This is why Fuzzes don't work for you!: 5 tips on how to better use Fuzz Pedals. 

For fuzz haters and the fuzz curious, play to the fuzz, there’s a fuzz for every player out there, and there’s a fuzz for every riff, but not all riffs will work on one kind of fuzz, in fact, many will sound awful. Buy every fuzz you come across, and find one that works best for each and every phrase of music you play, also keep the fuzz maxed out, and hit your bong more often.

The problem is that a lot of guitarists don't understand pedals aren't always magic that you just put on top of your playing. You need to actually adjust your technique to the effect you're using. Fuzz is one of these

Massive thanks for this! The bright switch on my amp turned off completely changed the sound of my fuzz for the better, and thats something I probably never would have thought of.

Excellent video. Great playing, and good analysis of fuzz, which can be complex. Jeff McErlain has some good videos on fuzz too that this video expands on very well. Love your approach to analysis, and depth of coverage.

Congrats being the first video I’ve ever seen that mentions the bright switch/treble trick with Fender amps.

Hello, I like the way you comment and demo, and @6:00 I think you sold me the JHS. Great high-gain video presented in a Hi-Fi manner and style. All the Best, JP

This is a great clip. I haven't watched it yet, but I agree wholeheartedly.

Very good video. Did not think about the bright cap issue. Although I don’t play thru a Fender, I do have bright switches on both channels of my amp which are sometimes engaged.

I like this video and have happily subscribed. These are great pointers to get a good fuzz sound ( a la Hendrix) but I also like harsh buzzy fuzz sounds which I approach differently. Its a never ending thing. 🤘🏼

Great video to start the year! 🔥

That bright shrill clean amp maestro tone was actually my favorite of that segment

Wow, this is so informative. Awesome video!

Another octafuzz tip: it can actually give you an octave down if you play an inverted power chord on the low strings - i.e. a C & G on 5th and 6th strings on 3rd fret (C inverted power chord) will also produce an octave down C. Cool video.

What a great reference video.

That tone at the beginning was MASSIVE, woah!!

Fuzz face cleaned up with my tele neck pickup is my favorite tone I've ever gotten

That was helpful, thank you - appreciated. I prefer clean tones, so besides plugging straight in, I like reverb, tremolo, delay univibe, chorus, and...fuzz! When you use fuzz on the edge of clean is when it sounds the best to me, love it even! Although I'm not into overdrive and distortion like most younger guitar players seem to be, fuzz is a different sound. Remember the little "Pignose" amps" from the early 1970's? I do, Brian Ray (McCartney) brought over his Pignose to showoff how good it sounded just after getting it. My friend how rented me a room in his house lived on the hill above Ray's family home where he grew-up jn the Pacific Palisades, and was his roadie in Brian's pre-Etta James period. After he heard my killer stereo (1973) with McKintosh receiver and JBL Century 100 studio speakers, and B&O record player playing the best music of the time (and that still is my favorite period still (Peter Green, etc.), he came to the master bedroom I rented to hang for awhile, roll some joints out of my stems and seeds (Mexican buds were all we had), and play my cheap (Madiera by Guild) acoustic guitar. I couldn't even tune it in those daze, and listened as he immediately tuned it to pitch, and made it sound like a million dollar guitar playing along with my favorite records of the day. If not for Brian, I would have given-up on playing guitar, because it didn't come easy to me, and back then we had no way to learn except from records or friends or paying for lessons (my teacher was smacked-out on heroin, but he was a great player and good teache - that was the one and only lesson I ever had though, after he came to the front door with glazed eyes and pinned pupils my mother who answered the door said "I didn't like the look of his eyes" - so no more lessons paid by her). I still remember the major and minor scales he taught me, and have used them ever since!! ANYways, so Brian Ray came over, got me stoned with my own herb, played my cheap guitar to my favorite records of the time, inspiring me to never quit trying to play. I couldn't believe how good he made my cheap guitar sound, and that inspired me to keep trying. He was to talented that after hearing him play an especially inspiring music to Bob Dylan (finger-picking like a Maestro) I said to him:"YOU are going to be famous someday"... Brian replaied modestly: "There are many guitar players better than me". Back then he was the best I ever heard play live (I was 15-16 years old), and I KNEW he had something special, even though he didn't sing yet (that didn't start until McCartney band, or the bass playing either). I remember when he got "Goldie" his 1957 Les Paul Goldtop for $850, but he had to sell a couple guitars he loved to afford it, a Les Paul Junior and the red ES-345 he usually played. He brought over Goldie to show us, and was so-o stoked about it. He would hit notes and do his wild intense vibrato and say "isn't that a motherfucker?". For about 18 years he played that as band leader for the Etta James band, which led to the Paul McCartney gig. After he got that gig, which is an amazing story ya'll should read about (several places), Brian got into bass playing, and as the money came in started to buy the amazing collection he has now (Gibson channel with Mark Agnesi helps him show it). When he fits got the gig I found him online, easier to do in the early 2000s, and he remembered me! I was surprised he remembered me, because I only knew him for a few months, but he was his old self still. I told him about how he inspired me to keep playing guitars, and how I'd gone to the Roberto-Venn school of Luthiery, and was into amplifiers now. He told me about how he was looking for a particular Gibson amp called a GA-40 from 1957/8, back then it was harder to find gear than now. I found a 1959 GA-40, which most think is the best version, George Harrison even used one, but Brian wanted the "two tone" 1957 to go with his Goldie, but more importantly its the tone. The 1959 tweed version has a little more power, and a larger output transformer. But louder isn't always better, and he wanted the previous "two tone" version, so I found that for him back east. He bought it, had it shipped to southern Cali where he lives, and appreciated that I found it for him. A year or two later he found a MINT version of the same amp, and told me he would sell the one I found him to me if I wanted to buy it. Of course I wanted to buy it, more because of the amp it was than because Brian Ray owned it before me. He only charged me a little more than he paid, and that was after having the guy at "Divided by 13" amps (the name of his high school band, which he chose because nobody else was likely to use it - I had to know and researched it). So it arrived in Portland, the Jensen P12P with original cone still in it, sounding so soft and beautiful. It had a slight tear though, so when I cranked it there was some fluzzy sounds, but I usually play relatively quietly and clean). When I took it to be re-coned, the local speaker guy said it sounded so good he couldn't replace it, and made a slight fix so it would still work). But I don't always play quietly, so I put an Altec 417B in it, which made it sound like a Marshall, even better! Anyways, after I got the speaker back with the "fix" I installed it again, appreciated its soft beautiful sounds, but when I turned it up - fluzzing again. So I put in a Weber made Scuminco (at first Weber made them), which was about 10 years old and hadn't been used yet. Like a Vox Celestion silver bell, at least its modeled after it, and my amp guy who serviced it said it was the best sounding amp he's played in years. This is getting way too long, and I'm probably wasting my time since you won't believe my story anyways. I grew-up in the Pacific Palisades, was kicked-out of the house after my mom divorced my dad and couldn't handle me or my older sister anymore (drugs and etc. - it was the 1960's), so I rented a room across town on the hill above where Brian Ray grew-up, the guy who lived there was a childhood friend of his, otherwise I never would have met him. I DID tell him he'd be famous someday! But I prefer his solo music and videos to Paul McCartney the 2nd. Check-out his videos if you haven't, they are fun - "power pop" he calls it. I just wish he'd play more guitar - he was such a great blues guitar player, i suggested he do a recording called "Ray does Ray", all instrumental versions of Ray Charles great songs!

You just helped me out tremendously man- but you didn't really cover what I ended up doing to make my fuzz sound right though. I used a drive pedal but not to push the amp- it has a very potent eq on it- I put it between the amp and the fuzz and used the eq to shape the fuzz so it would work with my amp's eq curve. It works perfectly- sounds great now- it had too much bass and midrange- I removed a little of both and now it works with my amp perfectly. It's an op amp big muff. I also cut the vol. on my guitar just a tad- helped to clean it up and make it not so muddy. I had the pedal up on eBay, but I just took the listing down- I'm keeping it now. This was my 3rd fuzz, my amp doesn't like them- but with an eq I can fix that. At least it worked with this one- hopefully it works with others as well. Man, once I got that dialed in- that's amazing- what a rush. I finally get it.

cool vid, thanks for all this info!!

this is excellent content !! 👍

I wasn't a fuzz Guy... tried a few, didn't get it... until I built my Si Fuzzrite circuit.... whoa... yeah, I am digging that

killin it bro!

Great video! Subscribed

Nice color on that strat

If you have a fender amp fuzz definitely sounds best in I think. Green Russian muff is my favorite it works.

Wish I had this video back in the day. It would have saved a lot of time. But then again RU-vid In general would have. But thanks and superb job.

Thank you great tips

i love my big muff, pushing a fender twin with a wall of fuzz is a glorious feeling

As you said, all fuzz pedals act differently. Usually, the volume knob on the guitar has to be turned on fully for the correct effect. I've found the original fuzz sound on "Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones to be the most difficult to emulate. The original Maestro fuzz used by Keith Richards had a lower voltage circuit.

Offsets work so well with my fuzz face- I keep the volume down on the lead circuit for clean and flip to the rhythm circuit (kept with Vol at 10 and tone at 4-5). Same effect with any guitar that has independent volumes. my Teisco Sharkfin has a three way switch for Lead/Rhtym/Bass- flipping to bass supercharges the fuzz for leads. if only the wonderful square pole pickups didn’t feedback so horribly at volume!

Mine would be: 1: Make sure it works with the volume down, because that's where the magic happens. 2: Let the fuzz be itself and ride it like a wave. [Leading to three] 3: Play single notes and hold them longer and play less notes at once and less notes in chords (sus/power not triads). 4: Put it first in your chain (experiment all you want, but most likely you'll want it up front) 5: Get the one with tge single AA Battery (hehe ; )

I'm trying to get the fuzz tone that you hear on MUSIC TO WATCH GIRLS BY by Andy Williams. Sounds like a Mosrite. Any suggestions?

Excellent video, but Hendrix put the Wah first, not the Fuzz. One can hear the noise problems in some live performances. Roger Mayer was constantly trying to fix the problem, which eventually Jimi used a Bc108 Silicon Fuzz Face, with mods to help with the wah issue, and mods to the wahs as well, to help it. A buffer to bring the impedance back to a level that the Fuzz likes, in the output of a wah, can help the issue. They’re are fixes that many builders do now, with Fuzz Faces, to fix the issue. I don’t know where the information that Hendrix used wah after a Fuzz Face comes from, as there are many very reliable sources about it, that show his chain to have been, Wah>Fuzz Face>Octavia>Uni Vibe(in 69’-70’)>amp. I’m sure he tried it, and may have went with wah after fuzz for awhile, but the tone he settled with was wah first. Sometimes I hear a difference, sometimes I don’t, depending on the Fuzz and the Wah.

Good video. Some of these points will be new to some viewers, particularly younger ones. The fuzz is a strange beast that should be approached with care. It's really a component in a total system - guitar/fuzz/amp/cab - and if you change any of the other components, the behaviour of the fuzz may seem to change, often in unpredictable ways. The Maestro is a reasonable stand-in for Fuzzrite- type garage punk pedals. The Fuzz Face is a Hendrix-endorsed classic with a musical sound that gives the player a lot of control from the guitar. The JHS Supreme sounded like hot garbage here, for some reason: the Superfuzz on which it is based is usually better and more distinctive than this. I don't consider the Big Muff to be a fuzz at all: it's a unique overdrive/distortion hybrid with a scooped sound. The obvious omission was a Tonebender-type pedal. It's also a fact that some fuzzes work better with single-coil pickups, and others with humbuckers: some with clean amps, others with amps that are already a little overdriven. As the reviewer says, the answer is to experiment.

I needed this. I’m clueless

I think a lot of people who don’t like fuzz dislike the massive low end they have, and the lack of pick attack. Try putting an overdrive pedal before or after your fuzz, it brings out some interesting characteristics depending on order and settings. A big muff pushed by a ts9 sounds insanely good, it also allows you to get a good chugging sound from your palm mutes.

Great Video, I'm setting up my first pedal board.. I love Classic Rock.. What Fuzz would you recommend? If you had to buy just one, which one would you buy? Active Fuzz? I kind of like that one.. Just wondering your thoughts? Thank you. I do have a Wazna Craft Blues Driver and a Cry Baby Wah Pedal.. Thank You!!!! : )

"Turn off the bright switch." But sometimes I need my guitar to sound like it's blasting a hubcap with a pressure washer!

About the " bright cap incompatibility" with fuzz, does it apply ONLY when the fuzz is connected directly to the amp ?

Confused as to your amp setup. Are you using the OX with speaker emulation on, or just amp model on and the speaker we hear is the speaker in the amp? Because if you have spearker emulation going AND it's running into the amp that has a speaker, isn't that too much speaker on top of speaker? Or are you just using the OX as an attenuator?

With a dirty amp, is not that the "fuzz pushes the amp to a heavier tone", the amp's tone-gain remains the same, is more that the "amp's gain affects the fuzz's tone" by "compressing the fuzz" , and YUP this depends on the fuzz type, mainly with vintage Fuzz Face styles, humble two cents! :)

Making fuzz work is not always easy. You gotta put in the time to find the sweet spot.

Scott Mckeon is a very tasteful fuzz player. Too many people diming big muffs where you can’t even hear the notes

how to set the pedal's volume?as the ampvol? or more? very interesting

Do this but for a Helix.

JHS is the most versatile. For me it’s the best in most of the combinations

🔥

Any thoughts on fuzz with slide? Joey Landreth seems to do this well, without having the fuzz go over the top.

13:20 For a pronounced octave effect, you've gotta turn down the tone knob

Tip n.0: don’t use any buffered pedals even AFTER the fuzz, because it will make it harsh as well (try and compare with guitar-cable-fuzz-cable-amp if you don’t trust me). If you do, mod your fuzz with a 470pF cap from signal to ground at the output jack of your fuzz: this will emulate a 5 meters cable from the fuzz to the buffer, which is what your fuzz wants to see (at least). You can also just use a long cable between the fuzz and the following buffered pedal, but it is a bit cumbersome.

I'm pretty sure that particular Fuzz Face is silicon.

awwwwwwwwwwesome!! \m/

My problem is not getting the fuzz sound when I play alone, but that when I use that sound in the context of my band the sound of my guitar disappears completely ....

Why didn’t you show what it sounds like when you turn on bright??

How about just staying away from Fender amps with them, at least FF and Blackface models? The scooped, square wave amp doesn't work well with the scooped square fuzz. Muffs work with them, but I find fuzz faces to sound terrible in them. You could put an British voiced overdrive or EQ to tame them too, but straight in is just God awful. I actually stayed away from fuzz faces for 15 years because I tried one in a Deluxe Reverb and it just sounded terrible. It wasn't until i tried one into a Marshall and realized it was the amp I had used it with.

hendrix wah was actually the first thing in the chain

I would only play a fuzz pedal into a Marshall plexi. I think they sound terrible into a Fender

i must be getting deaf, because some of those bright-switch on settings are incredibleeee

Fuzz pedals don t like anything before them, usually. That s the most important rule. I break this rule only, when I add overdrive, which i use before the fuzz.

Simply change the bright cap to a lower value.

“turn off the bright switch” proceeds to play a bunch of pedals that sound good with a bright fender.

What amp is that white beauty?

A fuzz pedal really brings your guitar volume into play and that can only be a good thing

Tip 1. Turn on Tip 2. Dime it Tip 3. Feed into another fuzz

Maestro, pronounced my-stroh. It's Italian and refers to a master of music.

There's one point missing why fuzz often doesn't work: it's too muddy and loose for fast Metal riffs.

Most fuzzes sound like plastic speakers or an AM radio through a 3” speaker. I want fuzz that does not fizz or sound unarticulated…. That is my only problem with fuzzes

The secret to fuzz is the guitar volume. You're welcome

It was clear to be Maestro and Big Muff sounded great regardless of settings, and the other 2 were rubbish.

There is main reason (even mentioned in Octave Fuzz part of the video): Different guitars and different pickups will also make the pedal react differently. Say maybe you bought that dream Fuzz you always wanted, plug it in and it doesn't sound as good as you thought it would. Guess what, you have different type, output level and impedance. And you cant adjust that, because your dream Fuzz have only two knobs to tweak (Fuzz Face), so you throw away your fuzz and buy distortion :)

Swap out the speaker in the amp for a busted one and crank the amp and you'll get all the fuzz you need.

Please remove the OX so we can hear the guitar-pedal-amp tone next time.

Take the OX Off ? Then see / hear ; ^ }

Lots of Jimi Hendrix influence here. He's being careful to not play entire riffs so he doesn't get copyright censored.

Rig needs repair from the sound of it.

Who pronounces Maestro like "Mah-Estro" lolol kinda goofy. Cool video though!

This is why Fuzzes don't work for you.... Because you grew up playing on line 6 amps lol.

When is everyone going to admit that buying guitar is a 1/2 crapshoot. The average person doesn’t have the time to test out every combination, especially with how little of the pedal/amp market is kept on an average show from floor in a guitar store

Nope, still not for me...

Just not the sound for me at all

tone is subjective . one does not need to spend a ton of money on vintage gear to achieve good tone. good tone is where you make it. music is subjective. one mans trash is another treasure. putting yourself above another person by making a specific type of comment on a youtube video is in-fact a personal attack. we are all flawed and hopefully growing as we learn from our errors. no one has arrived at a state of perfection , ever , not SRV , not Hendrix, not Vai , we are all in a state of flux. it is not truth that the only good pedal is what is on my board right now and everything else is garbage . analog is not always better than digital . spring reverb is not better than digital, they are different and we should be allowed to choose what we prefer with out being attacked for our preference. a guitar player who lacks originality can hide behind all sorts of things , number one other peoples music , number two , gear. Being a great musician has nothing to do with how fast you play or putting yourself above another human being in a comment section. it does not concern or matter to me what the next guy is playing thru . gear does not define me as a musician , that is the job for my music . if one does not have any original music perhaps it is all about gear . music is not a dick measuring contest . enjoy what you do , dont sweat having new tools when you already own more than enough to do the job . no one ever got better at playing guitar watching gear videos , commenting on youtube videos . no one in the audience ever said " that guitar player is using a modeler , i am leaving" no one in the audience ever said " that guy is playing thru a tube amp , i bet he rolls tubes , he is hot , i will go and mate with him " . stevie ray vaugn and hendrix are dead , and what they did has already been done , many many many times . playing covers is a single part of ones path, it is a stage that one moves thru as one advances . ideally one learns what one needs to and then moves on . preferably to writing original music . life is a path . if people come at you as if they have arrived they are speaking from insecurity , jealousy and ignorance . if you find yourself making negative , mean spirited or comments that can be considered an attack , the best thing to do at this point is to back space that snap . be nice , and remember its not JUST the properly biased fuzz circuits that make the harmonics sizzle. rock on with your bad self , but be nice .

Sounds horrible to me every time... Sounds horrible in this video too.

I pity the fools who need this video