So I’m relatively new to fuzz. So far I have a Ge fuzz face, and an EQD hizumitas.
I play mostly low gain, but I actually prefer the sound of the hizumitas, especially when I roll the guitar volume way way back. I pretty much have it set to a tad above unity, everything on 0.
I’m thinking there has to be a muff that will let me reach those lower gain tones that are just out of reach with the hizumitas, without having to roll back to 4 on guitar, and turn off some other drives, as it’s sort of impractical with my current set up.
I’ll probably be pushing it with a ts9, if I must. But if there is one that has a bit more clarity and note definition, then perhaps I won’t need to? I’ll be using it for rhythm, alot of major/minor 1 5 8 3 arps, with some analog delay. Maybe some lead tones. With the hizumitas rolled back, I get this really nice woofy, smooth, “controlled” smooth woolyness that sits behind my playing, rather than the usual wall of fuzz or straight smooth distortion.
So far I have done a bit of research on the green russian, civil war muff, eqd hoof, and the frantone peach fuzz. I’m just a bit overwhelmed, and not too versed in muff circuits, or fuzz in general.
I’ll prob end up copping a clone of whatever I decide.
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated…perhaps I’m not even looking for a muff? Lol
I’m running humbuckers(85/15) into a clean fender (HRD)
Thanks for reading!
I’ve tried a bunch of Muff pedals and I keep coming back to the EQD Hoof which is a modified Russian Muff with a shift knob that allows you to dial back in more mids. I find that it cleans up nicely when I roll back the volume on any of my guitars.
You might want to look at the DOD carcosa which can do muff like tones but also offers a much wider range of fuzz tones.
Your fuzz face would probably accomplish what you’re doing better if you used single coils. Rolling off the volume on a strat plugged into a FF is one of those classic tones.
Pushing a Muff with a TS pedal is a well known trick but I think I’ve read about it being used more for solos? I think you could get it to work for “cleaner” parts too.
Yea, I got the fuzz face, torn, cause most the stuff I listen to is that classic fuzz face tone, but I knew I was lacking the single coil mojo…so I got the hizumitas for cheap, on a whim just incase. I’m glad I did, cause I think I really like the muff sound for my very small fuzz needs.
The fuzz face (ge sunface clone) is awesome, and I love what it does completely cleaned up, sparkly highs, but in my set up, it’s very ice pick, and hard to tame. It’s either full fuzz, or full clean. It’s more of a clean/treble booster, and sort of redundant for me in my chain.
The hoof, AND cloven hoof look great and I’m leaning towards hoof or just a green russian RI.
I was going going to grab the carcosa as my first fuzz, but ended up skipping it, not sure why tbh…maybe some complaints about noise floor? I am gonna revisit that I think.
In all honesty, I’m regretting even going on this venture…especially that I don’t venture too far past low gain lol. But I guess I’m a damn cork sniffing tone snob. I can’t write A+ songs, or be in a great band…so might as well get my tone right lol.
I appreciate your help.
Hey cool, I get to be your sanity check!
I went up and down the list and settled on a simple op amp muff with my other stupid expensive pedals. Having been through most of the circuits I can tell you it’s a staple and pairs AMAZING front and back with that ts9, but which one was trial and error till I realized which type I was after. It’s a lot less sensitive to chain position too, so lots of other circuits paired will get you to some familiar places. Even the simple one knob+compression walrus contraband has a ton of tricks with your buckers.
If you love it, the best no expenses spared fuzz in a long history of trades I had was a black arts pharaoh (or super pharaoh? I can’t remember it was green), but it’s just extra range, pretty much every muff will get as gnarly as you want, and all of them cleaned up well on my fender twin clone. I like the rams head circuit a ton too.
Oh I’m losing my mind. Should have just never gotten a fuzz lol. And you have completely muddied my waters!!! 😜
In my research for “low gain muff”, the Pharoah keeps resurfacing. Might be telling me something.
I remember in a blind shoot out YT demo, I ended up choosing OP amp RI, and green russian RI. But tbf, most demos I’ve seen don’t really reign the muffs in, and fuzz seems hard to communicate over YT.
Everything I’ve read about this is telling me green russian. Now you come with your op amp! Damn you.
The more I research, the more my sanity slips. Perhaps this would be a great time to abuse the hell out of Amazon/sweetwater return policies lol. Ugh.
I mean my first was a biyang with a choice of diodes. Start cheap for sampling, I’d go crazy with it if you love the circuit.
I just got don’t messing around and I think I’m just gonna forget this ever happened!
I was going nuts over my dirt section the last week or so. I just took the fuzz face and klone off, and slid hizumitas towards the front and a good old ts9, and I’m actually quite happy with how it sounds now. I’m thinking about forgoing my compressor completely too. 🤔 oh lord.
My dirt now goes ego comp > phaser > ts9 > hizumitas > lightspeed > (saturation side of deco later down the line)
Now I’ll go crazy about “upgrading” my tube screamer, im sure 🤣
I know this (and the rearranged my chain feeling) too well.
It’s downhill since it’s heydey, but reverb.com was decent for used and flipping pedals, and buying used. most of the circuits have indie or Chinese makers you can get cheap AF. You might be able to find a devi circuit doing the same thing for cheap, not sure where those are at in terms of popularity. I really dug a lot of those.
If you grab cheap pedals to pick which circuits hauk those on reverb, buy used good versions of those around I ended up making beer money out of it just as various things went out of production. I haven’t followed the habit, so I don’t know the musicians are swapping gear, but they are somewhere. trading is the way I got to see damn near everything.
Likewise,I went crazy with ts9s loved the pallisades for ts9s, but I don’t even have one on my board now and I’d grab a modded ts9dx if I were to pick one up. Some sounds are better from 60$ pedals.
This can totally backfire by the way, I have a tonal recall for the same reasons.
So far in my pedal journey I’ve had 1 complete board, then I followed a 1 in 1 out policy to upgrade everything via reverb, while also trying out as many cheap clones of dirt pedals as I could. I’ve been playing forever, and I know what I wanna do, just slowly finding the right stuff, cause only been doing the pedal thing for like 1.5 years now (:
Ts9 was maybe my first pedal, and i ended up taking it off while trying other stuff. I’ve just come full circle and put it back on, and i missed it. It does just what I need atm. I get why it’s gets tiresome. It can hurt my ears, it hits that frequency for me, but I’m mostly writing now, so it’s a perfect low gainer for cutting thru over my progressions.
Thanks for you help!
You could try measuring the resistance of your volume pot at your preferred setting, and then hard wiring and input resistor of that value into a big muff so its always seeing that resistance.
Or, solder in a trimpot at the input so you can adjust it and find the right setting (you could also return it to “stock” by maxing out the trim pot).
The Hizumitas is a pretty desirable pedal, so I wouldn’t do it on that one. Maybe pickup a cheap EHX big muff RI and start mucking about with one of those.
Whoa cool. Bookmarked. Thanks.
I really dig the hizumitas, and not I kinda have everything set around it’s use, and my volume knob, even though I don’t use it that often, still worth the hassle…but this is great info.
