Which fuzz pedal should i buy

There have been a few different versions over the years, with the latest one MKII offering a more pedalboard-friendly size casing. Zvex Fuzz Factory Fuzz Factory is a great example of those newer fuzz pedals, manufactured by a smaller independent company called Zvex. This small fuzz offers a strong punch and a lot of sonic versatility, anything from sweet overdrives to insane ripping sounds. There are a few versions, some of them which are hand painted.

Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi Electro Harmonix is one of those pedal manufacturers that's been present on the market for more than fifty years. Well, it's not a surprise really since they made the legendary Big Muff Pi. Fuzz Face Probably the most famous fuzz pedal, both for its sound and peculiar design, is the legendary Fuzz Face. This pedal was originally manufactured by Arbiter Electronics with the earliest versions bearing germanium transistors inside, giving Fuzz Face a very unique tone.

Ever since the early '90s, the manufacturing has been taken over by Dunlop, making both germanium and silicon transistor versions over the years. Siren Pedals. Facebook Email. Older Post. Newer Post. Robert March 22, Chris Eck March 22, Sockets: input, output, power. Bypass: True bypass. Power requirements: 9-Volt battery included or EHX 9. Reasons to avoid - You may want a less aggressive Muff. Image 1 of 2. Image 2 of 2. Vex Fuzz Factory fuzz pedal.

Power requirements: 9V battery or 9V DC power supply. Reasons to avoid - This level of quality comes at a cost - Tweakability can be daunting. Controls: Volume, Fuzz. Power requirements: 9-Volt battery or AC power.

Reasons to avoid - Not as high-gain as other Fuzz Faces. Death by Audio Supersonic Fuzz Gun. The best fuzz pedal for bringing certain death to boring effects. Sockets: Input, output, power.

Power requirements: 9-Volt battery or 9V power supply. Wampler Velvet Fuzz. Controls: Fuzz, Volume, Brightness. Bypass: Relay true bypass with soft switch. Reasons to avoid - Pricey. Orange Fur Coat Fuzz Pedal. Reasons to avoid - Quite a large enclosure.

Old Blood Noise Endeavors Haunt. Sockets:: input, output, power. Bypass:: True bypass. Power requirements:: 9-Volt battery or 9V power supply. Reasons to avoid - Hard to control at extreme settings. Controls: Treble, Bass, Fuzz, Volume. Fuzz and octave effects go really well together. In fact, some octave pedals also have inbuilt fuzz. There are plenty of these pedals around but one I want to highlight is the Wampler Fuzztration. What makes this fuzz pedal worth talking about is the level of control it gives you over the fuzz.

In addition to the three-band EQ, volume control, and fuzz control knobs, you also have a Tone Voice toggle. The Tone Voice toggle lets you choose between two different fuzz circuits. This pedal is basically two fuzz pedals in one. The Fuzztration also has a built-in octave-up effect with a dedicated footswitch. This is similar to the JOYO mentioned earlier, which also had a dedicated footswitch for the octave up effect.

The Fuzztration takes this further by allowing you to toggle the position of the octave and fuzz effects. You can set the octave to be before or after the fuzz which is a fantastic way to quickly access different sounds. The first time I tried a fuzz distortion out when I was a beginner I hated it. It sounded messy and I thought it was a junk pedal. Unlike other distortion or overdrive pedals, fuzz pedals have a bigger learning curve. Knowing where to place the fuzz pedal in your rig is important to getting the right fuzz sounds — especially if you also use a wah pedal.

Setting it all the way down darkens the tone and adds bass, almost giving it a low-fi growl quality to it while maintaining great sustain. The Tone control helps to not get lost in the mix if playing with other musicians. Last but not least the Sustain knob lets you adjust the amount of sustain and distortion. In fact, for Billy Corgan and The Smashing Pumpkins fans, this pedal is absolutely key to get that tone. Bring the Sustain to 9 o'clock, and things start getting interesting.

The pickups in your guitar will noticeably change the results you get out of your Big Muff. Single coils, as opposed to humbuckers, will definitely bring out more clarity in the pedal. Rolling back the volume knob on your guitar will clean up the sound a bit, while still maintaining that singing sustain. A reissue of the mids Green Russian Big Muff. We didn't have an original on hand for our review, but by all acounts a faithful recreation. Very close in sound to the Nano Big Muff Pi, but with a more booming low-end, and more warmth.

A reissue of the original Big Muff. The "Triangle" in the name refers to the layout of the knobs on the original unit. It's definitely louder, and more aggressive than the other Muffs. The knobs appear to have more range on this version.

The Triangle would likely cut through a mix better than the other variants. In addition to the 3 tone controls common to all the versions, the Op-Amp Muff has a toggle switch to bypass the tone circuit.

It doesn't add low-end as compared to the Nano Big Muff, but it does sound a little more focused and present in the mid-range. If getting as close as possible to the Smashing Pumpkins sound is what you're after, this is definitely the Big Muff Pi for you.

The EarthQuaker Devices Hoof has earned a place in any discussions about the best fuzz pedals. To borrow words from the creators, the Hoof is "loosely based on the classic green Russian fuzz circuit. It's hand-made in Akron, Ohio, features a soft-click footswitch, true bypass, and requires 9V of power 15mA current draw. Operation of the Hoof is straightforward - you have 4 knobs and no toggle switches or hidden settings. The Shift knob is the game-changer here. Like the Swollen Pickle and the Matthews Whaler, the Shift knob allows for adjusting the mid frequencies - all the way left for boosted mids, all the way right for scooped mids.

Rolling back the Shift knob gets you in "thick stoner rock sludge" territory. It's not fair to only compare the Hoof to a Green Russian Muff. Even when we were able to dial them in very close to each other, it's still not the same sound. When you shape your sound with the Tone and Shift knobs, the Hoof will become its own thing altogether. After all, it's designed with a hybrid of Germanium and Silicon transistors, which is unique. Bottom Line : The Hoof is one of those "modern classic" fuzz pedals.

This pedal is not content to merely be a straightforward fuzz. It's an unpredictable, always fun, great-sounding beast of a guitar fuzz pedal. The Fuzz Factory is a germanium transistor based fuzz , and we tested the "Vertical" version which is a little more pedalboard friendly.

The psychedelic graphics are cool and unique. The 5 knobs are rather small and grouped close together which makes the labels a little hard to read from some angles. It wants 9V power, and has a very low 3mA current draw. The one-page manual is highly recommended reading, not just because of the knob explanations and example settings, but mainly because its hilarious.

Right from the get-go, Zachary Vex says that while the knobs are named after parameters they control, "please don't hold me to it. It quickly becomes obvious that this is not a "set it and forget it" type fuzz pedal. GATE is a noise gate, meaning as you turn this knob to the right it eliminate squeals, hiss, and buzz. COMP stands for Compress, and is a standard compressor meaning it squashes the sound back down once it exceeds a certain threshold.

Do not adjust this control below , unless you like your fuzz soft and squishy. The beauty of the Fuzz Factory comes once you've put in some time to learn the controls, and you start encountering the weirdness it's capable of. You can quickly go from an awesome fuzz tone, to an oscillating, glitchy, synth-like squeal.

It can sound downright bizarre or even broken. To get an idea, listen to the following clip from ZVex:. Bottom Line: Once you put in some time to understand the controls and learn how the Fuzz Factory reacts to each parameter, you realize how powerful it is. Matthew Bellamy of Muse uses one sometimes integrated inside his guitars. You can hear the effect at the start of the Muse song "Plug In Baby. This is based on a silicon transistor, as opposed to germanium used in the Fuzz Factory.

The Mastotron has some very unique controls, and a huge low-end. This pedal has a beautiful blue case, and while it's roughly the size of a Nano Big Muff it's oriented horizontally. If you're daisy chaining, the Mastotron has an extremely low 1mA current draw.

Let's jump right into the controls, and the way it sounds. Unlike a Big Muff that simultaneously cuts lows and boosts highs as you turn TONE clockwise, the Mastotron only shapes the treble, retaining the bass. The FUZZ knob increases the fuzz intensity, as you can imagine. PW is Pulse Width, all the way to the left being square wave, and all the way to the right is narrow pulses. This makes your fuzz tone sound more gritty and lo-fi ; it sounds awesome but you lose chord articulation, almost like the pedal is running out of power.

Finally, there is a 3-way SUBS switch. To quote the manual, "3 is huge, 2 is medium, and 1 is absolutely none left. In terms of sound the Mastotron is very versatile. Having said that, playing it on the largest speaker available to you will allow you to truly feel the huge low-end the Mastotron is capable of. And in true ZVEX fashion, it's capable of some downright weird tones.

It can do the classic fuzz tone range, with the added benefit of retaining a huge low-end across the range. When it comes to fuzz boxes, this is arguably the most versatile one we got our hands on for accuracy sake, we tested the MkIIS version of the pedal.

The three primary knobs are nice and big, and the foot switch requires a bit of force to press it's true bypass. The battery door is mounted on the front of the pedal and is extremely easy to access. The pedal sits on 4 rubber feet that you can remove to access the inside more on that shortly.

Let's get this out of the way - the Swollen Pickle sounds awesome , and it's become a modern classic fuzz for a reason. It's one of many "based on the Big Muff" type circuits, but with similar settings it has a tendency to sound "bigger" and more bass-heavy than a Muff. The Swollen Pickle sounds less focused and constrained than a Big Muff, feeling almost a bit unwieldy depending on your settings.

Where the Swollen Pickle stands out is the fine-tuning options you get with it. At low Sustain levels it's a dark muddy crunch, and all the way up it's a fuzz beast gone wild. The FILTER knob is a band pass filter- at low settings you get a bassy growl difficult to articulate chords , and as you turn the knob it really opens up. As if that wasn't enough, you get small scoop and crunch knobs.

Crunch alters the compression, and scoop alters the mid-frequencies which has a huge effect on the Pickle's tone it can go from Muff-like to a totally different distortion-like beast. Bottom Line: The only thing we can really knock the Swollen Pickle for is that because of all the tone trimmers available to you, it might take some time to dial in something for your desired style of music.

It's not as "plug and play" and immediately pleasing as the Big Muff. Still, if you're considering a Big Muff and crave more controls and more low-end, the Swollen Pickle is probably for you. From the minds at EarthQuaker Devices comes a one-knob wonder fuzz pedal known as the Erupter.

To quote the creator, "The Erupter fuzz started as something I wanted just for myself - the ultimate classic fuzz tone. In typical EarthQuaker fashion, the pedal's graphics look great. The Erupter features an exploding volcano with a pleasing Orange and black color scheme. The build quality is great, the true bypass footswitch is soft-click, and the super bright LED indicator doubles as a flashlight.

The controls couldn't be more simple - one giant knob labeled Bias. It "clicks" in at noon, which is sort of the default setting. We'll let the creator explain what it does:.