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Looper's Delight
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Hi Michael, Bobdog and other fuzz fanatics!
I was severly hassled for going way off topic last time I raved on about
distortions, but, god help me! They're my absolute favorite obsession...
They're
also essential to my looping as well, but don't expect anyone but other
guitarists to sympathise! So... here I go again! Apologies to those of you
who
just can't hack us fuzz dweebs...
I'm a big fan of the MZ2 or Metal Zone as well. It's definitely got the
scooped
mids thing happening, but it's also capable of far more. With the highs
rolled
back and the very nice midrange control boosted some, it sounds very fat
and
singing with a tight defined bottom. This pedal is a very good clone of my
Pearce G2r lead channel, which really surprised me. The Zone also works
great
with a wah... I'd consider this a pretty agressive, articulate fuzz...
Awesome
for tight, deep power chords as well...
If you also need some form of anarchic distortion, the Prescription
Electronics
Experience is a great octave fuzz, ala Hendrix... It works well as a
regular,
fat assed, bloaty fuzz as well. It's "Swell" mode is truly sick and emits
all
manner of farts, tweeps and sputters... Beware though... It might not be
your
best choice for a main fuzz. Kinda graunchy. Gotta have it for anarchy
though.
It's awesome combined with a filter that has an LFO (Waldorf 4-pole or
other
variant) of some sort and only works ok with wah. The PE Exp as well as
the
Fulltone Ultimate Octave are both patterned after the Foxx Tone Machine...
The
PE adds the chaotic Swell mode, and the Ultimate Octave adds a "fat"
switch.
There's 3 buttons on the PE Exp: On/Off, Octave, Swell... and I believe 2
on the
Ultimate Octave (corrections on this anyone?)
The Z-Vex Fuzz Factory is also another wild box, but also allows you to
dial a
nice conventional sounding, powerful distortion. No tone knob though, so
you
might need to warm it up with another downline od of some sort, or eq...
It's
really incredible as a noisemaker though, with self-oscillation, tunable
with
your volume and tone knobs... And it's tiny and the battery lasts forever!
It
will also sputter and spit like a geiger counter if you so desire.
Last and surely not least are the Lovetone boxes available mail order only
from
England. I have a Big Cheese, which I really like a lot for *very nasal*
tweezy
fuzz. There's some pretty ballsy settings, but for the most part, it's
main
strength is sick, tweezy, cheesy fuzz. Some people don't like this at all.
Our
fellow LD listmember Steuart Liebig just acquired the new Ring Stinger, a
Ring
Moduluator / Fuzz with tons of various modes and ways to manipulate the
sound
including a light sensitive adapter which you can play with a flashlight
or your
hand like the D-beam controllers on the Roland Groove Boxes. It also has
internal sound sources (oscilators?) for all the knob twisters out
there... A
full review of this beast would be great if you can manage Stig!
None of these boxes above are really simple overdrives... they're more
agressive
and don't necessarily behave like a tube amp. The Turbo Rat may get you
into
that territory better... spanning the od - fuzz divide. But it sounds like
you're looking for more radical stuff anyway. I used to use regular Rats a
lot,
for a light agreeable overdrive, and another cranked and darker for solos,
but
began craving the old Big Muff style blast I remembered so well for the
solos...
The Big Muff is still a first choice for a main fuzz for me, and also
works
great with a wah. In some ways, it's darker settings with the drive rolled
back
provide an overdrive of sorts... creamy, liquid Gilmour-like single note
sounds... Very musical.
Good luck with your search!
-m