NPD - Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz!

[Baloney Balderdash]

Have been wanting one of these for a long while, and I can't really excuse not doing something about it by not being able to afford it, cause it is dirt cheap, about as cheap as guitar pedal effects come.

Finally though I pulled the tricker, and I just picked my new Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz pedal up from the shop where it was delivered to by the postal service for pick up a couple of days ago.

Man, this pedal is amazing.

Might even be the #1 greatest deal there is on effect pedals for bass guitar.

It just sounds absolutely astonishing great.

And the one I got seemingly have no issues whatsoever, well, beside from the obviously fact of it being in a plastic housing as all these dirt cheap Behringer pedals happens to be.

Doesn't bother me the slightest though. 

This got to be one the absolute greatest fuzz pedals for use with bass in existence, regardless of price, no short of sublime.

For those of you who do not know this cheap Behringer fuzz is a pretty accurate clone of the now discontinued Boss FZ-2, which again was a take on the circuit from the legendary Univox Super Fuzz octave fuzz (Boss basically just added a 2 band active EQ section, and then threw in a bonus clean boost function mode).

Here's a picture of my exact unit, and the settings I so far have settled for (possibly hard to see on this picture, but I am using Fuzz Mode 1. Fuzz Mode 1 being quite mids heavy, but me partially making up for that by boosting both the bass and treble, and Fuzz Mode 2 being heavily mids scooped, exactly as the 2 modes on the original Univox units. Also the reason why the picture looks a bit gritty is because I didn't bother taking a separate close up shot of the pedal, but just cropped it out from a shoot of my entire bass effect pedals setup):

 

I use it in one of the parallel effect loops of my Boss LS-2, and it sounds awesome both when mixed with the clean signal, coming from the other parallel effects loop of the LS-2, for a more regular classic kind of high gain fuzz tone with the added articulation and low end from the clean signal, as well as with my high gain distortion setup, which happens to also reside in the opposite effects loop of the LS-2, engaged, consisting of a a vintage style relatively high gain Rat distortion stacked into the fairly dark sounding medium kind of gain overdrive, delivered by my Joyo California Sound, parallelly mixed together with the fuzz in about equal measures resulting in a massively thick, monstrously  heavy and ballsy, but at the same time gnarly, blistering, crackling and spluttering, super high gain, earth, or at least ear, shattering, fuzz eruption of vulcanic proportions. 

Love it!   

Seriously spanks butts!  

Instant stoner/doom rock in a plastic box! 

 

Here's a great demonstration from YouTube by someone else of the SF300 Super Fuzz pedal's capabilities as a bass fuzz :

 

Edited August 4, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash

[stewblack]

I had a Stanley toolbox stolen years back. The thieves may have been a little disappointed to find it full of instrument cables, bass strings, and my collection of Behringer pedals. 

I have built a deserved reputation as a cheapskate, never happier than taking a Harley Benton bass out, and leaving my Fender at home. But before I discovered Thomann's finest I used to fight hard in Behringer's corner. 

Their stomp boxes are great. Yes sure plastic cases are, well, plasticky, but they're fine. Like you it does not bother me at all. 

This pedal sounds disgusting. In the best possible way 😉 

Congrats. 

[Jus Lukin]

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Edited March 6, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[Thunderbird]

I'm quite a fan of behringer stuff but I didn’t get on well with this pedal I found it a bit fizzy for want of a better word I'm not sure it liked my active basses though so not really the pedals fault I guess 

[Baloney Balderdash]

30 minutes ago, Thunderbird said:

I'm quite a fan of behringer stuff but I didn’t get on well with this pedal I found it a bit fizzy for want of a better word I'm not sure it liked my active basses though so not really the pedals fault I guess 

Well it is definitely a quite high gain fuzz, even with the gain set low, and it is one of the more "artificially" sounding fuzzes too, which I guess is due to it being an octave fuzz, actually adding an analog fuzzed out octave up to your signal.

So it is possible the effect just wasn't for you, though I guess it is possible it wasn't happy about your active bass too, some fuzzes aren't in general. 

Edited August 5, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash

[Thunderbird]

20 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Well it is definitely a quite high gain fuzz, even with the gain set low, and it is one of the more "artificiallt sounding fuzzes too, which I guess is due to it being an octave fuzz, actually adding an analog fuzzed out octave up to your signal.

So it is possible the effect just wasn't for you, though I guess it is possible it wasn't happy about your active bass too, some fuzzes aren't in general. 

Yes I agree I just don't think it was happy with active basses shame as it sounds great on the posted YouTube clip 👍

[Baloney Balderdash]

Here's a demo, where the guy, beside also demonstrating the clean boost mode of the Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz, also demonstrates how the pedal sound when boosting both the treble and bass in fuzz Mode 1 (around the 03:55 mark) and cutting both the treble and bass in fuzz Mode 2 (around the 07:01 mark), to cancel out some of the very mids heavy effect of Mode 1 and some of the very mids scooped effect of Mode 2, making for a more flat response sounding fuzz tone.

His clean tone though does appear to be somewhat mids scooped to begin with, unlike the clean tone of the bass in the demos of this pedal linked to in the OP.

 

 

Edited August 5, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash

[BassThing]

I have one of these on my GAS list, nice to see someone who actually owns it and loves it.

[Delberthot]

I love Behringer pedals as well - the combination of my £300 Radial Tonebone Bassbone and £17 CS400 give me my ideal sound. in fact if I ever went back to having a normal bass amp and cab the CS400 is the only pedal I'd keep a hold of

[stewblack]

Just received mine from Thomann and it's a great pedal, thanks @Baloney Balderdash for the heads up.

The boost setting alone is worth the money and having the option to boost the bass makes a highly desirable racket.

[King Tut]

3 hours ago, stewblack said:

Just received mine from Thomann and it's a great pedal, thanks @Baloney Balderdash for the heads up.

The boost setting alone is worth the money and having the option to boost the bass makes a highly desirable racket.

I’ ve use bought one too. Loving it!

[Dosi Y'Anarchy]

On 05/08/2020 at 21:00, Baloney Balderdash said:

Here's a demo, where the guy, beside also demonstrating the clean boost mode of the Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz, also demonstrates how the pedal sound when boosting both the treble and bass in fuzz Mode 1 (around the 03:55 mark) and cutting both the treble and bass in fuzz Mode 2 (around the 07:01 mark), to cancel out some of the very mids heavy effect of Mode 1 and some of the very mids scooped effect of Mode 2, making for a more flat response sounding fuzz tone.

His clean tone though does appear to be somewhat mids scooped to begin with, unlike the clean tone of the bass in the demos of this pedal linked to in the OP.

 

 

I've still got the behringer too! I think i prefer it on bass to guitar and it sounds /acts just like the boss Fz-2 I had. 

The only problem I have with it (and its a complaint id level at alot of Superfuzz clones) is that the scooped setting is so scooped you get lost in anything but the lightest of mixes. I even had trouble with the behringer /boss. But the powerful 2-band EQ makes this one of the best mass-produced Superfuzz clones out there. 

Edited December 22, 2020 by Dosi Y'Anarchy

[stewblack]

43 minutes ago, Dosi Y'Anarchy said:

one of the best mass-produced Superfuzz clones out there

I agree. Bought mine for my all Behringer board, but it's pretty difficult not to put it on my main board TBH. 

[King Tut]

I'm toying with replacing my akai unibass with it. Ok it's not as versatile and doesn't do the fifth thing but at least you can play chords and double stops with it.

Edited December 22, 2020 by King Tut