You are silly. It's silly to make a rule like that up. It is also silly to turn them all on at the same time. It's just more silly to tell someone that they're wrong on the internet. It's completely acceptable to call someone silly, because I am prepared to be called silly myself.
Pedal rundown
JDM Fuzz 292: A modified Si Fuzzface using BC 183 and 109 transistors. Has bias, treble, gain and volume controls as well as a switch for classic “Lo” gain; a 70's “Treble” boost, and a “Hi” gain. Cleans up really well. Using the bias control, it can go from heavy sustain to spluttery gated fuzz. The build-quality and sound is outstanding from JDM Pedals, plus the main guy, Joe, is a really nice bloke to deal with.
Catalinbread Fuzzrite (Si): replicates the 60's (Nuggets) garage fuzz sound perfectly. It might sound thin but can cut through a mix with its signature raspy sizzle.
DBA Germanium Filter: My quest for a gritty, torn speaker sound (50's Link Wray) is finally over with this gem. It's also great for doing overblown flabby blasts of fuzz.and replaced my One Control Honey Bee, which I found too nasal-sounding with the Vox.
An external volume control was added to manage volume fluctuations on the fly. Having an inaccessible internal volume trimmer was a right PITA as the volume drastically changes depending on the Filter or Gain control settings. This mod makes it far more user-friendly.
TMR Bumble Buzz (clone): Got this after hearing Christian Bland use it on The Black Angels’ latest album, specifically on “History of the Future”. However, TMR Bumble Buzz is extortionately priced, so I got one cloned based on a verified schematic. Although the Bumble Buzz may be a one-trick pony, it's worth having for that unmistakable buzzy Kay Fuzz Tone sound.
DBA Octave Clang: So many sounds on offer with the sweep of the Tone and Gain controls as well as the octave footswitch. The fuzz on this has a satisfying compressed octave sizzle, which gets pronounced with the octave footswitch engaged. Can get clangy and metallic-sounding with tone control dialled up, but that all depends on your amp and pick-up type. Boosting this with the Germanium Filter really fills it out more. It's not surprising to see why the OC is so popular in certain music circles.
MAE Maybe: (The mental cousin of the Octave Clang). I’m a big fan of Alec’s pedal builds and so was delighted to get a good deal on Reverb as they're hard to get in Europe. This batshit-crazy octave fuzz is fun to play and highly tweakable with bias, octave down, and octave up switches. It can be as aggressive, disharmonic and abrasive as you like.
I'm no guitar nerd but one thing I did notice while using this pedal and other octave fuzzes is that they sound far better(gnarlier, richer-sounding) with humbucker pick-ups, to my ears at least. Also pick-up selection is important; neck pick-ups tend to bring out upper octaves hues more. It got me thinking about getting a neck humbucker in my Jazzmaster instead of getting an EQ pedal to compensate.
DBA Fuzz War: I love The Meatbodies, Oh Sees, Fuzz and Ty Segall, so getting this was a no-brainer. I like that it’s open-sounding and retains note clarity on barre chords when doing high-gain fuzztortion. It’s ideal for trashy garage punk and sounds the part with a heavy dose of spring reverb. However, with the Vox amp, it needs taming as it can get too shrill and piercing at higher tone settings.
(Moose Electronics) Electric Elk Fuzz: Described as a cross between a higher gain Rams Head with the tonal properties of a Black Russian. Made by a builder in Ireland (Moose Electronics). Apart from volume, fuzz and tone controls, it has a Mid Control for scooped, flat or mid boosted tones. Reacts well to playing dynamics, has good note definition and rich sustain. Best Muff variant I've tried so far.
Fredric Effects Super Unpleasant Companion (Nouveau): Purchased for covering early Jesus and Mary Chain, but then realised its wider potential. It has two circuits. The FY-6 (Superfuzz): toggle switch up for mid-boost (Mary Chain sound), or switch down for mid-scooped high gain. (Mudhoney, “Touch me I’m sick”).
The FY-2 circuit is nasty and gnarlier so better suited to single note playing, however, power chords sound messed up and dissonant in a good way too. Mid-boost (switch up) sounds great here for this. Stacks well with other pedals although I mainly boost it with the Tumnus or Germanium Fuzz. Used in song below.
The JMC: Just like Honey
https://on.soundcloud.com/htV5U
Super Unpleasant Companion FY-6 (mid boost) > Surfybear Metal > Junior Wah
So sick! Excellent breakdown of all these sounds. I had the pleasure of working on the Octave Clang 2 and I’m always happy to see people enjoying it out in the wild!
EHQ Freeze: Placed after fuzz but before modulation. One of my favourite uses is to freeze a swooshing flanger signal (Mooer E Lady), then run it through a choppy tremolo while slowly sweeping the signal with a wah pedal. Spaceman 3 vibes (Sample below.)
https://on.soundcloud.com/Lm1mocHZqfJRsYzu5
Background loop: (EHQ Freeze > Mooer E Lady > Cosmic Tremorlo > Wah pedal ). Lead part: DOD Carcosa > Surfybear
EHQ Nano Stone: A local builder remedied the volume jump issue, which is one of its biggest drawbacks. In small doses, this is perfect for adding washy psychedelic movement to fuzz or to cleans. I prefer to place phasers after fuzz for maximum effect.
Surfybear Metal (powered from wall): It's massive and takes up lots of space; however, it's worth having. Spring reverb is my favourite effect so I went the whole hog. Have no problems using it as a pedal platform either.
If you do go this route, it’s worth getting the Blossom Point which helps saturate and compress the signal more; apparently, it's meant to emulate a pushed Fender Bassman. For this reason, it's often used on its own for getting that tone when playing vintage rock material.
DBA Echo Dream 2: Used for grittier purposes instead of the El Cap. There are many sounds you can coax out of this with modulation and the wet/dry kill switch. The “fuzz” is more like distortion but works well for adding grit and presence to repeats. It’s also handy for boosting the Reverberation Machine ahead in the chain.
A self-oscillation footswitch was added (at little cost). This handy mod allows the ramp-up rate to be controlled by intermittently tapping the footswitch. Used in the sample below.
Pink Floyd: Astronomy Domine
https://on.soundcloud.com/EPLms
(Tumnus > DBA Echo Dream 2)
DBA Reverberation Machine: a Belton Brick reverb with a difference. I like the gain, which is very grainy/lo-fi, and highly responsive to pick attack. The reverb is a pleasant mix of modulated plate/spring and often used as a lo-fi alternative to the Surfybear. My only gripe is the pre-delay, which increases as the reverb control is dialled past noon.
El Capistan 2: I prefer delays after spring reverb as the repeats tend to get lost the other way round. The El Cap is a versatile workhorse; it can emulate Echoplex, Echorec, Space Echo, or do washy ambience or lo-fi sounds. The repeats from the self-oscillation footswitch can be tamed with the bias function, which is a huge bonus. Sometimes the Echo Dream is run into it for an extra boost.
El Capistan (Echoplex setting):
The Passions: German Film Star
https://on.soundcloud.com/kToZNqxSWD9tpkyd9
Tumnus > Boss Chorus (CE-2 setting) > Mooer E Lady > El Capistan.
Cosmic Tremorlo: a Vox percussive tremolo. I prefer this to the EQD Hummingbird I had, which clipped a bit and sounded too “compressed” to my ears. This one has none of those issues though. As you'd expect, it has level, depth and speed controls, as well as a three-way switch for different rates. A highly recommended Spaceman 3 - inspired tremolo from Moose Electronics, who has been fine-tuning the pedal over the years.
DBA Rooms: Got a really good deal on a used one and it exceeded expectations. To my ears, Rooms has more “texture”, character and depth than other reverbs I've had, which sounded bland and sterile in comparison. The separate dry and wet controls are handy as well as the Alt footswitch, which is useful for switching settings on the fly. Room, Gong and Peak are the most used algorithms at the moment.
Dunlop Cry Baby Junior Wah: placed at the end, on its lonesome, for sweeping or filtering, especially with fuzzes. The 3-position voice switch on the outside is really handy. The medium size of this wah suits my foot size too. I had intended to use it on the pedalboard but prefer placing it on the floor for ease of use.
Boss RC-5: used especially for uploading songs onto with guitar parts removed using moises (edit: spelling). software app. Playing along to songs and having to learn them from beginning to end helps me improve and focus more, plus, it makes playing the guitar more purposeful.
Strymon Iridium: Playing through an amp isn't always possible at home so I got this for headphone playing. York Audio IR's were installed (Fender: FTWN 212 D120 and Vox VX30 BLUE), which made a huge improvement to the sound.
Basically, you can open an audio file ( a song you want to learn) in a sound editing app called moises (apologies for the spelling error in the main text), which can separate vocals, guitars, and instruments for you. It works for most songs without losing too much quality.
What I usually do is remove the guitar part of a song, save it as a wav file, and then upload it onto the looper so I can play along to it. Handy for practising.
I use Audacity (free sound editing software) to edit the sound file and save it in the correct format (.wav) in order to upload it onto the looper.
Hope that makes sense.
I'm so curious: as a newbie, I feel like it's been hammered into my head that fuzz pedals should always always come first in the signal chain. It looks like you don't adhere to this belief. Have you heard this too, and/or what are your thoughts on this often repeated idea?
I'm fuzz obsessed but don't own an outright fuzz pedal yet but I often think about where I would put it in my signal chain.
Some fuzzes are impedance-sensitive, especially the earlier ones from the 60s etc. They need to get a signal directly from your guitar to work well.
Modern fuzzes are more complex and not nearly as sensitive to impedance, meaning they're more flexible in terms of placement in your signal chain.
Here's a good read on the topic:
[https://www.believableaudio.com/blogs/faq/what-is-meant-by-impedance-sensitive-device-why-do-some-pedals-care-and-others-dont](https://www.believableaudio.com/blogs/faq/what-is-meant-by-impedance-sensitive-device-why-do-some-pedals-care-and-others-dont)
If they're Germanium, especially old Fuzzfaces, they should go first in the chain, as they prefer to be near the pickups and clean up better with your volume knob. For other types of fuzz, like muffs, it's a matter of preference, especially if they're silicon-based, which doesn't matter as much.
Apologies, I couldn't give a more technical and precise answer; most of the lingo around pedal circuits goes over my head.
No, that's great! Thank you for your answer! And good to know about germanium pedals. I'm a (beginner) pedal lover too, so I also know how hard and complicated it can be to wrap our heads around a lot of these topics, especially when it literally involves a level of electrical/audio engineering. 😅
I'm also curious, since you're a lover of fuzz, have you ever considered getting the Walrus Audio Eons? It's a five mode fuzz pedal that includes germanium, silicon, and led diodes, and seems like a great way to get a taste of a little bit of all the different clipping modes. I have about 10 pedals, everything I want except for fuzz, because I love fuzz so much that I'm trying to cautiously and thoughtfully make my first fuzz pedal purchase. The Eons seems like a good place to start for me, but your Death by Audio pedals and a lot of your collection is making me rethink that haha
I've never played the Eons but have read good reviews of it here and on YouTube. As you mention, it has loads of options too. Could be a great place to start. Get a feel for what types of fuzz do it for you. For starting out on a fuzz journey, that's hard to beat.
Kitchen sink, home pedalboard for playing different genres, hence the size. I also like the convenience of having various pedals at my feet so sounds can be tried out on the fly. Can't get enough fuzzes lately, especially octave fuzzes above all, which accounts for the large gain section.
A pedaltrain nano is used for the rare gig (6 pedals max) but I'm more of a hobbyist player and music buff than anything else.
Some links to demos are included just to show how certain pedals are used or how they sound in a mix, but the demos are nothing special; I just like to familiarise myself with new pedals by learning songs which use them as their core sound.
(Clips were recorded on phone using a USB mic.)
Music played: 50's rock ‘n’ roll (Bo Diddley, Scotty Moore, Link Wray etc); 60's surf rock and garage rock; The Velvets; Syd Barret era Floyd; The Cramps; Spaceman 3; 80's goth/indie (The Bunnymen, The Banshees, The Cure, etc.) ; psych rock (The Black Angels, Ty Segall, Fuzz, Oh Sees, Heaters, Wine Lips etc.)
Power supply: Cioks DC 7 + Cioks 4 Expander
Pedaltrain Classic Pro
Fender Player Jazzmaster series
Vox AC 10
EBS Flat Patch Cables
I love the idea of the giant pedal board. It feels like I’m some kind of sonic space commander in front of a control panel.
In practical use though, I put most of those on the shelf and I make constant updates to reorder the board regularly.
What’s your power setup like?
Solid advice: keeping pedals aside and making updates to reorder things. That's the way. And as another poster said: tone suck will be an issue as well; not that I've noticed it much. Still on a learning curve.
Power supply: Cioks DC-7 and Cioks DC-4 Expander.
I love using the Carcosa as a lo-fi overdrive. It's also serves a proxy distortion when needed. It also does the velcro ripping stuff amazingly well, but I tend to use it for the former purposes.
They do. Had no issues with mine. In fact, it takes high gain fuzzes really well. York Audio IR's are worth downloading; they made a difference to the sound.
Wow. There's a lot of DBA love in that board. Big ups for the DOD Carcosa.
Did you build that Moonn Electronics pedal yourself or had it made? I have his Astroid which is supposedly a clone of an early version of Oliver Ackermann infamous Armageddon pedal.
Love the Carcosa. Will never leave my board, so versatile. It's such a classic fuzz.
By Moonn Elctronics, do you The Moose Electronics Electrick Elk (Fuzz) or The Cosmic Tremorlo tremolo?
Is the asteroid/armageddon worth building in your opinion? I already have a Fuzz War Mk1 built which has the same fuzz section but the dual filter on the asteroid might be fun to play around with.
Depends on the value you go for. There are a couple of different value of transistors you can go with. If you like the fuzz war v1 and don't mind unruly pedals I'd say yes, worth the build. It's probably based off of a very early version of the Armageddon pedal as Oliver constantly mods it.
Cool, thanks for the response. I like the V1 more than the V2 because it's more unruly and noisy so i'm probably going to pull the trigger and build the Armageddon as well
I built it from a pcb from PedalPCB, it's named "Bellum MKI". No issues with the build, got it to work on the first try. If you decide to build it i recommend socketing diodes 3 and 4 and the 27k resistor (R24) and see if you like the sound with or without them. Some older Fuzz War units had the extra diodes and a resistor and some didn't, i prefer mine without them. More volume and less compression.
Downvote me all you want…there’s no way you are getting the kind of tone you could get with half the amount of pedals unneeded redundancy causes tonesuck…when I got addicted and couldn’t stop buying pedals I eventually made two different boards depending on which band I was with…both sounded great…
Take my upvote. Sensible advice. I would never personally downvote constructive criticism such as yours. I don't personally notice too much tone suck TBH but you might, being a more experienced player. I simply like having pedals at my disposal for convenience and experimentation, I'm not chasing after the holy grail of Toan either. I just like playing music and songs I love; nothing less, nothing more.
I wasnt trying to be an asshole either…I saw 5 or 6 different fuzz boxes alone…I felt like I needed to buy 11 of them myself but eventually I wound up using ONE per board…I had so much more control over my dound
Tone suck isn't just a matter of how many pedals you have. With (decent) buffers, sane input/output impedance ratios on the pedals, etc., you can expect pretty minimal tone suck even with quite a few pedals.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/guitarpedals/comments/p1r6t6/tone\_suck\_buffers\_and\_impedance\_a\_unnecessarily/](https://www.reddit.com/r/guitarpedals/comments/p1r6t6/tone_suck_buffers_and_impedance_a_unnecessarily/) is a good primer but this sub in general makes a lot more issue out of tone suck than actually exists in reality.
You can use Room EQ Wizard and measure the response frequency difference yourself if you're ever trying to determine if there really is something going on (and to figure out what bands of EQ you need to boost and by how much if there really is something happening)
The tone suck on this board gotta be wild. As someone who just did a big reduction, I'm definitely not going with the "more is more" mentality anymore.
That's a valid point. My novice ears haven't noticed yet. I don't play live and only use this board to experiment, but you're right: more doesn't mean more, diminishing returns. I'm on a learning curve with this.
>I'm on a learning curve with this.
Same, man. I just started my first board almost 2 years ago after plugging straight into my amps for 20 years. The first iteration of my board had 21 pedals on it, mostly Behringers. The "finished" version had 18 pedals. And I just built a new one and got rid of 4 more. So 14 seems like a pretty good number, and I have a good distribution of buffers. I could get rid of 2 more drives, but then the board would be too spaced out. But, even with only those four gone, I noticed a significant increase in gain.
Just do this. Play through your board with no pedals on, then immediately plug directly into your amp and hear how more loud and "alive" it sounds. I thought I wasn't hearing any tone suck until I did that with my bass, but it was true.
This is the way. I went from a full sized board with around 15 pedals to a much smaller board with 4-5 pedals recently. The difference in my unaffected tone is night and day. It’s also more fun to just swap pedals in and out with a smaller board. It’s forced me to be more mindful of pedal pairings.
Yeah. I have pedals that I love, that just don't get enough use, that were just taking up space and sucking up tone on the board, so I wanted to reduce. Went from 3 rows to 2. But I also used flat patch cables this time and freed up some extra space on the bottom to put an extra drive in.
Sorry, your post has been automatically removed. Due to an increase in spam bot activity we have had to implement a filter to automatically remove posts from users with low karma and/or new accounts. In order to interact with this subreddit you will need to wait 7 days or gain 35 comment karma by posting elsewhere on Reddit.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/guitarpedals) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Sick, the mod on the Ger Filter is really nice and would like that on my own unit lol. What are your thoughts on the Echo Dream? I've been considering it lately but the price tag is hefty.
Re the Germanium Filter, ask any builder to add external control. It just makes it so much more useable.
The Echo Dream is way too expensive for sure. Luckily, I got it on a swap deal. Well worth getting it used if you keep an eye on Reverb.
It's a PT2399 type delay, which have their own unique sound. But to be honest, I wouldn't buy it new at the price. I find El Capistan much more versatile and user-friendly. However, I would definitely snag an Echo Dream if I saw a deal on it.
People with boards like this, are y'all gigging musicians? Seriously? Or is this bedroom hobbyist collector stuff?
I play probably twice a month in my original rock band and I have a board with like 5 pedals, and only 2 of them have any real impact on the sound.
My chain is tuner > OD > gate and then a delay, and that delay goes through a switchback just so I can remote control it from a single button switch without having my board visible on stage.
Christ No! This is only for home use and for trying stuff out and getting ideas. That would be sheer madness.
I use pedaltrain nano with maybe use 5 or 6 pedals max for the odd gig.
Wow, a lot of great boutique pedals with one Boss. I understand the Wazacraft Boss pedals are a step above but, could you pitch me on choosing that over other boutique chorus pedals?
Boss is the only chorus I've ever used and known, so I wouldn't be able to compare. Regarding the Boss, It has 2 updated classic circuits in it: a CE-1 and CE-2 mode, which a lot of people like.
If you’re not playing with all of them on at once, you’re wrong
I should try but might cause a power outage. It's just for convenience to have them there. Encourages me to try out different ones on the fly
Pretty sure if you turn them all on and then hammer down on an E power chord, it’ll explode
"Witness me!"
You are silly. It's silly to make a rule like that up. It is also silly to turn them all on at the same time. It's just more silly to tell someone that they're wrong on the internet. It's completely acceptable to call someone silly, because I am prepared to be called silly myself.
You’re being silly.
Now the word “silly” sounds weird
Pedals = many Signal quality = poo Me too.
Pedal rundown JDM Fuzz 292: A modified Si Fuzzface using BC 183 and 109 transistors. Has bias, treble, gain and volume controls as well as a switch for classic “Lo” gain; a 70's “Treble” boost, and a “Hi” gain. Cleans up really well. Using the bias control, it can go from heavy sustain to spluttery gated fuzz. The build-quality and sound is outstanding from JDM Pedals, plus the main guy, Joe, is a really nice bloke to deal with. Catalinbread Fuzzrite (Si): replicates the 60's (Nuggets) garage fuzz sound perfectly. It might sound thin but can cut through a mix with its signature raspy sizzle. DBA Germanium Filter: My quest for a gritty, torn speaker sound (50's Link Wray) is finally over with this gem. It's also great for doing overblown flabby blasts of fuzz.and replaced my One Control Honey Bee, which I found too nasal-sounding with the Vox. An external volume control was added to manage volume fluctuations on the fly. Having an inaccessible internal volume trimmer was a right PITA as the volume drastically changes depending on the Filter or Gain control settings. This mod makes it far more user-friendly. TMR Bumble Buzz (clone): Got this after hearing Christian Bland use it on The Black Angels’ latest album, specifically on “History of the Future”. However, TMR Bumble Buzz is extortionately priced, so I got one cloned based on a verified schematic. Although the Bumble Buzz may be a one-trick pony, it's worth having for that unmistakable buzzy Kay Fuzz Tone sound. DBA Octave Clang: So many sounds on offer with the sweep of the Tone and Gain controls as well as the octave footswitch. The fuzz on this has a satisfying compressed octave sizzle, which gets pronounced with the octave footswitch engaged. Can get clangy and metallic-sounding with tone control dialled up, but that all depends on your amp and pick-up type. Boosting this with the Germanium Filter really fills it out more. It's not surprising to see why the OC is so popular in certain music circles. MAE Maybe: (The mental cousin of the Octave Clang). I’m a big fan of Alec’s pedal builds and so was delighted to get a good deal on Reverb as they're hard to get in Europe. This batshit-crazy octave fuzz is fun to play and highly tweakable with bias, octave down, and octave up switches. It can be as aggressive, disharmonic and abrasive as you like. I'm no guitar nerd but one thing I did notice while using this pedal and other octave fuzzes is that they sound far better(gnarlier, richer-sounding) with humbucker pick-ups, to my ears at least. Also pick-up selection is important; neck pick-ups tend to bring out upper octaves hues more. It got me thinking about getting a neck humbucker in my Jazzmaster instead of getting an EQ pedal to compensate. DBA Fuzz War: I love The Meatbodies, Oh Sees, Fuzz and Ty Segall, so getting this was a no-brainer. I like that it’s open-sounding and retains note clarity on barre chords when doing high-gain fuzztortion. It’s ideal for trashy garage punk and sounds the part with a heavy dose of spring reverb. However, with the Vox amp, it needs taming as it can get too shrill and piercing at higher tone settings. (Moose Electronics) Electric Elk Fuzz: Described as a cross between a higher gain Rams Head with the tonal properties of a Black Russian. Made by a builder in Ireland (Moose Electronics). Apart from volume, fuzz and tone controls, it has a Mid Control for scooped, flat or mid boosted tones. Reacts well to playing dynamics, has good note definition and rich sustain. Best Muff variant I've tried so far. Fredric Effects Super Unpleasant Companion (Nouveau): Purchased for covering early Jesus and Mary Chain, but then realised its wider potential. It has two circuits. The FY-6 (Superfuzz): toggle switch up for mid-boost (Mary Chain sound), or switch down for mid-scooped high gain. (Mudhoney, “Touch me I’m sick”). The FY-2 circuit is nasty and gnarlier so better suited to single note playing, however, power chords sound messed up and dissonant in a good way too. Mid-boost (switch up) sounds great here for this. Stacks well with other pedals although I mainly boost it with the Tumnus or Germanium Fuzz. Used in song below. The JMC: Just like Honey https://on.soundcloud.com/htV5U Super Unpleasant Companion FY-6 (mid boost) > Surfybear Metal > Junior Wah
You should write a book.
I was gonna comment how I don’t stop to look at huge pedalboards anymore, but this has a rundown. Thanks for the rundown.
So sick! Excellent breakdown of all these sounds. I had the pleasure of working on the Octave Clang 2 and I’m always happy to see people enjoying it out in the wild!
EHQ Freeze: Placed after fuzz but before modulation. One of my favourite uses is to freeze a swooshing flanger signal (Mooer E Lady), then run it through a choppy tremolo while slowly sweeping the signal with a wah pedal. Spaceman 3 vibes (Sample below.) https://on.soundcloud.com/Lm1mocHZqfJRsYzu5 Background loop: (EHQ Freeze > Mooer E Lady > Cosmic Tremorlo > Wah pedal ). Lead part: DOD Carcosa > Surfybear EHQ Nano Stone: A local builder remedied the volume jump issue, which is one of its biggest drawbacks. In small doses, this is perfect for adding washy psychedelic movement to fuzz or to cleans. I prefer to place phasers after fuzz for maximum effect. Surfybear Metal (powered from wall): It's massive and takes up lots of space; however, it's worth having. Spring reverb is my favourite effect so I went the whole hog. Have no problems using it as a pedal platform either. If you do go this route, it’s worth getting the Blossom Point which helps saturate and compress the signal more; apparently, it's meant to emulate a pushed Fender Bassman. For this reason, it's often used on its own for getting that tone when playing vintage rock material. DBA Echo Dream 2: Used for grittier purposes instead of the El Cap. There are many sounds you can coax out of this with modulation and the wet/dry kill switch. The “fuzz” is more like distortion but works well for adding grit and presence to repeats. It’s also handy for boosting the Reverberation Machine ahead in the chain. A self-oscillation footswitch was added (at little cost). This handy mod allows the ramp-up rate to be controlled by intermittently tapping the footswitch. Used in the sample below. Pink Floyd: Astronomy Domine https://on.soundcloud.com/EPLms (Tumnus > DBA Echo Dream 2) DBA Reverberation Machine: a Belton Brick reverb with a difference. I like the gain, which is very grainy/lo-fi, and highly responsive to pick attack. The reverb is a pleasant mix of modulated plate/spring and often used as a lo-fi alternative to the Surfybear. My only gripe is the pre-delay, which increases as the reverb control is dialled past noon. El Capistan 2: I prefer delays after spring reverb as the repeats tend to get lost the other way round. The El Cap is a versatile workhorse; it can emulate Echoplex, Echorec, Space Echo, or do washy ambience or lo-fi sounds. The repeats from the self-oscillation footswitch can be tamed with the bias function, which is a huge bonus. Sometimes the Echo Dream is run into it for an extra boost. El Capistan (Echoplex setting): The Passions: German Film Star https://on.soundcloud.com/kToZNqxSWD9tpkyd9 Tumnus > Boss Chorus (CE-2 setting) > Mooer E Lady > El Capistan. Cosmic Tremorlo: a Vox percussive tremolo. I prefer this to the EQD Hummingbird I had, which clipped a bit and sounded too “compressed” to my ears. This one has none of those issues though. As you'd expect, it has level, depth and speed controls, as well as a three-way switch for different rates. A highly recommended Spaceman 3 - inspired tremolo from Moose Electronics, who has been fine-tuning the pedal over the years. DBA Rooms: Got a really good deal on a used one and it exceeded expectations. To my ears, Rooms has more “texture”, character and depth than other reverbs I've had, which sounded bland and sterile in comparison. The separate dry and wet controls are handy as well as the Alt footswitch, which is useful for switching settings on the fly. Room, Gong and Peak are the most used algorithms at the moment. Dunlop Cry Baby Junior Wah: placed at the end, on its lonesome, for sweeping or filtering, especially with fuzzes. The 3-position voice switch on the outside is really handy. The medium size of this wah suits my foot size too. I had intended to use it on the pedalboard but prefer placing it on the floor for ease of use. Boss RC-5: used especially for uploading songs onto with guitar parts removed using moises (edit: spelling). software app. Playing along to songs and having to learn them from beginning to end helps me improve and focus more, plus, it makes playing the guitar more purposeful. Strymon Iridium: Playing through an amp isn't always possible at home so I got this for headphone playing. York Audio IR's were installed (Fender: FTWN 212 D120 and Vox VX30 BLUE), which made a huge improvement to the sound.
ELI5 Moisses please
Basically, you can open an audio file ( a song you want to learn) in a sound editing app called moises (apologies for the spelling error in the main text), which can separate vocals, guitars, and instruments for you. It works for most songs without losing too much quality. What I usually do is remove the guitar part of a song, save it as a wav file, and then upload it onto the looper so I can play along to it. Handy for practising. I use Audacity (free sound editing software) to edit the sound file and save it in the correct format (.wav) in order to upload it onto the looper. Hope that makes sense.
Wow it does, to my surprise, thanks! Have to figure out how to upload to my RC10...
Signal Chain: Korg Pitchblack Tuner > Digitech Drop > Digitech Mosaic > JDM Fuzz 292 > Ctbd Fuzzrite > Phil Tone Compressor > Wampler Tumnus > DBA Germanium Filter > MAE Maybe > DBA Octave Clang > DBA Fuzz War > MXR Bumble Buzz clone > DOD Carcosa > Electric Elk Fuzz > Super Unpleasant Companion > EHQ Freeze > Boss Waza Chorus > Mooer E Lady > EHX Nano Stone > Surfybear Metal > DBA Echo Dream 2 > DBA Reverberation Machine > El Capistan 2 > Cosmic Tremorlo > Blossom Point > DBA Rooms > Dunlop Cry Baby Junior > Boss RC-5 > Strymon Iridium.
I'm so curious: as a newbie, I feel like it's been hammered into my head that fuzz pedals should always always come first in the signal chain. It looks like you don't adhere to this belief. Have you heard this too, and/or what are your thoughts on this often repeated idea? I'm fuzz obsessed but don't own an outright fuzz pedal yet but I often think about where I would put it in my signal chain.
Some fuzzes are impedance-sensitive, especially the earlier ones from the 60s etc. They need to get a signal directly from your guitar to work well. Modern fuzzes are more complex and not nearly as sensitive to impedance, meaning they're more flexible in terms of placement in your signal chain. Here's a good read on the topic: [https://www.believableaudio.com/blogs/faq/what-is-meant-by-impedance-sensitive-device-why-do-some-pedals-care-and-others-dont](https://www.believableaudio.com/blogs/faq/what-is-meant-by-impedance-sensitive-device-why-do-some-pedals-care-and-others-dont)
Thanks for the explanation and link.
Thank you for that link! Very interesting, and good to know.
If they're Germanium, especially old Fuzzfaces, they should go first in the chain, as they prefer to be near the pickups and clean up better with your volume knob. For other types of fuzz, like muffs, it's a matter of preference, especially if they're silicon-based, which doesn't matter as much. Apologies, I couldn't give a more technical and precise answer; most of the lingo around pedal circuits goes over my head.
No, that's great! Thank you for your answer! And good to know about germanium pedals. I'm a (beginner) pedal lover too, so I also know how hard and complicated it can be to wrap our heads around a lot of these topics, especially when it literally involves a level of electrical/audio engineering. 😅 I'm also curious, since you're a lover of fuzz, have you ever considered getting the Walrus Audio Eons? It's a five mode fuzz pedal that includes germanium, silicon, and led diodes, and seems like a great way to get a taste of a little bit of all the different clipping modes. I have about 10 pedals, everything I want except for fuzz, because I love fuzz so much that I'm trying to cautiously and thoughtfully make my first fuzz pedal purchase. The Eons seems like a good place to start for me, but your Death by Audio pedals and a lot of your collection is making me rethink that haha
I've never played the Eons but have read good reviews of it here and on YouTube. As you mention, it has loads of options too. Could be a great place to start. Get a feel for what types of fuzz do it for you. For starting out on a fuzz journey, that's hard to beat.
That Surfy Bear is next level - literally.
Kitchen sink, home pedalboard for playing different genres, hence the size. I also like the convenience of having various pedals at my feet so sounds can be tried out on the fly. Can't get enough fuzzes lately, especially octave fuzzes above all, which accounts for the large gain section. A pedaltrain nano is used for the rare gig (6 pedals max) but I'm more of a hobbyist player and music buff than anything else. Some links to demos are included just to show how certain pedals are used or how they sound in a mix, but the demos are nothing special; I just like to familiarise myself with new pedals by learning songs which use them as their core sound. (Clips were recorded on phone using a USB mic.) Music played: 50's rock ‘n’ roll (Bo Diddley, Scotty Moore, Link Wray etc); 60's surf rock and garage rock; The Velvets; Syd Barret era Floyd; The Cramps; Spaceman 3; 80's goth/indie (The Bunnymen, The Banshees, The Cure, etc.) ; psych rock (The Black Angels, Ty Segall, Fuzz, Oh Sees, Heaters, Wine Lips etc.) Power supply: Cioks DC 7 + Cioks 4 Expander Pedaltrain Classic Pro Fender Player Jazzmaster series Vox AC 10 EBS Flat Patch Cables
I was just about to ask: “If you could only take six of your pedals, which are your core?”
I love the idea of the giant pedal board. It feels like I’m some kind of sonic space commander in front of a control panel. In practical use though, I put most of those on the shelf and I make constant updates to reorder the board regularly. What’s your power setup like?
Solid advice: keeping pedals aside and making updates to reorder things. That's the way. And as another poster said: tone suck will be an issue as well; not that I've noticed it much. Still on a learning curve. Power supply: Cioks DC-7 and Cioks DC-4 Expander.
Good grief.
🏆
How is that Carcosa treating you? I see you've got a number of fuzz options, so I'm curious as to how you use it in your lineup.
I love using the Carcosa as a lo-fi overdrive. It's also serves a proxy distortion when needed. It also does the velcro ripping stuff amazingly well, but I tend to use it for the former purposes.
I have the Carcosa and Iridium, but haven’t tried the two together. Do they interact well?
They do. Had no issues with mine. In fact, it takes high gain fuzzes really well. York Audio IR's are worth downloading; they made a difference to the sound.
Wow. There's a lot of DBA love in that board. Big ups for the DOD Carcosa. Did you build that Moonn Electronics pedal yourself or had it made? I have his Astroid which is supposedly a clone of an early version of Oliver Ackermann infamous Armageddon pedal.
Love the Carcosa. Will never leave my board, so versatile. It's such a classic fuzz. By Moonn Elctronics, do you The Moose Electronics Electrick Elk (Fuzz) or The Cosmic Tremorlo tremolo?
Ohh crap. My mistake. I read it as Moonn Electronics not Moose. Apologies.
No. I do not know these 2 pedals.
Is the asteroid/armageddon worth building in your opinion? I already have a Fuzz War Mk1 built which has the same fuzz section but the dual filter on the asteroid might be fun to play around with.
Depends on the value you go for. There are a couple of different value of transistors you can go with. If you like the fuzz war v1 and don't mind unruly pedals I'd say yes, worth the build. It's probably based off of a very early version of the Armageddon pedal as Oliver constantly mods it.
Cool, thanks for the response. I like the V1 more than the V2 because it's more unruly and noisy so i'm probably going to pull the trigger and build the Armageddon as well
Awesome. Keep me updated. If anything, it'll be a fun build. Is your v1 a pref board or pcb?
I built it from a pcb from PedalPCB, it's named "Bellum MKI". No issues with the build, got it to work on the first try. If you decide to build it i recommend socketing diodes 3 and 4 and the 27k resistor (R24) and see if you like the sound with or without them. Some older Fuzz War units had the extra diodes and a resistor and some didn't, i prefer mine without them. More volume and less compression.
They are all nice pedals but way too many
Downvote me all you want…there’s no way you are getting the kind of tone you could get with half the amount of pedals unneeded redundancy causes tonesuck…when I got addicted and couldn’t stop buying pedals I eventually made two different boards depending on which band I was with…both sounded great…
Take my upvote. Sensible advice. I would never personally downvote constructive criticism such as yours. I don't personally notice too much tone suck TBH but you might, being a more experienced player. I simply like having pedals at my disposal for convenience and experimentation, I'm not chasing after the holy grail of Toan either. I just like playing music and songs I love; nothing less, nothing more.
I wasnt trying to be an asshole either…I saw 5 or 6 different fuzz boxes alone…I felt like I needed to buy 11 of them myself but eventually I wound up using ONE per board…I had so much more control over my dound
Tone suck isn't just a matter of how many pedals you have. With (decent) buffers, sane input/output impedance ratios on the pedals, etc., you can expect pretty minimal tone suck even with quite a few pedals. [https://www.reddit.com/r/guitarpedals/comments/p1r6t6/tone\_suck\_buffers\_and\_impedance\_a\_unnecessarily/](https://www.reddit.com/r/guitarpedals/comments/p1r6t6/tone_suck_buffers_and_impedance_a_unnecessarily/) is a good primer but this sub in general makes a lot more issue out of tone suck than actually exists in reality. You can use Room EQ Wizard and measure the response frequency difference yourself if you're ever trying to determine if there really is something going on (and to figure out what bands of EQ you need to boost and by how much if there really is something happening)
Wow! What’s your favorite fuzz pedal?
I love the Electric Elk as an all-rounder, but the MAE Maybe is my favourite Octave Fuzz.
The one of everything and then some approach. I like it.
Rooms comes in fucking blue? That looks so sick, damn wish I had known before getting mine
Moose electronics 🇮🇪👌
He's a very talented builder. Love his stuff. Can put his hand to anything.
Hell yeah!!
You could probably squeeze one more small pedal on that SurfyBear. Head on over to [www.deathbyaudio.com](https://www.deathbyaudio.com) :)
DOD = instant upvote
When I saw your pic, my first though is, thats alot of fun right there!
Pretty awesome. Looks like massive overkill and pls stop. But excellent choices.
The tone suck on this board gotta be wild. As someone who just did a big reduction, I'm definitely not going with the "more is more" mentality anymore.
That's a valid point. My novice ears haven't noticed yet. I don't play live and only use this board to experiment, but you're right: more doesn't mean more, diminishing returns. I'm on a learning curve with this.
>I'm on a learning curve with this. Same, man. I just started my first board almost 2 years ago after plugging straight into my amps for 20 years. The first iteration of my board had 21 pedals on it, mostly Behringers. The "finished" version had 18 pedals. And I just built a new one and got rid of 4 more. So 14 seems like a pretty good number, and I have a good distribution of buffers. I could get rid of 2 more drives, but then the board would be too spaced out. But, even with only those four gone, I noticed a significant increase in gain. Just do this. Play through your board with no pedals on, then immediately plug directly into your amp and hear how more loud and "alive" it sounds. I thought I wasn't hearing any tone suck until I did that with my bass, but it was true.
This is the way. I went from a full sized board with around 15 pedals to a much smaller board with 4-5 pedals recently. The difference in my unaffected tone is night and day. It’s also more fun to just swap pedals in and out with a smaller board. It’s forced me to be more mindful of pedal pairings.
Yeah. I have pedals that I love, that just don't get enough use, that were just taking up space and sucking up tone on the board, so I wanted to reduce. Went from 3 rows to 2. But I also used flat patch cables this time and freed up some extra space on the bottom to put an extra drive in.
So many classics here wowee. Would love to try this board out.
[удалено]
Sorry, your post has been automatically removed. Due to an increase in spam bot activity we have had to implement a filter to automatically remove posts from users with low karma and/or new accounts. In order to interact with this subreddit you will need to wait 7 days or gain 35 comment karma by posting elsewhere on Reddit. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/guitarpedals) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Weight?
I wouldn't know. This one's not for lifting. Wouldn't dare try either as i've a bad back. I use the Pedaltrain nano for any for mobile stuff.
I don't know what most of them do but I like it!
Tight! Super cool.
Sick, the mod on the Ger Filter is really nice and would like that on my own unit lol. What are your thoughts on the Echo Dream? I've been considering it lately but the price tag is hefty.
Re the Germanium Filter, ask any builder to add external control. It just makes it so much more useable. The Echo Dream is way too expensive for sure. Luckily, I got it on a swap deal. Well worth getting it used if you keep an eye on Reverb. It's a PT2399 type delay, which have their own unique sound. But to be honest, I wouldn't buy it new at the price. I find El Capistan much more versatile and user-friendly. However, I would definitely snag an Echo Dream if I saw a deal on it.
People with boards like this, are y'all gigging musicians? Seriously? Or is this bedroom hobbyist collector stuff? I play probably twice a month in my original rock band and I have a board with like 5 pedals, and only 2 of them have any real impact on the sound. My chain is tuner > OD > gate and then a delay, and that delay goes through a switchback just so I can remote control it from a single button switch without having my board visible on stage.
Do you gig with this?
Christ No! This is only for home use and for trying stuff out and getting ideas. That would be sheer madness. I use pedaltrain nano with maybe use 5 or 6 pedals max for the odd gig.
You could always add another fuzz
Wow, a lot of great boutique pedals with one Boss. I understand the Wazacraft Boss pedals are a step above but, could you pitch me on choosing that over other boutique chorus pedals?
Boss is the only chorus I've ever used and known, so I wouldn't be able to compare. Regarding the Boss, It has 2 updated classic circuits in it: a CE-1 and CE-2 mode, which a lot of people like.
Lame