NPD

[surfergirl]

I had not planned on a new pedal, I started and stopped ordering this pedal 2 times this weekend and finally did it today. It's a Chicago Stompworks barebox Black Fudge Maestro MFZ-1. I really wanted it for the barebox, so I can paint it myself. I'm no artist, so I'm not sure what I'll end up with🙂

[Caevan O’Shite]

Cool. This one right here, eh?
 

 

[surfergirl]

Yep, that's the one. Since I'll be in Los Angeles next week to see The Tedeschi Trucks Band I can have it shipped free to my father. 

[Caevan O’Shite]

On 5/28/2024 at 11:57 PM, surfergirl said:

Yep, that's the one. Since I'll be in Los Angeles next week to see The Tedeschi Trucks Band I can have it shipped free to my father. 

I eagerly look forward to your reports on both!

[surfergirl]

4 hours ago, Caevan O’Shite said:

I eagerly look forward to your reports on both!

The pedal hasn't arrived yet, so that may be a while.

Tedeschi Trucks was the greatest show I've ever seen and I've seen Gary Clark Jr and Bonnie Raitt, who are two of my favorites and put on a great show, but this more like an event. On our way home and are being told turn off our phones. 

Welcome back, I'm really glad you doing well.

[Caevan O’Shite]

On 6/10/2024 at 10:02 AM, surfergirl said:

The pedal hasn't arrived yet, so that may be a while.

Tedeschi Trucks was the greatest show I've ever seen and I've seen Gary Clark Jr and Bonnie Raitt, who are two of my favorites and put on a great show, but this more like an event. On our way home and are being told turn off our phones. 

Welcome back, I'm really glad you doing well.

Hey, was this from the concert that you were at? Joined onstage by David Hidalgo from Los Lobos?
 

 

[surfergirl]

3 hours ago, Caevan O’Shite said:

Hey, was this from the concert that you were at? Joined onstage by David Hidalgo from Los Lobos?
 

 

That's the one. Cesar Rosas was also there.

[Caevan O’Shite]

2 hours ago, surfergirl said:

That's the one. Cesar Rosas was also there.

So cool. I saw Los Lobos years ago, and they were FANTASTIC.

[Dannyalcatraz]

LL’s albums just seem…timeless.  When I listen to them, they don’t seem to have lost anything.  I still feel about “Kiko & the Lavender Moon” the way I felt about it when it came out.

[Caevan O’Shite]

1 hour ago, Dannyalcatraz said:

LL’s albums just seem…timeless.  When I listen to them, they don’t seem to have lost anything.

Definitely. Which is really something, considering how much they creatively, beautifully mine 'Retro', 'Americana', music of various various cultural 'Traditions'...
 

 

1 hour ago, Dannyalcatraz said:

I still feel about “Kiko & the Lavender Moon” the way I felt about it when it came out.

Me, too.

[surfergirl]

I'm not that familiar with Los Lobos, but I'm going have check them after seeing David and Cesar. 

[Larryz]

@surfergirl, Los Lobos are a great band and did the sound track for the Richie Valans movie in addition to performing live in the movie playing the La Bamba tune in the authentic acoustic Mexican genre.  If you get the chance, definitely go see them.  Here's a sample:

 

 

😎👍

[Caevan O’Shite]

2 hours ago, surfergirl said:

I'm not that familiar with Los Lobos, but I'm going have check them after seeing David and Cesar. 

You'll love 'em. 

I'm really looking forward to your report on that Black Fudge Fuzz pedal, it sounds great in that demo video!

[surfergirl]

I've seen La Bamba, my mother had it, I didn't know it was Los Lobos. She may have some of their CDs also. She was into the Tejano/Tex-Mex for awhile. 

@Caevan O’ShiteI should have the pedal in a couple days, it got to my fathers the day after we left, he put in the mail today. Since there is no ground delivery to Hawaii🙂it shouldn't take long. 

 

[surfergirl]

It arrived yesterday and I'm just getting into it now. I think it will be my fuzz, fuzz and I'll crank the Octave on my Deluxe Lizard as high as I feel on any given day, probably all the way up🙉🙂

[Caevan O’Shite]

1 hour ago, surfergirl said:

It arrived yesterday and I'm just getting into it now. I think it will be my fuzz, fuzz and I'll crank the Octave on my Deluxe Lizard as high as I feel on any given day, probably all the way up🙉🙂

Enjoy that!   

[surfergirl]

This was harder than I thought. 2 knobs should be easier to find the sweet spot than with 3 or 4. With just volume and drive you have to fine tune, no room for error. With a treble and bass or tone knob it's easier to get what your looking for. At least that's the way it feels to me.

[Dannyalcatraz]

5 hours ago, surfergirl said:

This was harder than I thought. 2 knobs should be easier to find the sweet spot than with 3 or 4. With just volume and drive you have to fine tune, no room for error. With a treble and bass or tone knob it's easier to get what your looking for. At least that's the way it feels to me.

It’s the paradox of complexity.

 

In a lot of different things in life, simple controls, processes, etc. can be devilishly difficult to get the results you want.  There may only be one way to get something to do what you want.

 

More complex systems can (but don’t have to) offer more control, often resulting in several paths to the same destination.

 

Taking it back to guitar gear, I have a Reverend guitar that has a continuous blend knob instead of a pickup selector switch.  Very simple.  But if I spin the knob to get a different sound, it’s very difficult if not impossible to go back to the same sound I just had.  I can get close, but I might never nail it.

 

 

[Caevan O’Shite]

8 hours ago, surfergirl said:

This was harder than I thought. 2 knobs should be easier to find the sweet spot than with 3 or 4. With just volume and drive you have to fine tune, no room for error. With a treble and bass or tone knob it's easier to get what your looking for. At least that's the way it feels to me.

Once plugged in, your guitar's volume and tone controls are effectively part of the circuit of the fuzz pedal.

Once you're close to what you want, maybe even with both of the pedal's controls all the way up. if a bit too loud and fuzzily distorted, even 'saggy', use your guitar's volume-knob to find shades and 'sweet-spots', then your guitar's tone-knob if you want to further smooth or darken it. Also try different pickup selections.

Vintage style fuzz pedals are often like that, extremely interactive with your guitar's controls and pickups. They very often work best when first in line, as well.

[surfergirl]

 

15 hours ago, Caevan O’Shite said:

Once plugged in, your guitar's volume and tone controls are effectively part of the circuit of the fuzz pedal.

Once you're close to what you want, maybe even with both of the pedal's controls all the way up. if a bit too loud and fuzzily distorted, even 'saggy', use your guitar's volume-knob to find shades and 'sweet-spots', then your guitar's tone-knob if you want to further smooth or darken it. Also try different pickup selections.

Vintage style fuzz pedals are often like that, extremely interactive with your guitar's controls and pickups. They very often work best when first in line, as 

Using the neck and middle pickups and lowering the neck middle tone knob. 

It fought the Lizard Queen for first in line. The unfortunate, IMO, placement of the DC input gave the edge to the Lizard Queen. See the location below the input. It's doable either place, but easier to run under a patch cable

[Caevan O’Shite]

19 hours ago, surfergirl said:

 

Using the neck and middle pickups and lowering the neck middle tone knob. 

It fought the Lizard Queen for first in line. The unfortunate, IMO, placement of the DC input gave the edge to the Lizard Queen. See the location below the input. It's doable either place, but easier to run under a patch cable

That should be fine; if you do find that the Black Fudge responds better when first in line, you could always get a longer PS cable to allow that.


Another thought- are you running the Black Fudge  into a 'clean amp', or an overdriven amp and/or overdrive or distortion pedals?

Be sure to try both ways.

Most of the time, with most fuzz and octave-fuzz pedals, I prefer to  run them into an overdriven amp and/or overdrive or distortion pedals.

But sometimes, I'll run one into a clean or clean-ish amp sound. Sometimes a more ginchy fizzy fuzz tone is desired and that'll deliver; but one fuzz/octave-fuzz (it kind of blurs the two) that I have, a Wattson Classic Electronics  EFY-6 is SO aggressive and ferocious when I dial in its controls the way I like best, that it's often too much to stack into further gaininess. It rivals Big Muffs  and EQD Sunn O))) Life pedals!! MEAN!! Experimentation WILL follow, but it's incredible hitting a low to medium gain, clean-ish to moderately overdriven Marshall like amp sound.

But I digress... I always do. 

   😉

[surfergirl]

1 hour ago, Caevan O’Shite said:

Another thought- are you running the Black Fudge  into a 'clean amp', or an overdriven amp and/or overdrive or distortion pedals?   

With the Lizard Queen I'm running it through the Crayon or Mini TS., I'll probably do the same with the Black Fudge. I can also run it through the Boss DS-1w on the standard setting, not the custom. Sometimes I like to run it through the Deluxe Electric Mistress, just because I can🙂

[Caevan O’Shite]

3 hours ago, surfergirl said:

With the Lizard Queen I'm running it through the Crayon or Mini TS., I'll probably do the same with the Black Fudge. I can also run it through the Boss DS-1w on the standard setting, not the custom. Sometimes I like to run it through the Deluxe Electric Mistress, just because I can🙂

 

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

7 hours ago, surfergirl said:

because I can

That’s a great thing to realize!😁

[Caevan O’Shite]

Yer killin' me, Smalls.   I'm dyin' to learn how you're making out with that Black Fudge Fuzz pedal. Are you gettin' any Satisfaction?    

 

  

On 6/17/2024 at 1:18 PM, surfergirl said:

With the Lizard Queen I'm running it through the Crayon or Mini TS., I'll probably do the same with the Black Fudge. I can also run it through the Boss DS-1w on the standard setting, not the custom.

All of the above will smooth, warm, round and fatten the fuzz, while adding character texture and attitude to the overdrive and distortion.

[Larryz]

@Caevan O’Shite et al, +1  "Satisfaction" is the number one reason to have a Fuzz Tone on a guitar pedal board!  The number two reason would be The Ventures version of "Love Potion No. 9"... check it out!  😎👍

 

 

 

 

[surfergirl]

 I'm going to run both the Black Fudge and Lizard Queen through the Mini TS, gives a nice full sound. The Crayon is close, but to keep it simple I'll use TS. 

 

[Caevan O’Shite]

On 6/23/2024 at 3:30 PM, surfergirl said:

 I'm going to run both the Black Fudge and Lizard Queen through the Mini TS, gives a nice full sound. The Crayon is close, but to keep it simple I'll use TS. 

 

When I'm up to hossin' a few things around, bending and lifting, etc., I'm going to try some similar experimentation with some of my fuzzes and a specific TS-808-voiced pedal that I have (a Halcyon Green OD from Origin Effects), which will be particularly interesting for this application as it can either behave strictly like a TS- full-time "mid-hump" and all- or, when rolling-back the guitar's volume-knob and/or picking with a softer touch, that "mid-hump" inverts, while the highs and lows are proportionately restored. It might be cool to have that as the fuzz 'cleans up' and changes character; or, I might prefer the TS "mid-hump" to remain intact. It's great to have such options galore and to do things "just because I can"!