Best way to use external dist/fuzz with the axe ?

My name is mud

My name is mud

Fractal Fanatic
Vendor
Hi

I have some fuzzes pedals etc and today I have tried to do a preset to use external pedals andddd… that’s not easy at all

I plug them in the front input. Don’t have tried to do a loop, don’t know if it is better or not.

I saw that the impedance setting in the input block change the tone a lot, but I don’t really know how I should set it.

Not easy to find a « neutral » amp that accept the pedals. For now it seems that the fenders got the best result .

This is just for myself, no “business” here.

Do you have good results using external dist?
 
I have an external fuzz. I just plug the guitar into that first, then the fractal. The fuzz is already doing the low impedance thing, so the axe can stay at default 1M.

I don’t believe integration is possible. If you run it through the effects loop, the impedance won’t interact with the guitar pickups.

I’m trying to wean myself off of that fuzz and use just the stuff in the fractal for easier control on stage.
 
I agree with others that you should set the input impedance at a fixed 1M, but, if you're not doing it already, I would suggest adding at least 6 dB (if memory serves, there's 40 dB at your disposal) of gain out of the input block. I use a number of analog drive and fuzz pedals in front of the Axe and, when you set the output level of the pedals to "tickle the red" into the Axe, it is still at an unreasonably low level to approximate a pedal going into an real amp. A lot of ways to boost the level after the input block, but I find that adding some gain out of the gate (no pun intended), you have a better starting point to gain stage.
 
it's definitely possible to get pretty much the same results as if you'd be using a real amp. just check some of Brett Kingman's ( @Burgs ) videos. most of the pedal demos he does he runs them straight into the Axe and he knows a thing or two about tone ;) ...
 
Budda said:
Thought i was getting a 77 DR105 (canadian 103) today but it didnt happen :(
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That's a great shame. I had a 1969 DR103 for a long time, and it was an awesome "pedal platform". The guy I sold it to was kind of amazed how "hi-fi" clean and low noise it sounded, particularly with a Strat. The Fractal model sounds really close, but somehow doesn't do justice to how earth shatteringly loud and clean these amps can be. If you then proceed to goose them with a fuzz or drive, all kinds of good things happen. With Hiwatt and Fender Twin Fractal models, I always make a point of bumping the amp output block level a bit, just to remind myself that being a bit too loud for the mix is part of their essential character. But for an amp to take a fuzz, I still feel like the plexi Marshalls take a lot of beating, 50 watt (model 1987) or 100 watt (model 1959).

Going back to the OP, there's a long running argument about whether Hendrix ran Fuzz into Wah, or Wah into Fuzz. Very different sound and feel. If he ran Wah into Fuzz, then the Fuzz output was hitting a ~1M ohm input impedance. If he ran Fuzz into Wah, probably a lot less, even when the Fuzz pedal was turned off. Either way, the guitar pickups are seeing a much closer impedance to their own than a valve amp, which means they have a little more interaction with whichever pedal they meet. Are you going to try to replicate the fuzz pedal you are using inside the Axe FX?

Liam

P.S. Hendrix will almost definitely have used both ways around, and experimented to see what worked best for him on that day, for that recording or gig. His thought patterns appear to have been less rigid than those of some of his historians.
 
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@LiamH theres a “5 amps dimed” video by Johan Segeborn and the 70s bassman 100 sounds laughably close to the DR103 in it. I was a little shook haha.

I ended up spending money on an amp, if anyone’s after an AVRI 62 or 70s strat 😂
 
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