Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

I've never really been a fuzz guy. Hell, I'm not even a distortion pedal guy for that matter. I've always liked the natural compression and dynamics of a cranked tube amp. I had a Big Muff Pi when I first started playing way back in the mid '70s at the tender age of 13. I thought that it sounded like mush but it made my cheap transitor amps sound a little better. As far as I typically go is using an OD to push an on the edge amp over the top and even then I set them with their volume way up and their drive on zero or just a hair above. Last year I got a Strat and suddenly got a yearning to try a decent fuzz with it. After careful consideration I settled on a Blackout Effectors Musket. It's got A LOT of range for a fuzz pedal. The builder seems to like old EHX circuits. This one is very similar to a LPB-1 and Russian Big Muff in one with much better tone shaping controls.

I made a little clip with it this afternoon. My signal chain was Strat > BD2 > Musket > Egnater Tweaker 15 head > DIY 212 cab. I ran a G-Sharp in the loop. To be honest I really don't know the tune in the clip. I was just inspired by the tone I had dialed in and it made me think of this. I listened to it on the computer a few times to get the high points and then took a run at it. I think it at least captures the spirit of it.

Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgM8s6rat1I

hehe, just saw this. was it just a happy coincidence you picked that song or did you know"? - that gilmour uses a muff.

nice work for "off the cuff".
nice tone too.

I guess he (gilmour) uses a boss comp, a boss ce-2 and a civil war muff for that solo.
a customer of mine (gilmour nut) did the sm song for a demo of my pedal on his site (kit rae) and educated me on the setup.
In case you wanna here that:
http://www.kitrae.net/music/COMFY_NUMB_MUFF_DEMO_RussianSpi__Silicon_Setting_CE2_470_NOVA.mp3

I've seen Kit's website before. For a while I was strongly considering building a BYOC Large Beaver and was searching for tips on how to do graphics and stumbled onto his step by step process on his website. Very informative. He has one of the most detailed muff clone websites I've ever seen. Good stuff. I had heard that Gilmour used a Muff and stacked it with a compressor or something and found the Gilmourish page while searching. That is what first gave me the yearning to take another swing at a fuzz. I was never able to get that type of tone from mine when I was a kid but then again I wasn't using it with the necessary gear to make it work. It's kind of a recipe and you need all of the ingredients. Kit took the tone sample thing to a whole new level. After getting my Musket I tried it on it's own which was pretty good then tried stacking it with a Route 66 then a SD1 to get what the those guys were getting and had limited sucess. I got more of a Distortion tone from it. I recently picked up a BD2 to use for modern country stuff and decided to give that a shot and bingo there it was. The only Floyd tunes I ever really learned were Wish You Were Here & Young Lust but I've always been a big fan. Now that I've got the tone recipe right I might have to try some more.

Kit is clearly a pedal hound and it's really cool to her he has some of your work. Does he have any tone samples posted of any of your pedals?

"Kit took the tone sample thing to a whole new level... Does he have any tone samples posted of any of your pedals?"
hehe, that demo WAS my russian spy + boss cs-3 + boss ce-2.

yeah, he's a super nice guy. Was way too generous with his review and I'm very thankful.
as far as "other" pedals... I just posted a thread with some demos and you can see more at www.myspace.com/skullytonefx

I was gonna say... I think the issue with your initial trials was the amp you were playing through.
Back in the early eighties my first setup was a used ensenada gtr, used gorrilla amp, and a used 2nd edition pro co rat. I hated that rat back then... sold it at a rummage sale for $10... if only I had known!

hehe, that demo WAS my russian spy + boss cs-3 + boss ce-2.

That is VERY cool Mikey. I'm definitely going to go back and read about your pedal. The clip sounds great, nice work on that circuit my friend! I feel your pain on dumping a vintage pedal for next to nothing. I sold my mid '70s Big Muff Pi for 5 bucks in a yard sale in the early '80s. Who knew they would be worth something a decade later.

right on. I would give a good amount of that credit to kit. He really nailed that tone down.

with that in mind, I'd really appreciate some pos/neg feedback on the demos I posted if when you have the time.