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(@grungy-grunge)
Estimable Member
Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 55
Topic starter  

i was wondering if there is such thing as a fuzz box and what the difrent in sound it is between a distortion box

im not like them
but i can pretend
the sun has gone
but i have a light
the day is done
but im haveing fun
i think im dumb
or maybe just happy
i think im just happy..i think im just happy


   
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(@grungy-grunge)
Estimable Member
Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 55
Topic starter  

k i had more time than i thought and did some reserch what are the pro's and con's of big muff pi and fuzzface?

im not like them
but i can pretend
the sun has gone
but i have a light
the day is done
but im haveing fun
i think im dumb
or maybe just happy
i think im just happy..i think im just happy


   
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(@dimebag)
Eminent Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 25
 

right,fuzz is retro distortion,its a bit more friendly than distortion but you can use them together if you want a real heavy sound!

"forever stronger than all"

dimebag darrell[rip]


   
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(@greybeard)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 5840
 

If you want to hear fuzz, just listen to the intro to the Stone's "Satisfaction"

I started with nothing - and I've still got most of it left.
Did you know that the word "gullible" is not in any dictionary?
Greybeard's Pages
My Articles & Reviews on GN


   
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(@wes-inman)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 5582
 

Greybeard is right. That is the classic fuzz box sound on Satisfaction by the Stones.

The earliest distortions were called fuzz boxes. They came out in the mid 60's. The most famous were the Little Muff and the Big Muff made famous by Jimi Hendrix. They are what I call a "dry" distortion. Pretty harsh sounding by today's standards. They seemed to accent the higher frequencies.

Lots of folks get the Big Muff to get that retro fuzz box sound.

I owned a Little Muff when they first came out. They were a little aluminum box about the size and shape of a pack of cigarettes. They had a 1/4" male jack built into them. You plugged this right into your amp. They had one single dial on top that allowed you to dial in the amount of distortion.

But back then we called 'em Fuzz Boxes. :D

If the models they make today are true to the first fuzz boxes, they are pretty noisy. They made lots of hum, hiss, and feedback. But you can get that authentic tone like Satisfaction, or many Hendrix recordings. Crosstown Traffic is a good example of the fuzz box sound by Hendrix.

Here is a pic of the originals. You can see the 1/4" male jack I spoke about. When these first came out, they were the coolest effect in town.

Little Muff and Big Muff

If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis


   
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(@demoetc)
Noble Member
Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 2167
 

Fuzz Box - I'll always call them that no matter what. A friend of mine got the little Muff when it first came out and he was all thrilled and excited about it. We were jamming Hendrix stuff back then and it fit. BUT when I first saw it I thought it was something he'd made; it didn't look like a company had made it. I thought he'd gone to Radio Shack or Lafayette Radio and gotten parts and one of those 'project' metal cases and soldered the whole thing together.

Except for the logo, which was obviously professionally done. I still thought "A real COMPANY made this?"

I didn't say that though because he was so pleased with it.

Noisy though.

Then I, who always played both bass and guitar (I was 'Noel Redding' in those jam sessions) started to get interested in fuzz boxes. There was a wah/fuzz from (probably Lafayette), and then amps started to have Gain knobs on them in the mid 70s and I started to think of those.

But I always loved the fuzz box because they gave that wild Rave Up sort of sound.

And in combination with the Master Volume type amps, it was what I was looking for.

I eventually ended up with the MXR Distortion+ though, which to me was still a Fuzz Box. Had to have it in my rig, even when the amps became more sophisticated because in combination with the distortion channel sound, it would seem to 'focus' and take the lead sounds over the edge. Just the top part of the sound. And combining that with the wah, it was a wonderful, feedbacky sort of thing.

And what was funny was when the original Tube Screamer came out, I wasn't impressed. I'd just gotten the Ibanez Super Metal, and saw absolutely no use for an 'overdrive.'

Funny how that goes. :)

Actually the Tube Screamer is still not on my list of things to get, lol


   
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(@demoetc)
Noble Member
Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 2167
 

...by the way Wes, thanks for the pictures; brought back some memories. And if I remember right, the guy I knew had the plug-in-your-guitar version.

Thanks again.


   
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(@demoetc)
Noble Member
Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 2167
 

Hey, I found the exact fuzz-wah pedal I had back when.

http://filters.muziq.be/model/applied/fuzzwah

The site's also got just about every single effect ever made.


   
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