Some fuzz model questions

[jeffffff]

How close is the tone bender model to a fulltone soul bender v1 with the nkt275 transistors? How close is the fuzz face model to an analogman nkt sunface? I am currently a helix user who was lucky enough to buy both of these pedals back in the day when they were obtainable, and the helix models of these fuzzes are, to put it politely, not what I'm looking for. Wondering if the fractal comes closer here.

 

[FiddlerTheDrum]

I have a "sunface" style FF that I made with rather optimal measured germanium transistors though I do not currently have anything built up for a Soul Bender (or Tonebender MK3) to compare.

I would say that as far as the overall quality of the tools of the Bender Fuzz and Face Fuzz in the Fractal product, it is very good and my Fuzz Face was pretty close though my low end was a little looser, actually better in Fractal from that part.

The thing you will miss, if this matters to your playing style, is the clean-up with very slight volume knob tweaks on your guitar when playing on a Fuzz Face style circuit. The Fractal doesn't clean-up like that, so it doesn't do the glassy cleans when you have your knob rolled down low.

However.....there are so many other ways to get that style of touch sensitive playing in the box outside of the fuzz, I'm finding I don't care as much about this one issue. You do get a lot of options to dial in just the amount of fuzz you want in the Fractal, plus the ability to play with EQ and other advanced features.

You could also just run fuzzes in front of the unit. I do, though I'm not really using them as much lately.

 

[HereToday]

+1 on running the pedals in front. The Axe-Fx takes pedals so well that it adds a whole new dimension. Once I tried it, I couldn’t get enough and brought all my OD and distortion pedals out of retirement.

 

[jeffffff]

Thanks! I don't really do the volume knob thing, before I got into digital I used a volume pedal for the same effect but now I just use an expression pedal which I'm assuming I could link to the gain on the fuzz and it would do approximately the same thing? I've been trying to avoid running pedals+modeler because I neither want to have a loose jumble of pedals nor do I want to put the modeler on a pedalboard and end up with something as heavy as my 50 watt plexi, but maybe I could run a small pedalboard into the modeler and it wouldn't be too messy.

 

[lqdsnddist]

If you don’t care about the roll off/cleanup you can match most fuzz tones pretty well, but your lacking some of the dynamic nature which is most of the point of a hardware fuzz.

 

[FiddlerTheDrum]

If you don’t care about the roll off/cleanup you can match most fuzz tones pretty well, but your lacking some of the dynamic nature which is most of the point of a hardware fuzz.

I think this is exactly what I was trying to get at! Well put. @jeffffff your post got me thinking regarding attaching an expression pedal to the gain knob on the fuzz pedal, I wonder if something could be done to get creative with this…..

 

[lqdsnddist]

I think this is exactly what I was trying to get at! Well put. @jeffffff your post got me thinking regarding attaching an expression pedal to the gain knob on the fuzz pedal, I wonder if something could be done to get creative with this…..

Easier to just have a few different channels as you often need to adjust more than just the gain/drive to really get the same overall effect, and of course also roll back your guitar volume etc

 

[FiddlerTheDrum]

Easier to just have a few different channels as you often need to adjust more than just the gain/drive to really get the same overall effect, and of course also roll back your guitar volume etc

Oh yeah I agree with that. I did take the liberty of modifying a Super Reverb factory preset (AxeFX3) just for fun. Scene 1 has the fuzz face on, with modifiers attached to FC pedal 2. Rock the pedal, gain goes down, level goes up slightly, a little bit on tone control. Just messing around as a thought exercise.