Why do you love fuzz?

[Jwar]

So I'm not just talking about the website, but fuzz in general. I've noticed over the years that I also go through phases of having a shit ton of fuzz or a little less than a shit ton of fuzz. hahaha. I seem to always have at least 5 fuzz pedals or distortion pedals that can get fuzzy. So what is it about fuzz? Is it the compression it offers? The tonal annihilation? The amp destruction?? THE BALL BLISTERING!!! Or are you a subtle kind of fuzz kind, that likes his fuzz to be wimpy but still kind of sexual.

Does your fuzz oscillate? Why the fuck not?

Does your fuzz melt faces? WHY NOT?

Does it punch a hole in your groin when you engage it and make you have to turn down your instrument volume because you always forget how fucking loud that shit is???


My love for fuzz kind of started with this site. It's funny. I always loved it in songs, but I didn't know anything about effects. Now I dream about them. I want to try them all. I want to live inside of a fuzz pedal.

I just thought it'd be fun to get different perspectives on fuzz.

My top 10 of all fucking time!!-

AONYS (jk it's not out. )

ok real list

-Smallsound/Bigsound TAFM 1st edition
-Toneczar Vault
-Mountainking Magnetar
-Mountainking Megalith
-Prescription Electronics Depth Charge
-Iron Ether Oxide
-Dargklass Duality
-DMB Bumble Fuzz
-Fuzzhugger Chalice (seriously this needs to be made again)
-Dunwich Volt Thrower

So these are my flavor of fuzz. Of course there are a MILLION more I want and love. But I can't name them all. These are just my favorite.

I love you guys, and I love fuzz.





















penis...heh

[fcknoise]

My pedal buying business didn't start until like, 1,5 years ago. I was playing through a shit amp, and my only pedal was the behringer ultra metal and a korg multi fx. Then with the band and all I started buying some cheaper stuff, the mooers were new on the market and I got two of those and a rat. Everything still sounded shitty, but I was intrigued. My first fuzz was a nano big muff that I played loud enough to destroy said shit amp, and then I went through a lot of different lower end fuzzes. It wasn't until I got an actual head with a nice headroom clean channel that I started loving fuzz. That would be last summer I think.


Whoa I am seriously fresh in the game...

[Eivind August]

Well, I've always listened to fuzzy music. Grew up on Pink Floyd, and watching Gilmour play around on «Live at Pompeii» really got me interested in these boxes that can make a guitar sound like a fucking spaceship. Loads of other players as well, naturally.

So, when I started playing, I tried different stuff for the first couple of years. Found out quite quickly that most amp gain, except for milder overdrive, wasn't really my cup of tea. Clean tones, on the other hand. With pedals. Mostly fuzz and delay. Started out with a Muff. Don't remember which delay, but probably a Memory Boy or something. Were they out like eight years ago?

Anyway, I used Line 6 computer stuff to try different set-ups, seeing what I liked. I liked fuzz. And delay on the verge of oscillation. The internet showed me a world of wonders. Drooled over this fuzz called the Super Oscillo, made by some japanese guy. It seemed to do everything. But it was hard to come by, and expensive.

Eventually I got a Vexter Fuzz Factory and a Retro-Sonic delay. Was my set-up for a couple of years, along with wahs, and different fuzzes; Sun Face, Soul Bender etc., fancy boutique stuff, sounded great, but the craziness was lacking.

Then I started seeing the end of my studies, started earning more, started making more music after a period of lazy stoning. Finally got the Super Oscillo, got into Dwarfcraft, Devi Ever, Fuzzhugger. A new world of people thinking like me emerged from the foggy periphery of social media. I found I love fuzz.

The sounds from within my mind finally started flowing through my amplifier. The sounds of far away worlds, of impossible phenomena, of landscapes and devices that couldn't exist. The sounds of the future. The sounds of fuzz. The so... I love fuzz, ok?

tl;dr: I love fuzz. Weird, crazy, oscillating ones.

[neonblack]

I was playing bass with some guys about 6 years ago, and the guitar player had pretty decent pedalboard (DS-1, Big Muff, Shredmaster, Whammy) and he could do some crazy shit with the whammy. I first realized the potential of pedals when we wanted a cello sound in an intro, so we ran an electric violin through the whammy -1 octave and some reverb. It was awesome.

One day, I said "I want to get a pedal."
He said "You should get a fuzz. Or a bit crusher."

The rest is history.

[KaosCill8r]

The first real pedal I got was a big box Rat ri. Love that pedal but I think of it more like distortion than fuzz. I realised I wanted a more vintage fuzzy sound so after researching different fuzzes I lashed out and got a HBE UFO fuzz. That was nice but still not what I wanted. So the hunt began again. Another fuzz or two later I discovered oscillation. That ruined me, I was hooked. Then I discovered this forum called ilovefuzz. You might of heard of it. Great place to learn about fuzz, but once you get there it will clean out your bank balance really quick. Now I have lots of fuzz, some built by other people but a lot built by me. My quest for fuzzy tones has not ended. I'm sure it never will. There are always more fuzzes made by smart dudes to want. And there are also so many I want to try to build and mod.
I find thier tones so soothing. Like a cat purring in my ear. Yeah!, I love fuzz!!!

[SPACERITUAL]

Im trying to sound as little like Jason aldean as possible.

[waltdogg]

It's loud.



But no, I love the subdued attack of the fuzz you get by rolling off your tone knobs and using a distortion or fuzz that sounds like cat farts and atom bombs when it's cranked.

[magiclawnchair]

IT SOOTHES MY SOUL

i got my hot rod devillie in 96/97. when i got my boss gt5 in 98 i still relied on the amp for my gain/more gain. in 09 my buddy andy got an ECT for his bass board. first time he stepped on it during a jam i looked at him with a grin. then i found this place.

i fell in love with oscillating fuzz rather quickly. there is something about running several oscillating fuzzes into each other and turning them all on at the same time that is therapeutic to me.

[JohnnyC]

I was always into dirt, high gain, but all generated from an amp. back in the day, without the financial burden of multiple mortgages (ie living at home) i had a room full of amps/heads/cabs.

never really "got" fuzz, until discovering the whole" roll volume back to clean up" (ie fuzz face castles made of sand type tone), or finding/modifiying circuits that could better "shape, alter,fuck up and boost" into your amps crunch sound. thats how i like to roll with fuzz. i like ones that can be rather hurtful on an amps clean channel, but cut through perfectly on overdriven amps core sounds.

anything else (oscillation, feedback gnarly,octave overtones etc) is icing on the tonal pallete cake.

[Ghost Hip]

Its the only way I can make my guitar sound like how I feel inside.

[Jero]

Its the only way I can make my guitar sound like how I feel inside.

Nailed it.

It just makes me feel right; more connected to what I'm doing. Puts a smile on my face every time.

[lordgalvar]

Back in the 90s, I was reading something and "ring mod" was discussed with no explanation (just it was used by DEVO or something). I waited and imagined what it was until I could get to the internet at school (my 14.4k line was irritating...school had T1). I drew pictures of the weird things I thought it was mostly based off the Ondes Martenot's ring controller built into a guitar. Anyway, I found out what it was which lead me to ring modish sounds in the Octavella and stuff. So I read descriptions of all these different fuzz pedals and I was amazed at the different designs, octave-stuff, simplicity, and walls of sound. My imagination went wild and I became kind of obsessed with finding fuzzes. Not to mention all those old effects cases look so damn cool. Years later (when I had a job and I could buy pedals) I looked for an in production ring mod (I don't think the EHX FA had been reissued yet) and I found Effector 13 and Lastgasp.

I got wrapped up into playing noise guitar for some band even though I had never played one and I needed stuff to cover up my lack of skill. Anyway, I picked up a ring mod (in a korg tone works thing, no less) but I wanted more noise. Got to play a bunch of early E13 pedals in my search for more noise and oscillations but I kept dreaming about what the Lastgasp pedals sounded like (I had only read descriptions, which were awesome). Anyway, after my band broke up, I didn't play guitar for like 7 years until I sold all my E13 on eBay. I tested them before I sold them and remembered how much I loved fuzz. Then I searched for lastgasp and Hirofumi was still around and I got rehooked into this whole fuzz world (which freaking exploded while I wasn't looking, it is freaking crazy).

Just the complete gated, buzzsaw, harsh, and loud sounds are enough for me. I don't like the sound of "crunch" or even really the sound of distortion. I think it is the imposed dynamics of fuzzes that interest me (instead of relying on technique and shit like if I played clean). I dunno, I just sound like shit without fuzz...well, with it too, but at least it makes me tolerable.

Favorite fuzzes: LAL 46, Roland BeeBaa, LAL Octavella, and Fuzzrite/Nu-Fuzz

[Mudfuzz]

Why does Godzilla like stepping on houses? it's all one in the same.

[rustywire]

Fuzz does for electric guitars what the full moon does for werewolves.
Engaged, it's ecstasy for passive pickups and heightens sensitivity.
Gain superpowers, it's The black costume for tube amps. Symbiotic. Consuming.
It feeds back on nervous energy, and delivers intriguing harmonic fury with beautifully dangerous timbres.

My Top 3 fav:
Germanium: 1966 Mosrite Fuzzrite.
The fuzziest fuzz of them all. Sounds even worse (in a good way) when choking through lofi filters.

Silicon: 1981 EHX Big Muff v6 "Reverse" gfx
Distortion/Sustainer? It can do that, but it's iconic as a tried & true fuzz. The loudest-yet-handsome fuzz.

Hybrid: 1970something Harmonic Percolator
The noisiest superlative fuzz with more interesting textures inside than any other dirt pedal. PS: SLIDERS!

[rustywire]

Its the only way I can make my guitar sound like how I feel inside.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gev_Phjl764[/youtube]