Which Should Come First: Fuzz or Treble Booster?? (AKA. Impedance, Buffers and Transistors) 

I started learning electronics and just yesterday i breadboarded my first transistor boost. Life will never be the same! I loved the tone!

Very interesting video. I preffer fuzz into treble booster too. It's a killer combination. Great explanation as usual. !Keep with the good work!

Thanks Joe - very helpful info. Appreciate all you do for our guitar community.

Great video, but I would like to add its not so much the transistors that are the problem as much as the circuit around them. Vintage transistor based circuits are very picky about placement and input impedance whereas modern transistor based circuits can be placed just about anywhere and will work just fine. Those vintage circuits weren't using buffers and they certainly didn't have operational amplifiers or switched capacitor voltage converters (which is glaringly obvious when you see most of those vintage pedals are center positive circuits). The semi conductor technology available to early pedal designers/builders is vastly different than what was available about 20 years after those first few circuits were introduced. And pedal builders have really worked together to get the absolute most tone out of the available components through the advancement of better an better circuit designs. Designs which took a greater understanding of those components than many of the original guitar pedal builders had. In other words we have gotten much better at building pedals. Vintage pedals are still great and relevant but if prime functionality is your goal a vintage Fuzz or Treble Booster isn't the way to go. If either of those circuits were designed for the the first time sometime in the last 20 years rather than in the 50s they would come out COMPLETELY different. Anyways my main point was just that transistors aren't problematic in and of themselves. But a poor or more fairly, less refined circuit, can be problematic depending on application. Few pedals these days are built without transistors. They are used as buffers, amplifiers and even as diodes. Heck we even have more transistor types (BJT, FET, MOSFET etc.) to choose from now then back then when Germanium BJT reigned supreme.

I liked the treble booster into fuzz more... you can have more of the treble booster effect that way

Excelent video I think youre the first one ive seen making an actual demonstration on this subject. That sunface sounds amazing it can rip some faces off

Good video! I liked the fuzz first a lot more. This helps my life a lot lol. I have a warm audio Foxxy fuzz and it’s a big pedal. I have a Germaium treble booster that’s normal size. On my pedal board I really don’t want to permanently put the Foxxy on the board…takes up a lot of room and can’t reach the knobs. I prefer it to sit off my board as an optional pedal. And if I want another fuzz that’s not Germaium I can put it elsewhere. I’ll play with this, as I was having trouble having the TB fist followed by that brick if a fuzz size. My fuzz it’s much more of a top box on amp or on floor fuzz for what it is. May grab a smaller muff type fuzz later where it doesn’t matter. But the sound was much more filler and pleasant with fuzz first. It gave it the characteristics of the TB, but kept the fuzz wider tonal range. In most settings I’m probably going to go for that. As I like my fuzz a bit fuller, and my TB to run into my dirts and cut through a bass heavy mix or band. TB may seem old school, but I okay with a lot of analog synths in my band. And using a TB is a huge asset ti cut through a big Moog or a heavy kick drum and rise above to be heard.

Cool video - a comment: the issue talked about with transistors wanting to "see a direct connection between the pickup and pedal" is an issue with specific transistor-based pedals, not an issue with transistors in general. E.g. Big Muffs don't have this issue but are transistor-based fuzzes.

The treble booster into the fuzz would be a cool sound on a record

On full volume i prefered TB first, but as you turned volume knob down Fuzz first sounded better... oh gosh, we just get more doubts! 🤣

Both ways sound cool. One pan Left & one pan Right?! Thank you! Cheers!

Cool video, but it really depends on the situation. I’ve used a Boss pedal after a wah, into a Fuzz , which works pretty well. But that’s because it changes the impedance from the Wah. Boss Equalizer is a good one, because it can be used to retain any frequency loss. If I wasn’t using a Wah, I’d probably put a buffer after a Fuzz Face, depending on how many pedals I’m using. I’ve seen other players who put a buffer after their dirt, then another between the last pedal and the amp.

GREAT!!! My Ranger always after the fuzz. I can soloing and I push up the amp with the Range Master and keep the bass punchier with bigger sound.

Thank you, Joe...you were precious as usual! It seems like the TB into the fuzz preserves more of its typical throaty characteristics perhaps losing some bass frequencies, whereas the fuzz into the TB besides a good clean-up sound also gives you a wider tonal range. Ok then...time to play around and experiment. Thanks again, cheers!

How come I never found this channel before? subbed! great video - I was just struggling between an Xotic RC Booster and a BigMuff Nano, this vid game ve the core basics of what was happening with my tone - cheers!

I was really dumb and figured treble boosters just weren't for me but.... I had a buffer in front the whole time 😕 fixed it now I love them

Another interesting video. I have a IK Multimedia Z-Tone Buffer Boost pedal. So far, I have only tested it running direct in to recording mixer to use ultimately for recording into a DAW. I have thought however, about using it into one of my guitar amps (Mesa Boogie Mark IV or a Red Plate Black Loop model). So your info is useful to me before I run some pedals into the amps. PS...I am having an issue with the Z-Tone pedal (2nd one I received with going dead on me....first one was returned, now an issue with the 2nd unit....However, the unit sound's great when working so hoping I get this resolved) so I'll have to solve this issue before I can experiment with the pedals and what pedal what order I put them in the chain... Well done...Gave you a Sub. Phil NYC Area

6:32 nice Diary of a Madman atmosphere :)

Oh yeah, EVERYONE should be stacking more. !!!!

I preferred RM first as it was just to flabby and wholly with FF first.

Good video with good examples. How about a Treble Booster before/after Overdrive/Distortion? Thanks very much!

Joe, Thanks for the video. Would you suspect that you'd get the same results alternating order of a distortion pedal e.g., TS pedal and Treble booster as you did with the fuzz/treble booster?

Thanks for you wonderful videos, you’ve got a keen ear for good tone and good riffs to top it off, I appreciate that! Quick question on your thoughts on silicon vs germanium fuzz faces. I’m planning to get some analogman gear, and debating which fuzz to get going into a tweed deluxe. My chase tone silicon fuzz face seems to have more mids and bite than my germanium one. Would it be similar in the analogman range? I’m not much of a wooly fuzz solo guy, more of a gritty riffy queens of the Stone Age fuzz guy :) Keep up the good work!

Would a treble booster paired with a fuzz face help it cut through a live band mix? Been playing the fuzz face alone and have gotten drowned out pretty easily and heard a treble booster can help

Been battling with such chain issues for years; I like the modulations pre drive as well, but compromise with the fuzzes going first, with all else sandwiched between the drives.I like the TB after the fuzzes, so as to not add gain, and assist in clean up.The Naga Viper is actually Si, but is notably quieter than the Ge units I've tried.Dosen't have all the mojo, but it's an outstanding EQ and boost.Usually save the designated buffer for the end.

Thanks for the video. Great content. Ive got a sun lion which i use fuzz into treble and a hudson broadcast dual arriving this week. Wondering how the hudson will sit on a pedal board with a sunlion....how do you find your hudson with your sunface or rangemaster?

joe can u please redo this using a tele ?