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Zvex Fat Fuzz Factory


Quatschmacher
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Is anyone using or has anyone used one of these? I’d be interested to read your thoughts on it. I’m particularly interested in whether the gate can get really tight and how it fares in the creation of synth-type sounds (alone or in combination with other pedals).

There doesn’t seem to be much written on the forum about this. 

Edited by Quatschmacher
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the gate is extremely effective, it really stops the insanity if you want it to. for a synth-type sound i put aguilar's octamizer in front of it and with trial and error you can dial in some fantastic sounds. i guess it can get synthy without an octaver, depends how you define 'synthy'... not as effective if you put an octaver after it (contrary to some theories out there about signal chain order; i somehow always preferred octa in front of fuzz/dist)

i don't get the techy stuff, something about impedance or other, but in general this pedal reacts better to passive single-coil type signal, and even then if you roll off say 20% of volume it comes alive a little more. if you feed it an active humbucker full-on it chokes (but if you can switch it to passive and roll volume off it works a treat, just not as responsive as with, say, a P pickup). well at least in my experience. something to consider re the instrument you want to plug into it or signal chain.

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33 minutes ago, Romeo2 said:

the gate is extremely effective, it really stops the insanity if you want it to. for a synth-type sound i put aguilar's octamizer in front of it and with trial and error you can dial in some fantastic sounds. i guess it can get synthy without an octaver, depends how you define 'synthy'... not as effective if you put an octaver after it (contrary to some theories out there about signal chain order; i somehow always preferred octa in front of fuzz/dist)

i don't get the techy stuff, something about impedance or other, but in general this pedal reacts better to passive single-coil type signal, and even then if you roll off say 20% of volume it comes alive a little more. if you feed it an active humbucker full-on it chokes (but if you can switch it to passive and roll volume off it works a treat, just not as responsive as with, say, a P pickup). well at least in my experience. something to consider re the instrument you want to plug into it or signal chain.

I’d generally be using such a thing with an octaver before it and both running into a filter to get synth-like sounds. P bass with flats too.

The other thing which gives these a synth vibe is the heavy gating (notes cutting dead as soon as you mute) as it is similar to the hard key-on/key-off gate of a keyboard. The Mastotron does this so I was wondering if the FFF did this too.

Do you have any sound clips?

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I think Mr Vex is very proud of the gates he uses on his fuzzes so rest assured, it is dead silent immediately.

P with flats is the way to go, you should be pleased.

No recordings, sorry, but you're welcome to come round and try it out if you're not sure about buying one, I'm in central London.

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1 minute ago, Romeo2 said:

I think Mr Vex is very proud of the gates he uses on his fuzzes so rest assured, it is dead silent immediately.

P with flats is the way to go, you should be pleased.

No recordings, sorry, but you're welcome to come round and try it out if you're not sure about buying one, I'm in central London.

I’m very happy with the Mastotron and won’t be parting with it but the FFF looks like it offers some other cool stuff.

That’s very kind of you, thank you. It’s sadly a bit far as I’m in Sheffield. I’ll be down later in the year so if I still haven’t tried one by then, I’ll drop you a line. I guess I could always buy one online and return it if I don’t like it. There was also one on eBay recently but I was on the fence so didn't bid.

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no worries, try me when you're in the big stink, happy to fuel your GAS :D in the meantime I'll try getting some stuff recorded but can't promise anything, bit busy recently

i haven't tried the mastotron so not sure how similar they are - but i do have recurring dreams of a pedalboard of zvex stuff only. i may need help.

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2 minutes ago, Romeo2 said:

no worries, try me when you're in the big stink, happy to fuel your GAS :D in the meantime I'll try getting some stuff recorded but can't promise anything, bit busy recently

i haven't tried the mastotron so not sure how similar they are - but i do have recurring dreams of a pedalboard of zvex stuff only. i may need help.

Even just voice memos recorded on a phone will give a rough idea.

The Mastotron is great. (I’d have suggested checking it out at Wunjo but I bought the last one they had, though I’m sure they’ll restock.) It doesn’t do all the self-oscillation that the FFF does but does what I wanted it to do and more. 

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