BEWARE! You're going down a VERY VERY VERY dangerous road. Fuzz GAS is the worst GAS. Depends what kind of fuzz you're into. For Hendrixy stuff you want a fuzzface (germanium/silicon); for gilmour, black keys, my bloody valentine, dinosaur jr. you want Big Muffs (My favorite-ish kind); Tonebenders for a little bit of Zeppelin, Beatles type of fuzz; for buzzy saw-like fuzz a Superfuzz maybe? for spitty-splattery fuzz there's Fuzz Factory type of stuff. So the first thing your going to have to do is figure out what kind of sounds you want to get.
I expected your reply shailm... I need a versatile fuzz hence i thought the fuzz factory would be ideal.. My tastes keep on changing so i'm better off that way.. You having being used factory can tell me how it exactly is...
The fuzz factory isn't really that versatile, it can do very okayish fuzz face, but cant really emulate a muff. It's a pedal that takes getting use to, I usually prefer it for spitty/broken fuzz or for buzzy/synthy sounds. It reacts differently to different amps/guitars, as does every pedal, but since this one has so many controls (that feed off each other) , it makes it harder to fine-tune a particular sound. It's definitely a cool pedal,, but these days I'm sure you can find something similar for cheaper (even than the vexter versions), and might be easier to use. Though, if you're not into the whole buzzy, spitty sound, then it might be a useless pedal for you, instead maybe you can go for a Barber Trifecta (though im not sure if these are discontinued or not), Blackout Effectors Musket, maybe an Earthquaker Device Hoof Reaper. If you wanna go individual flavors of fuzz over time then checkout these makers-Analogman (Sunface, Peppermint Fuzz, Astrotone, Beano boost?), Fulltone (69, 70, Soulbender), Earthquaker Devices (Hoof, Tone Reaper etc.), D*A*M (everything), Skreddy, Stomp Under Foot(all kinds of Muff clones). Devi Ever make some cool relatively well priced fuzz pedals. Also the Basic Audio Phoenix is supposed to versatile I think.
You suggested some really expensive pedals man... How bout the EHX Big muff.. sells for some 80$ in US
well, I assumed since you mentioned the fuzz factory, the budget would be around that. But the EHX options aren't bad. You could even save more cash you go for the big box EHX Big Muff Pi instead of the BMP w/Tone Wicker, that i think sells for 50-something$, and i believe that's the one jack white uses. Though EHX Muffs are a little on the noisy side. Some of the Devi Ever stuff might be in budget, check it out.
I think he already has a few fuzz pedals with him...i'll ask anyways... i would consider something around 150$ hence i mentioned the fuzz factory.. which is around 180ish i guess.. cant and dont wanna spend 300$..
A lot of the pedals mentioned above are in the 150 range, a few are even under. Check out other makers like MJM and Fuzzhugger also. If you have someone n the States, you might be able to find some great deals on e-bay. Don't know much about the Huckleberry, but it looks good. Look it up on The Gear Page.
@shailm: I actually kinda liked the EWS Fuzzy Drive(more overdrive less fuzz) and Fulltone Octafuzz as well..and the Hudson "Stroll on" was the best sounding i think (Expensive)... i need more time to figure wat i like more..
Fuzzzzz oh yeah!! its never enuff...right now i am just loving the Colorsound one knob fuzz i put together... cost me a whopping Rs 250 for the toggle switch, i had other parts laying around oblivious to the fuzzy realm..now they are fuzzing their gratitude to me for i made them mean something or something mean!!!
just cobbled together a silicon fuzz face. it's pretty cool, but definitely needs passive pickups and an unbuffered signal chain. in terms of versatility, i think the lovetone big cheese does a great job at 3 different types of fuzz. the fuzzlab is a colossal waste of time, take it from me. you'll spend more time trying to dial in tones than actually playing, and getting someone to build that ****** will be bloody expensive too - i certainly wouldn't do it for a LOT of money. pain in the ass type project. the real value of the fuzzlab is that it's a nice concept for designers/tweakers who want to play around and create a prototyping ground. create a modular circuit, see what things work with what and then stick different parts together to make the final design process a no-brainer. i have some experience with these things and there's a huge flip side to them - usability. not to mention servicing if something goes wrong, like it did when i was building the john hollis unidrive. i had to throw away 50+ hours of work cause it was impossible to debug at the end. anyway, i once designed a small 5W amp with a lot of "features" and switching options. it was really cool, and with amps the differences are even easier to notice than with stompers - BUT... you'd just end up fiddling more than anything. and a lot of settings will just sound too similar. so yeah, **** the fuzzlab.
This is not related exactly to fizz, but how about using the guitar signal to modulate some pre-set oscillations - just like the synths? Getting a tone like Hammond or Moog ...
more common than you think, here's some pedals off the top off my head: electro harmonix micro synthesizer schuman PLL (overpriced, badly assembled electrax synthax omitting some modules - people pay $2.5k for it only on the merit that radiohead uses it) electrax synthax guitar synth (ancient DIY project, never seen an actual unit) pigtronix mothership MFOS subcommander (awesome DIY project! check out www.musicfromouterspace.com, mad synth DIY) DOD meat box (sub-bass synthesizer for guitar)