Guitar Nerds Anonymous

My mate and long term musical wife has been playing with an octave fuzz on bass today. See video evidence attached.

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Apparently it’s my super cheapo joyo octave (up) fuzz, my boss octave (down) pedal and a phaser. It’s fucking great!

Syringe full of wood glue and some clamps.

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Is that the Hondo? Good work!

Yeah. Made a little progress.

I think it's time I entered the rabbit hole of effects pedals. I still can't play for shit, but I fancy some new sounds. Current setup is a Fender Strat American Performer HSS (humbucker goodness) and a teeny little Fender practice amp, the sole redeeming feature of which is that it appears not to annoy the neighbours. Not enough to complain about it, anyway.

Suggestions welcome.

Have you got a tuner? My first thought was just buy a cheap multifx unit like this or you could hit gumtree/eBay and pick up a few cheap Behringer pedals, they'll cost you next to nothing, and you can build a little board up...

To go with your tuner I'd recommend an overdrive, maybe a fuzz as well if you're feeling flush, a reverb/delay and for modulation I'd get a Zoom MS70CDR or similar, tons of effects in there, all good quality, hours of fun, cheap as chips used... You'll need a power supply, a One Spot is cheap and will do the job or the Harley Benton PSU from Thomann is great value...

You could actually get that Zoom and be done with it, it's got everything in it apart from distortion/overdrive... It'll definitely let you experiment with tons of sounds so you can figure out what you do and don't like, I've got one I use as a dedicated reverse reverb, cost me fiddy bux... Enjoy!

MS70CDR is a great shout for a first FX pedal because you can try all sorts of stuff and see what you like, and then if you decide you want a nice analogue tremolo or something you can go from there and start shopping around for dedicated stuff.

Overdrive / distortion / fuzz is so personal… I’d suggest trying to find out what players you like are using. Eg is it a light transparent overdrive like a tubescreamer / klon / Timmy or a Blues Driver type thing, or is it more aggro harder distortion like a Rat, or thick mid scooped Big Muff fuzz… you can find reasonably priced clones of all the classic circuits.

Been getting into this guy’s “What If” covers this morning. So much fun when he really starts playing.

https://youtu.be/gA6LmxAYrZ0

In fact if @Brommers got a Zoom MS50G that would have tons of overdrives/distortions in it as well as all kinds of other effects... They do double up a little bit...

I think they've both got tuners in them as well...

https://youtu.be/sNgoUtx0CHA

https://youtu.be/8MALI6CFD0I

Boss OD-200 is a great version of that multi drive idea, pretty much exactly twice the price of the Zoom MS-50G but partially analogue drive circuit and you can stack boost and drive within the one pedal (though you can’t create longer fx chains like the Zoom can).

Sorry this will be very vague but there are some Muff based fuzzes with a mids switch or pot which will probably do the trick for you. Skreddy definitely does some, or you could mod an old school big box muff quite easily!

Also something like a Fuzz Face on steroids like the DAM meathead is a very good sounding stonery fuzz. Again, a few pedal makers make their version. Very simple DIY project too if you’re into that kind of stuff, and you could add a footswitchable pre volume to clean up/open the floodgates as needed...! Few model names and schems/layouts here: http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2013/04/1-knob-fuzz-bonanza.html

@Brommers some gain pedal would be definitely an early purchase in my view, the Mosky Golden Horse off AliX for ~£16 making a VERY strong case for itself, then I’d jump head first into some echo and/or verb, but that’s me. It really depends a lot on what you fancy playing! It’s a great time to be alive in terms of effect pedals as cheap but perfectly fine clones are readily available so with under 100 quid you could put together a very decent little signal chain, which would have been mad only 10 years ago..!

I haven’t been on here in ages... so many amazing new guitars and builds!!! I’m very jealous.

Slightly off topic but not. Have you seen you can hack those zoom pedals to have all the effects across the range? I’ve watched some YouTube’s about it.

there are some Muff based fuzzes with a mids switch or pot which will probably do the trick for you

You can also stack a mid-boosting overdrive pedal like a tubescreamer into a big muff to compensate for that mid scoop.

Ooh, that's cool... I've downloaded all the new presets but that sounds awesome!

This 60 Cycle Hum video has a baritone played through 37 fuzz pedals (in sequence). From memory, a muff sounded best. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z70yNGWGsQ

As Alex said above, a mid control muff would be great. I would definitely buy the Deluxe if I didn't already own several varients. Has an inbuilt noise gate too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdLvka7XP_0

Hondo now has a fixed, smooth and stable neck. The finish looks rough but it feels good. Fretboard has been polished and oiled. Stickers removed and everything cleaned. Replacement knobs ordered, and a nut. The only stumbling block now is a replacement Grover tuner button. Anyone have a spare or know where I can get one the same shape?

This is the headstock before work to show tuner buttons.

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Oh man, I've got a set of Grover knock offs you can have but it'll cost a fortune to even send one... Brilliant job, can't wait to see this finished...

PS Tried this on my Mac earlier but couldn't get it to work with Windows Remote Desktop, annoying!!

Ah man! That does suck. Please tell me your pedal still works.

I did have a heart stopping moment while updating the firmware, it froze halfway through! Started again and it was fine thankfully... I couldn't get the Zoom Effect Manager app to recognise the pedal, everything else worked fine, it was just that last step of getting the sounds into memory that didn't work... I'll try it again at the office on a proper PC...

After ages tweaking the action and relief on my tele last night, finally realised that the sitar-like buzz was emanating from a bridge saddle and not the string on the frets. Looks like the high E has worn a groove in the brass barrel that's causing the zzzzz. Have read a few remedies online and am going to try them today. Failing that it'll be new saddles. Must have put these on in about 2004 so they've done alright really. Considering a refret too now I can get into back into London.

Speaking of London repairs, do you guys have any recommendations for good and not awfully expensive people who'll do a good job on a guitar? My Jazzmaster needs a new nut and action and not sure who to take it to...

Thank you, and to @>>>>>> and @Regal! I've been looking through all kinds of muff clones including that ThorpyFX one and the Pumpkin Pi but I didn't even think to look EHX. That one looks ideal.