Offbeat/less popular/rare fuzz or dirt boxes

[Ancient Astronaught]

The Mountainking Huge Box is like the unsung hero of the Mountainking line. Simple, straight to the point fuzz.

I could agree to that, I found it alot more usable and musical than the revered Megalith.

[neonblack]

Magnetar kicks all kinds of ass too. Best bass fuzz ever. I had to let mine go to fund my Traynor but I will own one again. The Megalith gets all the love, but I'm more interested in his other boxes. Behemoth II and the Frequency LSD v2 especially.

[Ancient Astronaught]

Magnetar kicks all kinds of ass too. Best bass fuzz ever. I had to let mine go to fund my Traynor but I will own one again. The Megalith gets all the love, but I'm more interested in his other boxes. Behemoth II and the Frequency LSD v2 especially.

I haven't tried the Magnetar but I don't play bass so... I'm more interested in his other boxes as well, I owned a V1 LSD an really wasn't impressed and flipped it fairly quickly. I'd love to see his take on a delay though.

[neonblack]

I tried the Magnetar with guitar too and it was just as awesome. Only for single note stuff though. Chords don't really work with it. Its like a wooly mammoth/mastotron on all the steroids.

[Ancient Astronaught]

I tried the Magnetar with guitar too and it was just as awesome. Only for single note stuff though. Chords don't really work with it. Its like a wooly mammoth/mastotron on all the steroids.

Gotcha, I NEED MAH KOORDS!!!!!

[BoatRich]

The Heavy Machine is also pretty rad, it's a great fuzzstortion with lots of tone shaping. The fixed gain is kind of annoying though.

[frigid midget]

Im gonna have to sing the Boss praise again. The HM-2 is like a cult classic, but I still see a lot of hip boutique superfuzz clones on boards everywhere, instead of the almighty FZ-2.

And I've got an OBD-3 incomin, for my small grab 'n go guitar board. I suspect its even less 'cool', cause its stil being made, and easily available fer cheaps If its good enough for King Buzzo, who th fuck am I to look down on it, right?

A couple others Im not too familiar with but want to add to the cheapo sludge collection: ibanez 60s fuzz (cuz the D&S aint so cheap anymore), guyatone tz-2, *any* old school dod fuzz, dano fab tone,...

A last one that I dont think's been mensioned yet: Boss FZ-3. Overshadowed by the awesomness of the FZ-2 and the suckyness of the FZ-5, the 3 is a very usuable fuzzy dist thats probably not that popular cause its maybe too fizzy and smooth for od/blues fans, not fuzzface- ish enough for Hendrix affectionatos, and too civilised for the average ilf'er...

Gotto admit, its too middle of the road for my particular taste in music too, but I have no idea why the worlds biggest effecs manufacturer currently only has one fuzz pedal in their catalague...A digital one

[maggot]

I just got a KO amps 10 AM Auto Fuzz from an ILF-er. It's not earth shattering, but it's very useful. Cost me less than an FZ-2 would have.

It's suposedly an Ibanez Standard Fuzz clone, but it's not quite as fearsome as a real Standard Fuzz or Superfuzz. It reminds me of a Malekko Mini Fuzz, but instead of an internal tone toggle, it has an external tone knob, which goes between the traditional scooped and mid-boosted settings. It's great for if you want to back off the mids just a hair without going full into the scooped-mid cartoon Human Fly fuzz.

It works great into my Black Forest for a really scuzzy tone. If you run a Fuzzolo into it, it sounds like it can just barely bother to make music; sound just throbs and sizzles into existence and then sputters away - not bad. By itself, it sounds amazing for old-school, neck pickup octave workouts. You can also get crashy, doomy rhythm sounds, and it's not too peculiar for heavy use. It doesn't quite get that syrupy hanging-motionless-in-the-air Superfuzz sound. I suspect you'd need an original or a more faithful clone to get that one.

[doommeow]

dano fab tone

Fabtone is the business.

[christianatl]

Anyone familiar with the Death By Audio stuff? I've always been intrigued, but sort of put off by the prices and rumors of poor build quality.

[Ancient Astronaught]

dano fab tone

Fabtone is the business.

Agreed

Anyone familiar with the Death By Audio stuff? I've always been intrigued, but sort of put off by the prices and rumors of poor build quality.

Prices are definitely high. and the build quality has definitely improved. I've never tried their dirt but their verb's and delays are really killer, especially if you want a close to standard kinda sound with the ability to get crazy.

[D.o.S.]

Yeah I think their reputation in that regard has gotten a lot better. DBA stuff is relatively limited, but seems to hold their value fairly well, and they always offer pedals that are aesthetically them. Kind of like Lastgasp, in that regard, who are also offbeat and should be mentioned here.

Gotta rep the Fab Tone again. I really need to pick up another.

[grindonomicon]

Have to mention the Marshall Guv'nor Plus again. Deep, Low, Mid, High eq's, nice gritty medium gain distortion-overdrive. Works for everything from total doom, thrash metal, hardcore, grind-powerviolence - guitar, downtuned guitar, bass (not quite low end - headroomy enough for B or below bass IMO). Stupid $40 pedal has beat out Pharoah, Black Forest, Monarch, Meathead, and a couple other muffs for this new grind-doom project for pre-amp boostortion for the 'midrange' tube amp.

Also picked up a Digitech CM-2 Tube Distortion (better known as the Hardwire CM-2 Tube Overdrive, same pedal). I've had over a half dozen tube screamers over the years, and this one rules. Don't care for it by itself, which is usual for me & tube screamers, but it's an amazing stacking pedal with other dirt or fuzz. I'm using it to bump the gain of the Guv'nor Plus, and it's been killer with every OD & fuzz I've tried it with. Hell noisy awesome with a Superfuzz on guitar. Stacked great with the Monarch for B bass. Has a nice mid bump, but separate high and low eq's do dial it out if you want. Another one that can be found for @ $40 used.

[HorseyBoy]

Yeah I think their reputation in that regard has gotten a lot better. DBA stuff is relatively limited, but seems to hold their value fairly well, and they always offer pedals that are aesthetically them. Kind of like Lastgasp, in that regard, who are also offbeat and should be mentioned here.

I've only ever played through one DBA pedal, the Octave Clang, and it was the most horrible sounding fuzz pedal I've ever heard (and I don't mean 'horrible' in a good way). It may in fact be the only fuzz pedal I've ever actively disliked. Then again, Ty Segall apparently uses a Fuzz War for all his fuzz sounds, and he always sounds great…

[D.o.S.]

I don't really like Ty Segall much (or A Place to Bury Strangers if I listen to them for more than 5 minutes). I played an old Interstellar Overdriver way back and my memory is that it was pretty rad. That was a while ago, though.