Favorite Fuzz Tones

valvenator

curious bystander, serious procrastinator
Since the Rolling Stones released I can't get no Satisfaction on this date in '65 I thought I might ask what are your favorite fuzz tones in a song. I'm not a huge fan of fuzz pedals and never used one (except a Big Muff which I ditched real quick) but in the right context they can really help put a signature sound to a tune.
I'll have to put Satisfaction, The Monkees 'Valerie', and Edwyn Collins 'A Girl Like You' as some of my favorites.
I know Satisfaction was recorded using a Gibson Maestro Fuzz which was originally developed to give Bass Guitar a Baritone Sax sound. No clue on the other two songs.
So, what's some of your favorite Fuzz tone tunes, and if you know, which pedals they used?

edit: maybe I should have titled it Favorite Fuzz Tunes.
 
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Other than Hendrix, My favorite use of fuzz that comes to mind is David Gilmour's tone on Time.

Also really love the fuzz tone on the bass on Beastie Boys - Sabotage
 
Over a few decades I've been through @ least 50 "distortion" devices, from the buzzy fuzz types ala aforementioned Maestro "wedge" that Keef used to achieve the tone on "Satisfaction" to Rat Pro Co and Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamers, and several equipped w/ a 12AX7 for (so-called) "tube gain". Of them all, the only "fuzz" sound I've ever liked, and even then barely, is what I can coax from an early 70s JAX Fuzz-Wah, to the point that I picked up a second in case the first died on me. Cheap old JAX Fuzz-Wah, made in Japan. That's it w/ respect to distortion effects for me. Running my geetars via Ross Compressor out one of my Fender Tweeds or Browns or the Gibson GA-40, I get all of the distortion I want, nicely-shaped "brown sound" via power tube distortion combined w/ the "chime" value that the Ross brings out of every amp, whether a Champ, Deluxe, Super, Twin, or the Gibson. It does s.t. quite different w/ the HIWATT 50 and 100 lead heads into 4x12 Fane cab, but that's a whole 'nuther story.
 
Just the term "fuzz tone" brings to mind McCartney on "Think for Yourself", one of Georges early Beatles songs.
 
:headscrat...no one else can think of a song where FUZZ rules?!

100s of numbers, too many numbers, on LPs released by Psych bands ca '66- '70s. Practically the entire LPs of The Bohemian Vendetta, Golden Dawn, Bobb Trimble, The Bachs, Bent Wind, Zerfas, Open Mind, July, The Plastic Cloud, etc.
 
I'll have to add 'Norman Greenbaum's Spirit in the Sky' and 'A Question of Temperature by Baloon Farm' to the list.
 
And then there's that outfit from Birmigham, um... oh yes: Black Sabbath.

Though Iommi has one of the heaviest guitar sounds in music, as far as I know there is no FUZZ involved, just the man, Gibson SG and Marshall amps, CRANKED!
Bassist Geezer Butler uses Marshalls too, mixed with his bass amps.
 
Back when I started playing a friend let me borrow a FOXX Fuzz/Wah/Volume pedal that he was selling. Recently I found a tape I made of me messing around with it.
I'd made a recording of the Star Spangled Banner and couldn't believe how good the Fuzz sounded! Like an actual tube amp.
At the prices these are going for I'm kicking myself for not buying his. Think I might pick up a DIY kit of the FOXX tone machine just to re-live those memories!
 
Blacksabbath
Rangemaster treble booster
Master volume in a box

Howbout. `my guitar wants to kill u mamma'
Frank zappa
 
Though Iommi has one of the heaviest guitar sounds in music, as far as I know there is no FUZZ involved, just the man, Gibson SG and Marshall amps, CRANKED!
Bassist Geezer Butler uses Marshalls too, mixed with his bass amps.

He used a few different stomp boxes in the 70s, most notably Jax products. Also, his main amps @ stage are a couple o 100w Laney. In the studio he used 50w Orange.
 
More good fuzztones:

Hot Tuna (electric), e.g., studio LPs America's Choice and Yellow Fever.
 
...Steppenwolf, too

Hot damn! I forgot 'The Pusher'. That reverb drenched fuzz is a classic! :thmbsp: (Any idea what pedal was used?)

Jorma Kaukonen's solo on 'Somebody to Love' is another great one.
 
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He used a few different stomp boxes in the 70s, most notably Jax products. Also, his main amps @ stage are a couple o 100w Laney. In the studio he used 50w Orange.

True, I think I confused him (the man, Gibson SG and Marshall amps) with another SG user, Angus Young :D
Though he's more identified with 'Laney', Iommi did use Marshalls for a while. Didn't know about the Orange amps though.

Blacksabbath Rangemaster treble booster Master volume in a box

Does the Rangemaster qualify as an honest Fuzz or just a boost pedal. I've never heard one but I bought a kit from Weber some years back which I never put together. Seems like it got a bad rep online. Guess I'll have to dig it up and mess around with it when things settle down around here.
 
True, I think I confused him (the man, Gibson SG and Marshall amps) with another SG user, Angus Young :D
Though he's more identified with 'Laney', Iommi did use Marshalls for a while. Didn't know about the Orange amps though.



Does the Rangemaster qualify as an honest Fuzz or just a boost pedal. I've never heard one but I bought a kit from Weber some years back which I never put together. Seems like it got a bad rep online. Guess I'll have to dig it up and mess around with it when things settle down around here.

More of a boot, but it does enhance what natural gain is present in the tone chain. Slap it togethr and try it out, can't hurt and the build should be kind of a fun project.
 
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