To my ear, the holy grail of strat and fuzz combinations is that achieved by Hendrix on the Band of Gypsys: Live at Fillmore album. In my opinion, no player has ever come close to matching the emotional ferocity of "Power of Love" from that album! (Can I say that without being bombarded with a plethora of comments like: "What!? How dare you!? What about EVH's "Eruption!!?? Or what about . . . blah blah examples ad nauseum!) To me it seemed more of reigning in the over the top fuzz (say perhaps "Purple Haze") and producing a not too obviously fuzz but a cool overdrive sound, still retaining characteristics of the classic fuzz sound. . I've watched countless demos of all the clones, the "genuine" Dunlop faithful copies etc etc. For a start, NO body has any true knowledge insight of what's gone into the making of the various fuzz face clones. They spout a mixture of guess work and the blurb they've read about each pedal. The trouble is, 99% of the "informative" manuals/blurb are just pure sales pitch containing little of no real technical info.
That actually looks like the Fender Customer shop Rory Gallgher Strat. I'm pretty sure he had his bridge pickup replaced and they copied his guitar to a T for it. So it is a Special pickup not sure what though.
Great demo 👍 pretty much what they sound like I just ordered one and it was awful ☹️ Radio signal Noise Think I got a dud so hopefully the replacement will be ok Thanks guys
l'd love to know what the amp settings are, I'm using the same amp and can't get the same tone out of it, had to resort back to using an Dirty Little Secret after the fuzz to saturate the fuzz.
With my strat volume on full I just get a blur of sloppy mud, could this be because the gain on the classic gain channel (not the clean channel, the 2nd green channel) is near enough maxed ?
+Carl Jones I've got a marshall dsl too and i discovered that for using pedals, the classic gain channel must be set to "clean" and not "crunch. Also, maxing the volume but dialing back the gain also helps a bit.
JonesHvac Cool. I'm always eager to hear other player's experience with one. As so many people in comment threads say they sound bad, and I always think, "what are they using, or how are they using." The Silicon Fuzz Face works better with other effects for me, but I just love the clean sound I can get, as well as the higher gain. I use another clean OD to cut through the mix when playing with another guitarist in a band setting, but they make beautiful sounds in their own. If you enjoy that one, you should check out the Deep Trip BOG, it's a Silicon Fuzz Face with knobs for mids and highs that I'm thinking about as my next Fuzz Face style pedal. Thanks for replying.
I'm sure this vid was shot a while ago and amp settings are long forgotten. Are there any eq wizards out there who can tell me what sort of eq'ing will get me close to this tone, I'm currently messing around with the hendrix mini through a dsl40c and I can't get anywhere near this tone. Think I'm missing a trick. How loud was it in that room, is it the lack of volume that is letting me down ?
The main thing to do is crank the guitar volume, then find the right amount of volume, bass, mids, and treble. Make sure your treble is not too bright when you pick a note on the high E, 20th fret or so. After doing this, be sure the fuzz isn't louder than your clean tone, when using different settings on the pedal. Another thing would be the pickup height. Lower the top of the pickups some and leave the bottom a little higher.
One more trick that may not be relevant for you: if you use a wah wah and it is too bright, take off the bottom plate and loosen the arm that holds the wheel (tone knob). Turn the wheel downward two or three notches from where it was. Tighten the screw on the arm, holding the wheel in place, and try the pedal again.
Ripping guitar work Adam but yet again, as per 99.9% of fuzz face demos, when TF will SOME body explore the full range of the bloody things!? Why does EVERY body think the fuzz knob HAS to be on full all the f'ing time!? They MAY back it off to at the most, 12 oclock where it stays for two notes before they whip it back to fully CW, glancing at the camera, hoping nobody saw them do that! Why not at least START at fully CCW ? You might . . . just MIGHT start getting close to (arguably) the greatest demo of fuzz (where the fuzz is in fact NOT too over the top!) use by Hendrix Band of Gypsys Fillmore East FFS!!! Excuse the caps guys but when you witness 100s of demos where everybody makes the same mistake, it kinda gets under one's collar! Rant over! Well . . . for this post at least! 😀
ukshrednoodle Well...he used silicon FF's starting in 68-70 off and on. He had one made that was the Octavio without the octave up and the silicon 108, usually with the uni-vibe, from the first Band of Gypsy's show. Probably used all of them in the studio as well as other hybrids that are lost to time.
Daniel Brown Yeah he did. I was speaking more on some of Electric Ladyland and in Band of Gypsys. As well as the later recordings, that make up the First Rays of the New Rising Sun album that Eddie Kramer mixed in the 90s with only guitar tracks Jimi did. I enjoy both, but if you get a quality Silicon pedal, it's easier to use with other effects.
