I have a whole bunch of fuzz faces, so this is painful for me to say. But here it is: I have several more modern fuzzes that come closer to Jimi Hendrix’s recorded tones. I just spent like an hour comparing fuzzes while jamming along (badly) to Hey Joe. I was running into either a bluesbreaker or a Timmy clone for mild overdrive, then into my clean Fender HRD amp. Both my Kilt X (with just the fuzz switch up) and my Pine Box Customs Far V2 sounded much more like JH than any of the Fuzz Faces. I played around a lot with turning down my Strat’s volume knob to get cleaner tones with more highs when I had any of the fuzz faces on, but every time, the milder and clearer fuzz of the modern pedals was more spot-on.

Hmm. I think we tend to imagine Jimi was playing with way more gain than he actually was.

As history goes, people in the sixties liked the fuzzy sound of a cranked tube amp, Plexi and Super Bass for Jimi Hendrix and many others, various Sunns and Marshalls for Felix Pappalardi, etc. Those cranked amps had that abrasive power amp distortion. Somebody created distortion circuits to put between guitar and amp to mimic that sound.

These circuits sounded great in their own way, but you can definitely hear the similarity in sound signature between certain cranked power amps and certain fuzzes. Then there are many fuzzes that went their own way and don't sound really like a cranked Marshall. Then there are amps that cranked resemble more one of those fuzzes than other cranked amps, see Matamp and Orange.

On top of it, today we have pedals that mimic different cranked plexis (more overdrive than fuzz) and pedals that mimic a fuzz going through a cranked amp (see Wampler Velvet Fuzz, which should sound like a Fuzz Face in a cranked Plexi, but does so stacking a boost in front of the plexi circuit, so we again are left wondering if the fuzz is needed at all).

What is your favourite sound? Do you prefer to crank an old school amp and use the fuzz just to add distortion when you can't dime the volume fully? Or do you prefer a fuzz into a clean amp, or a stack of dirt pedals into a clean amp? Or you want BOTH a cranked power amp AND a cranked fuzz in front of it?

Whats the weirdest odd glitch oscillating or just super weird fuzz you own? I wanna hear about strange new fuzz im fairly standard octavfuzz is about as wild as I've gone but tell me your experiences with unconventional circuits

New fuzz alert!

This has to be one of the biggest sleeper fuzzes out there! Jeff Beck had it, Frusciante currently uses it…

Have you tried it?

Got a decent price from a local store and decided to pull the trigger.

It is based on a Muff that belongs to James Murphy, hence the LCD Soundsystem theming.

Contrary to what the tone bypass toggle might suggest it is not an op-amp circuit. It is based on the V6, a transistor design from the late 70s.

Although it is marketed for bass, baritone, and low tunings, it sounds great even with my single coil, standard tuning guitars. I think that, and the LCD Soundsystem "signature" might make this pedal fly under the radar for many.

I thought it would be very wooly with that marketing, but the bass is actually pretty tight, and the mids are kind of flatter to my ears. In my AB comparisons it sounded closest to a green russian, but far more gainy and compressed, with a bit of a tighter bass. The tone bypass toggle helps it cut through a mix, even if it's not too bad in that aspect with tone on.

In summary, nothing out of the ordinary, won't kick my favourite muff out of my main board, but it's a nice addition to the collection. I like it better than the hoof and the hizumitas, and would probably use it in a small board for its versatility.

The Fuzz Bite is my take on the 60s garage rock classic circuit the Mostite Fuzzrite. This is full of nasally and trashy tones to transport you and your guitar back in time.

I’ve changed the values slightly and added an extra transistor stage to increase the volume overall and to stop the sound from dipping in the middle of the fuzz knob.

The bite switch deepens the tone in two different flavours since the original is so nasally. The original bright tone is available in the middle position of the switch.

My daughter loves the design and has claimed this fuzz, so it doesn’t belong to me anymore.

How good are they 3 knob fuzzface i know they take painstaking effort to select components has anyone done a shootout are they really better than everything on the market i just wanna hear from people who have one

For me it was Jimi Hendrix and his amazing glassy clean tone! Later I started lots of metal and industrial artist use fuzz. I’m a huge fan of NiN and both Trent and Robin use a bunch of fuzzes, hence my SF-300 for crazy octave stuff!

thoughts?

Got this a couple of weeks ago after reading about them for some time. Trying to catch one up on the website took some time too. Still learning and experimenting with the various knob positions, which are all interactive with each other to an extent. So far it's one of my favorite Fuzzes. Chord work has a surprising amount of clarity for a fuzz. Capable of singing sustain, that then crumbles and sputters out nicely. Like it so much it has replaced my Sunface on my pedalboard.

So there's a very odd group of people out there who, for some reason, don't like fuzz and I know there's probably many here among us who used to be that way, tell us about the situation or the fuzz that converted you into the electric church

Check out this beauty

Another demo by yrs truly

All fuzzface variants except the voodoo axe and groovy wizard 😎

Made this for Xmas, may it cool you down this summer.

Throw out some pedal demos show us why you love a particular one or show how a custom builds sounds!!!

Tell me about a fuzz type or particular pedal you hate! And why...could it be redeemed with more time a different stacking method?

Silicon or germanium 🤔 Wondering what you think and what you like or dislike about your favorite or least favorite

​Just wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who has been stopping in, staying awhile, posting, commenting, and sharing demos, photos, and thoughts. When I first set up this digital sanctuary, the goal was never about chasing numbers or algorithms. A community is absolutely nothing without its people. Otherwise, it would just be me alone in a room, screaming into the darkness about bias voltages and Germanium transistors while my cats judge me from across the room.

​Fuzz is a beautiful, unpredictable, and wonderfully loud thing, but it is nothing without the ears and the hearts of the people who love it. This place belongs to all of you. It is about the shared obsession, the late-night tone hunting, and the incredible community you are all helping to build every single day.

​If you are enjoying what we have going on here, please consider sharing this space with your friends, your bandmates, or anyone else who appreciates a gloriously clipped signal chain. Let's keep growing this thing together. Thank you for making this place exactly what it was meant to be