I wish I could say that I own all these pedals, but one of the Jimis was just visiting from HotBox Studios. So I thought I'd A/B the fuzzes to see how they fared, with and without the Univibe.
Turned up on full fuzz, the Dunlop Hendrix Tribute Fuzz Face is tight and mean, but it really cleans up well when you back off the volume on your guitar. A really, really handy feature. I tried turning the fuzz control down a little but it just wasn't as much fun for me - leave it on full!
And it absolutely sings with its sibling, the Hendrix Tribute Univibe, as you would expect, since they are part of the same series. (Now I need to get my hands on the Tribute wah and Octavio!)
The Big Muff doesn't clean up so well, but basically it says "why the hell do you want to clean up? I am made to destroy ears!"
This it does very well. It has a massive sweep on the tone control, in fact it reminds me of a wah going through its travel rather than a traditional tone pot. ie. it seems to be a sweepable frequency boost rather than a treble bleed. I don't know if that is true, or even if it makes any sense. I work at TurkbyTone Rekkids, not Electro-Harmonix...
Anyway, I thought the Muff was broken for a while - I couldn't get much volume out of it, and it seemed weak and muffled. Today I realised it was just because I had the Sustain turned down. Doh! It doesn't mean sustain, it means Drive! Suddenly that chainsaw buzz was back, and with heaps of volume and edge.
I'd like it to spit a bit more, I like the way you can dial that in on the Red Witch Fuzz God. But apart from that, I'm very happy with its brutish, antisocial grind.
Both of these pedals play well with the Univibe, always sharing their toys and food. Wait, no, I mean, if you pair them with the Univibe they sound awesome. My two favourite uses are: having the Univibe speed set slow with the Vibe button out, for long, drawn-out, feedbacky chords and notes; or setting it fast with the Vibe button engaged, for very weird, disorientating bursts of single notes.
Here's a badly-recorded video clip of the shootout:
Thanks to Ajax MacDeth for the loan of the Fuzz Face (I'm likely to return it any day now...)
Oh, and here's a clip showing the different tones you can get from the Big Muff:
Happy New Year everybody. Next year you'll get another heaping helping of new Bing Turkby Ensemble songs and maybe even a gig or two - imagine that! Until then, check out the ongoing archival project at http://turkby.bandcamp.com - the latest update is Sick Chutney from the futuristic year 2000.
