Got my new fuzz pedal

Well boys and girls, I keep my effects fairly limited but have always wanted a fuzz pedal just 'cause they sound soooo cool. I was working on a customers pedal board and he had a BBE Free Fuzz with a broken switch. So, I fixed the switch and some other issues, and of course, I HAD to test it (at very high volume I might add). Well that got me jonesing for a fuzz.

So, I read Paul's thing on silicon transistors and the old germanium thing. I found the new BBE Windowpane on line on sale and bought the damn thing.

So, I've never had a fuzz before.

When I turn the fuzz all the way down, it's still on fairly strong. Can I not make the fuzz barely audible? It seems with this pedal, it's either in or out of the line. Is that the nature of the beast with this dude? I'm cool with it as I can always just turn it off.

Anyway, I'm stoked and ready to keep the neighbors awake all night if that's what it takes.

Larry

Larry,

I've never experienced a fuzz that could be dialed down like you're describing. Unlike overdrives or distortion pedals, a fuzz works by changing your signal's waveform and then boosting it. Even at low levels, any fuzz I've tried has had some degree of square wave sound - they just lose the boost and some of the harmonic complexity that goes with it. You might be able to get the sound you're after by splitting your signal, running one output clean and the other through the fuzz, and then blending them back together to taste. That's a bassists' trick to deal with the loss of low end that most fuzz or distortion pedals cause.

Ken

Last edited by KenC on Thu Nov 21, 2013 8:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

I just received a new Windowpane too , along with a Blacksmith , two timer , vari comp , tremor , mind bender , sonic stomp (from lunch report thanks Craig), bbe wah and Supa charger ( I need a jacket or something G & L ??, hint hint )..... in the process of putting a pedal board together so I haven't spent much time with them except the Blacksmith and sonic stomp ..... I spent about 15 minutes with the windowpane Fuzz but it does seem like a on or off type of deal , I will try it again tomorrow and verify it works like yours .....

Good trick Ken. I'm far too lazy to do that however. I figured it was an on/off thing. I had just never owned own before. When I read how one transistor feeds another and the proper biasing involved, it just made sense.

Fumble, are building a brand new pedal board? I need to build one too. All my stomps just sit on the floor Any particular dimensions or are you just gonna wing it? Don't know how many pedals I currently have in my chain. I'm thinking about 6.

Larry

I took the easy button and bought a Coffin case off of ebay .... not sure if I like it ?? , I was wanting to put the power supply under the second roe and you can't with this case .... I mainly play at home in the family room so I need something I can bring in the room , open , plug in and play , and then put away when I'm done for the evening (wifey poo thing) ..... If I was to buy another one I would get Pedal Train PT 3 board with hard case , it has room to mount power supply under the back roe and large enough for all the pedals I have

Fumble, I think you're right. A commercially available pedal board may be the way to go. This pedal board of my customers is home made from wood. Kinda heavy and clunky and has sharp screws sticking out of the bottom, which he failed to warn me about. I think he owns stock in velcro. I have a wah pedal as my biggest and the others are standard. I was really surprised at how small the Windowpane is compared to other fuzz pedals.

Larry

Larry , mine is the same as yours , you can change the strength of the fuzz but it's strong if it's turned on and up ..... I still like it the thing sounds great but when its on , its on


Eric