How to Tame a Fuzz Face Type Fuzz Pedal

 Tone tips  2 Responses »
Jan 022012
 

First of all, happy new year to everyone! I thought I would start the year with a hot topic, that is hot for guitarists: to fuzz or not to fuzz?

Fuzz pedals can be difficult to master and most of us who have tried one thinking it would sound like Hendrix on ‘Band of Gypsies’ were disappointed. I thought a bit of knowledge and a tip I have recently discovered would come in handy.

It will probably be my last “video” post for a little while as I am busy with a lot of personal and professional projects at the moment. I will of course continue to post about The Tone and will come back with video demos some time in 2012.

Fuzz or fuzz?

What is a fuzz tone? For a lot of us guitarists, Hendrix exemplifies the Fuzz tone, or rather tones: warm, rich, with lots of sustain as heard on ‘Band of Gypsies’, or edgy as heard on the famous outro of ‘Axis Bold as Love’. Subsequently, the Fuzz Face pedal, still made today by Dunlop (and made in the 60s by Dallas Arbiter) served as a basis for countless clones. It is thought of as ‘the’ fuzz pedal to get.

The Fuzz Face is still made today by Dunlop - Note it only has a Fuzz (gain) setting and a Volume setting - Picture courtesy of Dunlop USA

 

Let’s dispel a bit of myth here, the Fuzz Face was not the first fuzz pedal, the Maestro fuzz sold by Gibson and heard on ‘Satisfaction’ by the Rolling Stones is an example of alternative design that was also available in the 60s.

Anyway, the tips I will share here are more directed towards Fuzz Face type pedals, they might not work for other types of Fuzz.

Choosing a Fuzz Pedal: Silicon or Germanium?

I have spent hours trying to decide which to get. At the heart of Fuzz pedals lie transistors. Early Fuzz Face pedals were based on Germanium transistors before switching to Silicon transistors, mostly for reasons of stability. Germanium transistors tend to be affected by the ambient temperature.

The consensus on the sound difference between the two is that Silicon transistors are brighter than their Germanium counterparts. As a matter of reference, it is thought that Hendrix used Germanium fuzz pedals on his first three studio records but switched to Silicon later on, which means that the fuzz pedal heard on ‘Band of Gypsies’ is probably Silicon based.

As always with a true master, the sound is mainly in the fingers and less in the equipment chain: wether using Germanium or Silicon, Hendrix has produced some of the best Fuzz tones ever.

So I would say don’t focus too much on the transistor type if it is your first fuzz. I chose to go for a Germanium based Z.Vex Fuzz Factory as it can do “normal Fuzz tones” as well as completely whacky ones, thanks to some extra settings.

Not so easy

So here you are with your brand new Fuzz Face, or Fuzz Face clone, you plug it into your amp set clean, at a reasonable volume and… it does not sound like Hendrix at all. It might sound thin, aggressive, not at all full like it does on Jimi’s live and studio recordings.

The main reason for the difference in tone resides in the fact that Hendrix often plugged his Fuzz Face into a somewhat really loud and cranked to the max overdriven Marshall amp. These amps can be quite dark to start with, especially the old ones. This”darkness” made up for the aggressiveness of the Fuzz which, by the way, did not come with any tone or eq settings, just gain and volume.

It is hard to emulate this sound at bedroom or practice level with a clean amp. There is a way though…

Using an overdrive placed after a Fuzz to alleviate the Fizziness of the Tone

Without further ado, here is a little trick you can use if your fuzz is too, well, fuzzy or rather fizzy/aggressive. This might happen with bright amps such as my 74 Fender Champ. Just place an overdrive pedal after the fuzz in your effect chain. For this video, I have used a Digitech Bad Monkey, it is rather cheap and has a bass and treble control. I have used the least amount of gain I could on the Bad Monkey and rolled off the “Treble” knob a bit (the same trick can be achieved by rolling off the tone knob found on other overdrive pedals):

About me using a Z.Vex Fuzz factory as my fuzz pedal in that example, you will think it has nothing to do with a Fuzz Face. Well, at “normal” settings where you keep “stab” on max and “comp” on low, it is close enough. The Fuzz factory is a modern take on the Fuzz pedals of old but it is still a fuzz.

I will feature a selection of fuzz pedals in one of my very next posts. Until then, have fun fuzzing away!

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 Posted by romain at 1:57 am  Tagged with:

Dunlop Jazz III Picks

 Tone tips  2 Responses »
Jul 232011
 

There was much talk about the Jazz III picks by Dunlop with the recent release of an Ultex 2.0 version. I have purchased a 6 pack of the original version and let me tell you: they are awesome. I was skeptical at first as they are quite small, but they are very precise.  Here is a photo showing one Jazz III next to a more regular sized pick:

20110721-083454.jpg

On the right handside, a jazz III pick (top) next to a regular pick (bottom)

 

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 Posted by romain at 3:30 am

How Pickup Height Affects the Tone

 Tone tips  2 Responses »
Apr 262011
 

Is the bridge pickup of your Telecaster too bright? Or do the two Humbuckers in your Gibson seem to have very different output volumes? These two common situations prompt a lot of G.A.S. stricken guitarists to purchase new pickups or modify their electronics.

But did you know that the distance between a pickup and the strings, also known as pickup height, can be setup easily on most guitars and can alleviate a lot of these problems?

As a general rule, when you move a pickup closer to the strings, you will get more output but also more high frequencies which can become ear piercing. At some extreme settings you might loose some sustain as the magnet(s) contained in your pickup(s) will “slow down” the vibrations of the string.

On the other hand, when you move a pickup further away from the strings, you will loose some of those ear piercing frequencies but get a lower output volume.

Sound Example

Here is an example featuring the bridge pickup of my 1978 Telecaster:

Bridge Pickup of a Telecaster - Left: High Pickup Height, Right: Lower Pickup Height

 

I have kept the exact same amp settings and have recorded similar clean licks with my Telecaster bridge pickup set very high:

Audio MP3

and then lower:

Audio MP3

Notice the difference in output volume and high end frequencies.

How to Change the Pickup Height on your Guitar

I will detail here how to change the height of the pickups on Telecasters, Stratocasters and Gibson style guitars. Note that it might be different for other brands, models or eras! Usually, manufacturers will issue precise guidelines as to what the optimal pickup height should be for a particular model. Personally, I prefer to do it by ear as I need to hear the changes through my effect/amp setup.

A last word of advice: in general, when you start turning screws to set up anything on a guitar (truss rod, tremolo system, pickup height, etc.), start by quarter turns, not full turns. Be gentle! In the case of pickup height, a quarter turn might be enough to reach the sweet spot you are looking for. To give you an example, with the bridge pickup of my Telecaster, I almost cover the full spectrum in about two full turns.

Adjusting Pickup Height on a Telecaster

On my 1978 Telecaster, I cannot find any visible screws to adjust the neck pickup height but the bridge pickup offers no less than three screws (see image below). No wonder as this pickup can be too bright and often needs a bit of adjustment. By loosening (anti clock wise) the screws, the pickup goes down while tightening them (clock wise) brings it closer to the strings. By playing with these three screws, you can have the pickup higher for the lower strings but lower for the higher strings. You can also have it at an angle. Remember the general rule, the closer to the strings the more volume and high end. Mine had to be lowered a bit as I found it a tad too bright for clean work and a bit too rich in “ear piercing” harmonics.

Fender Telecaster - Position of the Pickup Height Adjustment Screws

 

Adjusting Pickup Height on a Stratocaster

My 1997 Fender American Classics Custom Shop Stratocaster is fitted with Kinman noiseless pickups. Chris Kinman has a great pickup height adjustment guide on his website, make sure to check it out.

Anyway, these pickups produce very different results depending on their height so getting it right for your taste and gear is paramount. Luckily, it is really easy on a Strat as each pickup has two screws (see image below). Loosen them to lower the pickup or tighten them to bring it closer to the strings.

Fender Stratocaster - Position of the Pickup Height Adjustment Screws

Adjusting Pickup Height on a Gibson Style Guitar (here, a 61 Reissue SG)

Gibson guitars are much like Strats with two screws per pickup (see image below): loosening the screws lowers the pickup while tightening them brings it closer to the strings.

Gibson SG - Position of the Pickup Height Adjustment Screws

 

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 Posted by romain at 5:49 am  Tagged with:

Use of Reverb for Guitarists, Part 2: Reverb used as an Effect

 Effects, Effects FAQ, Tone tips  No Responses »
Mar 112011
 

As I have shown in the audio examples at the end of Part 1, a reverb unit can be used as an effect instead of a sound reinforcement tool. The main difference is that when you use the reverb as an effect, you usually want it to be heard as opposed to using it in a subtle fashion to add some depth to the sound. It is something that guitarists on the lookout for bigger tones have pioneered, thanks in large part to Fender whose amps often offered a built-in spring reverb. And let’s not forget their stand alone tube reverb unit which is an absolute classic.

The Fender Twin Reverb, a classic example of amplifier with builtin reverb

Surf music wouldn’t have been quite the same without these Fender clean guitar tones laden with spring reverb. But listen to Stevie Ray Vaughan’s albums and you will hear quite some spring reverb as well. It shows that electric blues is another style where amp reverb is a common staple. Past spring reverbs, a classic example of studio reverb used partly as a sound reinforcement tool and partly as an effect is Voodoo Chile Slight Return by Jimi Hendrix. The wah wah intro is completely magnified by an EMT plate reverb.

The downside of reverb used as a live guitar effect is that it can be difficult to control in a venue, even a small one, because the venue itself will already have some natural reverb (see my previous post). It might make your tone really muddy which might be why, come the eighties and the advent of cheap digital delay pedals, most guitarists switched to using delays to widen their tone. It is not quite the same thing though and I can sense reverb pedals becoming popular.

Adding a Reverb to your Board

If reverbs have always been present in multi effect units, Boss was until about 10 years ago the only brand that offered a compact reverb pedal. Nowadays, there is a wide array of models on offer. Here is a short selection of reverb pedals :

  • Boss RV-5: Boss was the first company to manage to squeeze a digital reverb in a compact pedal. I personally own an RV-3 which can generate Reverb AND delay effects (I will make a demo soon). The RV-3 has been replaced by the RV-5 which has dropped the delays but has gained a spring reverb simulation among other things.
  • Electro Harmonix: the Holy Grail and its siblings have become immensely popular. They sport a luscious digital reverb as well as a spring reverb simulation.
  • The T-REX Room-mate is digital I suppose but it features a tube for added warmth.
  • The TC Electronic Tone Print “Hall of Fame” is the new kid on the block, here is a demo which shows you what you can do with a good reverb pedal (TC also offers the Nova Reverb) :

And finally, here is a demo of the Sole Mate and Reverbamate pedals from Vanamps. They are the only non digital/actual spring reverb pedals that I know of, for those of you who demand the real deal:

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 Posted by romain at 1:11 am  Tagged with:
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