Guitar Nerds Anonymous

I can’t get on with Muffs. So mooshy, no body. Unless you have them set unfeasibly loud so that they literally drown out every thing else in a mix, I find the effect of stepping on one is of a volume drop.

I only recently got a Rat as well. Was just curious to try it. It does great 80s metal sounds and I can get a passable Iommi impression out of it too. You have to keep the filter cranked to tame the high end or it just fizzes out.

My old bandmate in my teen band loved his Rat, I preferred my Guv'nor cuz it sounded a bit more like an amp... He managed to tame his Rat pretty well, he could get it to sound really good whereas it always sounded shit for me... And totally with you on the Muff... There's a Muff circuit on one side of my Seaweed Fuzz, it has a mid boost that makes it sound even more shit... I only ever use the Tonebender side anyway...

I've never had a Fuzz Face, think that will be my next fuzz purchase...

Me too man! I currently have six fuzzes (i think?) and none of them really hit the spot for me.

1. Fuzz Factory; Insane. Brilliant for glitchy farty ripping velco and unstable modulating synth-like parps. Not so great for rockin' riffage.
   
2. ToneBender MkII clone. More like an insane always full-on distortion. Not a fan.
   
3. DOD Classic Fuzz. JS likes it but I' haven't found much of a use for it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpJiyd229Ak
   
   
4. JOYO Voodoo Octave Fuzz. Cheap and cheerful fun. Better sounding than it has a right to be. Lent it to a mate who likes it on bass.
   
5. EH Triangle Muff RI. Bought off Breference recently. Still playing with it. Possible sludgey win but not really what I'm into tbh.
   
6. Dano Fuzz. apparently based on a Frantone Peachfuzz. I never really liked it much tbh. Harsh and gritty.
   
   

I really want to get try a good tonebender clone and a good fuzzface.

Just saw this dude. Can't you raise the neck pickup? It's normal for the bridge to be higher outlut than the neck on a tele but if it's really badly out of useable balance there's not much you can do about altering output other than changing PU height.

I have an EH Big Muff with tone wicker. I hate it. I can’t get it to sound anything like my favourite recordings at all. It’s just muddy.

I did just get the Behringer SF300 in the post this morning which I can’t wait to use tonight.

For the record, I’m fully aware of the Behringer controversy and I wouldn’t normally buy their stuff but this pedal was £11 on eBay. That’s okay isn’t it?

I don't worry too much about it. They clone circuits, but so does everybody these days. You're buying far more than the circuit when you buy a pedal. It's not like they're actually competing with the OG manufacturers or high end... or even mid-market stuff. It's basically disposable at that price and quality. I see it as an affordable way for people to try stuff. There's something gross and late capitalism about the disposable consumer culture there that's a bit uncomfortable... but I can't get arsey with someone with no budget who wants to try out a sound by dropping £20 on a plastic pedal.

I was dirt fucking poor for most of my adult life, spent in London trying to be a musician. Behringer stuff got pressed into service plenty of times when I had no chance of being able to afford much else.

I paid £9 for a very disappointing crab sandwich and a lemon San Pellegrino in Wales last weekend. Weird and awesome that I could have had a fuzz pedal instead.

JHS ep on Behringer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApJZa8yCMCQ&t=664s
The SF300 bit is at about 20mins.

They clone a lot of old stuff (no issue with that) but they also clone a lot of current production stuff, including stuff that they know the company whose IP they’re stealing isn’t going to sue them over because they’re too small and Behringer have infinite money for a legal fight. B can make stuff cheap not only because of economies of scale but because someone else does the R&D for them. They’re basically parasites.

But there’s plenty worse stuff than that on their rap book, if you Google for 5 seconds. Ad hominem attacks, bullying, antisemitism, promising to donate loads of synths to disadvantaged children that never materialised, etc.

https://youtu.be/p5RSIWbZ6Vc

Tl;dr: fuck Behringer. But I don’t blame anyone for buying their stuff, because it is really, really, cheap.

I would (and have) bought Korg synth reissues over the behringer versions but I’m not going to say no to a £200 minimoog!

I had a Rat of indeterminate age back in the day. In front of my JCM800 - I had the regular channel turned up to crunch and used it instead of the boost. I thought it was rad at the time. Soooo long ago though.

Never got on with the Tubescreamer. Marshall Guv'nor was aces.

Their replicas vary in quality. Eg their 606 is way off, their 808 really doesn’t sound like an 808 and their 303 needs modding to sound right. But it seems the simpler they are, the more likely they are to nail it, the Model D sounds very good and their Pro-One clone is actually excellent.

I justified the purchase in my head as the money wasn’t going into Behringer’s pocket. That being said, the pedal is really fun and way better than big muff.

Next on my list is an overdrive. I think I want a bd2 style. A lot pop up on eBay as well as EHX Soul Food which is supposedly a clone.

I had a Rat of indeterminate age back in the day. In front of my JCM800 - I had the regular channel turned up to crunch and used it instead of the boost. I thought it was rad at the time.

This is where muffs shine too. JCM800s (or equivalent big old Orange / Matamp / Laney / Sunn etc) on a crunchy setting, using the rat / muff to push it up to distortion. Mix with heavy strings and detuned guitars for maximum doom. You can hang on a single note for ages, which is why I think those stoner guys love the combo so much.

It took three fucking attempts by three different luthiers but my strange little electric mandolin is finally intonating properly and sounding fucking great... Not sure how much use it's gonna get but at least it works, guess I should learn to play it properly now!

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Interesting vid. I wasn't aware of the aggressive lawsuit history, bullying and copying of current products. Assholes.

I just think Uli B is one of those guys who is capable of being hyper-focused on building a hugely successful, complex business but can't help but be a dickhead, sadly. The Deepmind synth was really interesting because while it was originally based on the Juno design, they did so much more with it, they did some actual product development on it. I think a lot of people (myself included) gave them a lot of credit for that and it looked like it was going to be a sign of things to come. But it's looking more and more like an anomaly.

You should buy a banjo. Or a bouzouki.

Invent fuzz folk.

??

Profit.

Current project https://youtu.be/DY67qcSWC2M

We already did fuzz folk!! This is me in Zero Willpower on vocals and fuzz mando...

I've wanted a banjo for thirty years, it's on the list...

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That’s great!

Current project https://youtu.be/DY67qcSWC2M

Thought that was you initially. That strat sounds great. Nice to hear some Hendrix rhythm playing.

Stage one complete, might order the baritone neck this weekend... Indonesian Squier Classic Vibe JM, the pickups sounded piss weak in the shop but they sound good through my 80s Super Champ, so potentially less money to spend on upgrades!

I think it's quite handsome, will probably only change the scratchplate... Cheap as chips, A$666(+3)...

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That looks cool, you’re not helping my JM GAS. Quite like the red tort, what are you thinking?

Fuzz mandolin sounded awesome btw.

Just ordered the neck from Sweetwater (!), went with maple for a change (and because that was all that was available)... It's gonna look great with a white scratchplate, like a doom indie Hendrix at Woodstock... Kinda... Maybe... But with a fat bald guy playing it... Badly... 😂

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The Classic Vibes are so bloody cheap, nicely put together guitars too, perfect for a project build... If I was buying a JM proper I would probably nab the Mexican model at least, I did have a go on the triple P90 MIM JM in the shop which was kinda fun but ludicrous... Cheap guitars are so fun...