Ticking Vox Repeat percussion

[Beaker]

Marbles, if you are playing a Jazzmaster into a Fender Twin, you don't need a treble booster at all. Don't forget the original use of treble boosters was to brighten up "dark" sounding British and European amps.

Treble boosters into Fenders usually sound like shit. Far to piercing and shrill.

[Marbles]

Definitely.. I kind of started this as a compact thing to bring without carrying a pedalboard on the bus. Have to miss my way though. Plus I always have so much options, I have the hope I can limit myself and get the most out of a small selection. That should do my playing good maybe. Or most likely I change my mind next week and will indeed build al these effects seperately.

For now its the repeater, the fuzzrite and the midfi tapefuzz that are in there. Especially that Tape Fuzz I'm a really big fan of. It was recommended to me here and its awesomely gritty. The other pieces are vero are the lpb1 to boost the fuzzrite and some pieces where i can wire multiple grounds or multiple powerwires to. Just room for 1 more..

Thanks for that link! Apparently i basically am building that it seems haha. Or at least set out to do. I'll try to look it up.

I swore to never built more than one effect in a box ever again. The last time I tried (reverb and fuzz) I had to rebuild 5 different fuzz circuits, all weird oscillation, misdrilling, graphics ff-ing up. I didn't build anything for months out of frustration. But still had this box so thought: Screw it. Works so far! :)

[Marbles]

haha, yeah it's a recipe for treble :D

But to be honest, the other guitarplayer i'm playing with now has a Mustang. Our guitars clash a lot and i'm experimenting with gear right now. He's playing on a marshall combo and I play on a borrowed fender combo there. I might end up using my ac30cc2 though.

And lately I have been using an epi Sheraton. That kind of works out nice. Complements his guitar. So yeah.. I have no idea what I w ill end up with haha.

[Travis]

Beaker wrote

No, the Fuzzrite is not a loud pedal, but you can always use an LPB-1 to boost the output.

One of my very favourite fuzzes though. Zach is right though, the Ge version has a smoother, rounder sound to it. Normally I prefer Ge versions of pedals too, but this is an exception.

In my opinion, the big difference between the Si and Ge versions is that the Si version has a much dirtier range of sound on the depth control. The Si version will still sound fuzzy with the depth at minimum, while the Ge version will basically be a cleanish bassy boost with the depth at minimum

The Si version will have a "harder", brighter tone throughout the range of the depth pot.

If you need a LPB to boost the Fuzzrite you might want to revisit your build. Maybe you made a sub that is cutting the output. If you used a higher value for the Depth pot that will cut the output, or maybe the transistor selection is not ideal.

At least I can say for sure, my OG (germ) Fuzzrite is one loud fuzz. Much much louder than unity. The Si version will clip harder but should still be able to give a boost

[Beaker]

I guess I should have said the Fuzzrite is not a super-loud pedal.

I've never had a problem with the volume on any of the Fuzzrites that I have built - more than loud enough for me, but I know that the accepted wisdom on "the internet" is that Fuzzrites are not loud enough.  And we all know that if it's on the internet, it must be true?

[rocket88]

according to the internet the big muff isn't loud enough either

[Travis]

It depends on ones definition of "super loud" and of course the guitar and amplifier. Lower output pickups will give the impression of a bigger boost and a big amp with lots of headroom will let you hear all of the gain possible. In my world, my particular Fuzzrite is classified as "super loud" but not stupid loud

The internet.. So many stupid opinions out there. Big Muff isn't loud enough?? You're doing it wrong!!

I always wonder when people say their Muff doesn't cut through in a band.. Have they ever tried turning the volume up? It goes pretty damn high. You should be able to overcome any instrument unless your amp is underpowered for your band. Maybe you like more mids, but can't cut through? Come on!

[Marbles]

Well, I guess I'm doing it wrong then :)

The Fuzzrite can be fine, if the drummer plays a normal beat and isn't too heavy on the cymbals. The drummer I play with now is from the Dave Grohl school, hits hard with lots of cymbals. Add a guitar player to that mix and it can be hard to get it loud enough. It's above unity gain, but not that much. If the band plays louder when I kick it in (other guitarplayer adding a bit too cause the drums get louder), I expect my sound to have a boost as well. I could bring up the overall volume, but my cleansound would be too overpowering since it covers a lot more frequencies. The fuzz loses a lot of frequencies so has to be louder. Use of a volume knob would be good, but some guitars don't react too well and frankly I'm not a fan of using it. I just like to have more than I need, so I have some room to work with.

The Big Muff the same thing, yes it can go loud, very loud, and in a mudhoney setting with an clean/overdriven guitar and the other a Big Muff it works fine. But if you go into Pumpkins territory it's a lot harder. As you said: You can overcome any instrument, and in my opinion that's where the problem lies. Because it doesn't cut through easily, you have to turn it up so much that it overpowers other instruments, making it a muddy mess. Ofcourse extensive Eq-ing could fix that, but given the average venue a band plays in I think that's hard for a band to dial in themselves.
I guess that's why the Pumpkins switched to a Marshall/Mesa combo very soon because live those big muffs were too hard to use with 2 guitarists live.

[rocket88]

haha. i love dave grohl, but you should give credit where credit is due. grohl is a drummer from the school of animal.





i'm not so sure i agree with you marbles about having to turn it up so much that it gets muddy. there is definitely a muddiness to it if the tone is in a lot of positions due to the mid scooped nature of the effect, this is why the mids switch is such a godsend. but, i think it's how you have it set with you're specific amp and amp settings. it's all in how your gear works together. for instance the way all of my effects interact with my mesa m6 and 4x10 powerhouse cab vs my little fender combo is so different that you can't really find settings on one amp and have it sound the same or as good on the other. the mesa has so much headroom, eq tweakability, and my pedals seem to have more cut and clarity. on the fender combo they sound darker and muddy. this is why i use my mesa exclusively and my fender combo is collecting dust. the same goes with when i test with my little bugera v22 tube amp. but, then again it's just my opinion, which doesn't mean much.

btw, i could be wrong about the smashing pumpkins, but i think one of the reasons for the switch is that the reliability of the old muffs are not the best, and billy corgan is a major gear junkie and snob, so once he had the money for better gear he jumped on it. could be completely wrong about that, but that's always what i heard.

[Travis]

Did you make any subs in your Fuzzrite build marbles? I don't remember what kind of amp you're using, but maybe it doesn't have the headroom that you need in the first place.

I'm not sure what you mean by Pumpkins territory, but I wouldn't say that they sound good live anyways.

Cutting through another guitar and heavy cymbals is a unique challenge. You need to find your own freq niche or just accept that it probably doesn't even sound good to have two guitars at equal volumes all the time. Ones gotta let the other "win" sometimes, or you'll sound like a mess

[Marbles]

Oh , it could be BS.. you never know with Billy Corgan.. But that is what I always read in my quest for their tone ;) (Which quickly stopped after finding out they used a Mesa power amp containing about 200 tubes and needs a truck to move)

I mostly use fender. Maybe the Fender mid scoop + muff mid scoop is something I have a problem with dealing with. But again, I am probably doing it wrong. If another guitarist is using fuzz as well, I'd rather use another fuzz.

Btw: I love Dave Grohl as well, (well, as a drummer ;) ) but for the music I want to make, it can be a bit much :)

[Marbles]

No subs.. used the 2N3904s, and sounded great!

Your comment made me think though... I play on my twin reverb a lot these days (enough headroom) but... The times I rehearsed with it, it was on a... Peavey Bandit.. The times after at home, I played on a small vibroamp xd.

So maybe you're right. I read about a lack of output, and on a small amp it had a lot less volume than say the Tape Fuzz. To get it in the same regions, I decided to boost it. Maybe that wasn't necessary. I can think about omitting it.

About the pumpkins not sounding good live.. maybe, probably :D. When you grow up, you have these impresioins imprinted in your head. For me it's Ron Asheton and when I was a bit younger, a live concert by the Pumpkins. It's a concert in Brixton Academy if Í'm not mistaken, 1996. They play a version of Thru the Eyes of Ruby. It's probably because of the the energy of the brilliant drummer, but the aggressivenes of the guitars, that wall of assault, those doublenotes ringing clearly, it's so full, heavy, but not too bassy.. I don't know, i'm probably way too bias by childhood memories, but that for me as a 14 year old kid, man. Plus it's for a tv broadcast, so a lot of mixing after I guess, but that for me has been a great sound. Personal I guess.


Working on making it work and taking the backseat now and then. Form being the only guitar player in a band without a bassplayer (filling every frequency by  having a multiamp setup including a bass amp with a Boss HM-2 on the low setting) it takes some time haha


Thanks for the comments!

[rocket88]

for classic pumpkins fuzzy goodness you want to build an IC muff, the 2 IC one to be exact. i think it's labeled as a '78 IC big muff.

[Marbles]

Thanks Man!

Coincidentally (is that a word?) I ordered the missing parts last week! :) I think he had a 77, but the only difference is the tone bypass switch if I'm correct..

Will build it soon!