Nice video, thanks for the shootout and great playing. I liked the sound of the original. It had a natural brightness. What amp are you playing through?
Does your fuzz face have trouble with other pedals? I have a jimi hendrix fuzz face and I cant have it in the same signal path as my vintage deluxe memory man or mxr dyna comp.
You should be able to pick up a vintage Distortion + for no more than the re-issued version. Lots of them come up on eBay, especially from the USA. I got a 1978 Distortion + that way for about GBP60. It's a bit scuffed around the edges but works fine and - probably - sounds better than the re-issue.
thanks for the demo ... I was just looking at the 108 recently, and the features are nice, plus I think it's possible to build a new silicon fuzz that sounds as good as a vintage one .... or in this case, probably better. :) The 108 does sound a little 'meatier' .. although that could be the transistors, or biasing ... but you've demonstrated that you don't lose anything by going with the 108.
Hi, thanks for your great videos, may I ask the exact values of the potentiometers on your vintage fuzz face? its the best sounding fuzz I ever heard... thanks!
1 Have you heard the a Deep Trip BOG Fuzz? It’s my favorite FF style pedal, and it’s silicon, with some high and low tone shaping options, that are unique to it.
Im saddened to hear that the box just doesn't measure up to that raw scream eminating from the Face! I was all but sold on the Box - deadset! Now I'm turned right off it. I thought they'd get the tone, no problem...but they just didn't! What ya all think?
The MXR seemed to have a lot more mids, and be quite a bit muddier. Not sure which I like though. For an early Gilmour kind of tone, I think I prefer the 60's.
;o) no - it varies. Plugged straight in its quite dynamic, crisp and with a reasonably fat tone, and it picks up your finger dynamics quite well. It sings. Plugged into my carl martin octaswitch, which is non buffered it feels a little like going from a 12v to a 9v power supply. If I place it before or after the CM bypassing its a little better. For every pedal i add after a little something is lost. I combine with the CM echotone and a WET reverb (buffered), its ok but not an ideal marriage.
Well I was ready to jump on a 108 because other vids seemed to make sound a little more even. Generally don't like the original FF's. I get all itchy & scratchy when I hear them. Here the 108 sounds too heavy & & a bit dark to me. After this In want to revisit my beliefs! Thanks. I just saved some money & my search goes on.
I own the mxd. My feeling is that it will work at lower levels than the fuzz face. Its pretty coool on its own but I have yet to invent a chain of effects that does not kill at least 1 fourth of what makes it worthwhile. Fuzz is delicate as it is. With deterioration of sound it jest becomes noise and no tone. BUgger
From this video, the vintage fuzz face sounds hotter, much more gain, and is brighter. Perhaps, some of its internal electronic components, capacitors, resistors and perhaps the transistors are loosing their initial values over time?
That FF sounded like garbage with a wah, no wonder Jimi hired Roger Mayer to modify his pedals. The 108 crushes with the buffer on during the wah part. If you had turned the buffer on during the 1st part of the demo, people would see why the 108 is a better and cheaper choice.
I listened with some good headphones, and the original silicon FF is obviously brighter and buzzier while the MXR-lop has a noticeably-softer top but also a bit less punch as well, Ithink. One thing I'm noticing more and more about these regularly-priced MXR/Dunlop pedals (non-custom-shop and not from some special musician/artist/engineer-affiliated series of effects) is that I keep hearing a sort of extra peakiness in the midrange, or at least more than I prefer. Might be in the upper mids. When you compare a modern, yellow-cased Distortion + to an old '70's version, you can hear it. But keep in mind, I'm comparing them to pedals costing twice as much (and even more in some cases). Also, I loved what I heard in that PGS video. Hard to say. I really dug the way this pedal sounded in most of the demo videos I've seen, but I've also learned a bit about Fuzz Faces in that time (not to mention a bit more about what tone I want and how to get it), so I guess I'm a bit more-sceptical these days and not so quick to jump at every Hendrixian effects pedal that rolls down the block. Actually, do they even sell these anymore? I do want at least one good BC108-based Fuzz Face clone that I'm happy with, ... the closest I think I've heard so far probably being the Fulltone '70. But the BC108 thing is one itch that I have yet to scratch. I'm covered on the Ge Fuzz Face side, I think. I have one authentically-wired clone (Sun Face NKT) for that pure, unadulterated mid '60's Fuzz Face tone, and I have another with a couple extra features & tweaks (Throbak Fuzz Haze) that takes me down roads I never expected I'd be travelling with a Fuzz Face clone. And I love both. But like I said, I still need to nail down that BC108 sound. I never cared that much for Hendrix's silicon FF tone on "The Cry Of Love" that much. Not even sure what he used on "Band Of Gypsys". But I LOVE Gilmour's tone on "Echoes" (live AND studio versions). I don't know. I can't make up my mind.
That's completely wrong! 1. These vintage fuzz pedals shall be placed always first. Guitar -> Fuzz -> Wah -> Amp (That's the way Hendrix used it. The reason is explained in the next point.) 2. For the vintage sound, buffer of the MXR pedal shall be turned off. Vintage fuzz pedals due to the (poor) oldschool design have low input resistance, which means that the device lives in some sort if symbiosis with the guitar. (And with everything in front of the guitar. That's the problem with the wah, that cause the oscillation.) But if you want to replicate those vintage sounds, you should live with it. 3. Buffer of the MXR pedal is a nice feature, and it's quality is really good. But turned on the buffer, this pedal sounds different. It gives a sort of distortion pedal like quality to the device.
Hendrix placed the wah first, not the FF. Apart from photographic evidence, this can very easily be heard in the wah sound he achieved. Placing the wah after the fuzz makes it act as a huge tone filter and sounds awful (in my opinion only, not everyone agrees) to my ears. Google the following if you are interested "A detailed look at Jimi Hendrix' pedals and signal chain". Some interesting stuff there.
Gotta day it too. Hendrix always put Wah first in his chain, at least in live gigs. I wouldn’t be shocked to see an old photo of him doing it differently, but his signal path has been well known for many years now.
Hellfister mxr 108 is more versatile and dynamic at lower volume. You can roll back the volume knob on your guitar and get a transparent overdrive sound. Big muffs are hard to tame, and mostly work well at high volume.
That's funny...I just got to see in a Big Muff packaging box with all the lollies just this week...and it had a card proudly reading "The same fuzz Hendrix used" and I spat out m' coffee!! Hey, maybe he did use it one time in store somewhere or something...but it's certainly not what he's famous for! This was the giant size Big Muff Pi..
Still doesn't mean you know what to do with it. Does it require a wah of the same brand to activate the sound? I bet it does! If its MXR brand then its got its own unique sound, but not even you can tell us what that sound is and that sound in the vid isn't the true sound of the pedal.
Recording your guitar with the built-in camera mic (or mobile phone mic) is a really bad idea. This comparison is rendered utterly useless because we don't know what it actually sounded like. If you don't have recording equipment, you could have a dedicated audio recording app and put the phone closer to the speaker. The latest smartphones have surprisingly good mics.
