!),it really does makes you think,..yes thats right, I am looking for an fy2 as I only play and record with just a drummer (I knew it probably wouldnt cut through very well in a band context) and I really do like the sound of them.I do make my own pcbs though,so I think ill probably just end up making clone and see how i get on with that,but I think i would have to argree with you about the fy6 being better fuzz all round then the shin e fy2,the shin ei isnt ever going to be a always on kind of pedal is It,its an acquired taste kind of thing. Well the fy6 clone was made to the original schematic,although I did forget to mention that the one I made has a diode mod I can use to rain the thing back in a bit,("blitzkrieg is a great word for it":-). .so I used two germanium diodes for the two original didoes as found on the original pcb for a bit of mojo,plues two 1n914s pairs that I can swich in and out of the original fy6 circuit,..that basically clips some of the voltage and rains the fuzz and octave in a bit.i also set the trimmer pot for the octave to taste... its actually good little mod,I really like to use it on the the overdrive channal of a tube amp,with the gain on the amp set just when it starts to dirty up when you hit the strings,. . .thank you,ill have to see if I can post a vid here so you can have a listen to it,it would be cool to know what you think.
“Mild?” Are you joking??
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my homemade dallas arbiter bc108c fuzz face
I know im reviewing a homemade clonebut I made it to the same specs as the original only I used bc108c silicon transistors and I think its sounds amazing. I know people talk about transistors all the time when they discuss their fav fuzzes but ive found that choosing the right battary is as important when your trying to get a good sound out of it I would always recommend Duracell batts all the way. I dont know if its due to the minimum parts desgin of the circuit or what, but ive found that the battary can be the differance between a fuzz face youll love and one you just think is a dud..I dont know if thats true of modern jim dunlop ones as I only ever used old and homemade ones based on the old arbiter desgins.pnp & npn but I wanted to share here what ive fouund.Iits a great pedal that gives you jimi type sounds but the batts can make the differance between Hendrix tone and that horrable note decay hell you can sometimes experience.
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you are so right about the battery in vintage fuzz circuits, they want less than 8 volts... I built my silicn fuzzface with lower HFE transistors and some tweaked cap and resistor values to smooth it out when it runs on a wall wart as I was touring when I built it and wanted to keep my hassle factor low... in the studio I prefer vintage fuzz on a carbon-zinc battery with a bit of play on it to soften things up, even in germanium fuzzes
Its just a theory really but i was thinking a bit about this and I was wondering if it has something to do in part with the carbon resistors liking a carbon-zinc source more then alkali ..I know most vintage fuzz faces use carbon resistors while a lot of modern ones like metal film resistors, its probably just due to it being minimum parts circuitry, but its something I was thinking about..I try to just use the duracells in my fuzz faces.ive got a ac176 npn germanium and a ac128 pnp germanium as well as the bc108c I reviewed here and they all like the duracells best.
EHX Big Muff...if you buy do the tone bypass mod!
Really love all the ehx & russian big muffs I wanted to review the usa pi version because I think it has a great sound if you do a tone bypass mod ,I did and found I got instant queens of the stone age type sounds, as well as a coll white stripes stuttering solo tone due to the extra 7db the tone pot sucks usually when in stock mode
Really cant recommen buying one and doing the mod enough if your after the tones I mentioned. I will be going to make a green russian clone next for all the black keys tones, really love all carnations of the big muff!
cool 60s 12 string sounds, but only if your ok with digging in to get them!
I love the cool 60s sounds I can get out of this guitar, although I will say it does take some setting up with the bridge and if I could do anything cutom to it I would get rid of the classical fretboard & the zero fret...love it though,
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that zero fret thing is a big nod to Brian May, but its kinda pointless without a wang bar
one of the best axes you can buy for under £500!!
I love this guitar so much, it may not be a expensive model but I think its a players guitar, plues it stays in tune like a dream thanks to quality tuners...excellent!!