My Top 5 Favorite Fuzz Pedals

I bought the hoof reaper because of this video

I’m a huge fuzz fan and I just can’t understand all these comments starting with “I don’t usually like fuzz…” or some saying they want a more transparent fuzz. If you want an overdrive, get another lame overdrive or even better a clean boost.

My favorite band is Pink Floyd and Gilmour is one of my biggest influences, and he is nothing if not reserved. For me though, I won’t even bother with anything less than a Big Muff. ToneBenders and Fuzz Faces just sound like the audio equivalent of Erectile Dysfunction to me. Weak and limp dick.

Some of my favorites are the Danelectro 3699 Fuzz, Death by Audio Fuzz War, Z Vex Mastotron, Devi Ever Rocket, the secret setting on a Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz, and the Red Witch Fuzz God IV is super versatile and killer. It does what I want and is super moldable, and I suppose if you wanted to do the whole “I’m going to take this perfect cut of Waygu and turn it into a ketchup soaked McDonald’s Burger thing you Fuzz Face fans love so much, it could do that too. I wouldn’t know though because i choose not to be an Eunuch.

I do want to check out those Jackson Modular Fuzzes, the Orange Fur Coat seems super cool and the SolidGoldFX Lysis mk2 looks really cool too.

But if I wanted less gain than most amps this days can reach naturally, I’ll play an acoustic guitar. I run a modded Marshall JCM into a 4x12 and a 2x12 and largely just run it hot and use a volume pedal to back it off for gritty cleans. And I’ve actually found that I may actually prefer the clean channel of a JCM600 combo, run through the 4x12 as well with an always on Boss DS-1, and again use the volume pedal for cleans. I know it sounds ridiculous, but the DS1 is the most ubiquitous gain based pedal ever made for a reason.

If it’s good enough for Frusciante, Vai, Satriani, Al Cisneros, Fripp, Gary Moore, Wata from Boris, and Creston Spiers, it’s surely good enough for me.

What kind of strat is that?

@Rhett Shull You have to try a SolidGoldFX Rosies Fuzz!

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do a video solely on fuzz pedals for slide guitar!!!💣💥

TBH these are all garage band pedals, no self-respecting guitarist would appear in public with such amateur sounds.

Dude the Shigeru is one of those pedals I often wish I still had. I’m also obsessed with octave fuzz. My favorite is the Collector Effectors Moon Wolf. You should really look into that one and just everything he does in general.

More boutique garbage but I must admit I'm a gear snob with a background in science and engineering. I always want to see pedals tested CORRECTLY.
On a scope with criteria it's expected to meet using a function generator, scope and multimeter to test 100Hz, 1Khz and 10Khz using a sine wave, and an array of sweeps to see exactly what is going on, especially once we turned some dials.
Seeing the voltage tells you a lot with varying controls, but I know at this point, many brands are using followers and other circuits to ensure voltage and current remain pretty constant when you start exploring the controls.

I would expect the boutique brands to be more accurate than major name brands with waveforms, but would still expect to see plenty that go into harder clipping giving a variant of a triangle or saw tooth, instead of a square fuzz. I would also expect many to produce inconsistent voltage etc.
Fuzz amongst gear elitist is probably the most sought-after texture, but tube amps pretty much guarantee it regardless of what you put in front of them.
Shredders and instrumentalists like me are usually after a good fuzz texture and compression but while hard clipping into a sawtooth without all the transients heaps of analog and digital gear have always been plagued with.
Anyway, we're now in a world where even Dave Mustaine uses digital Line 6's all the time.
The prices on their gear is of course sickening for what's in it.

too much talking

Beetronics is definitely one of the coolest pedal companies out there.the circuit boards everything just shows how much they care.

Whoa that was a strong opener.after that I don't even know where you can go from there.thats some string melting fuzz.

I’d like to see your favorite blues breaker pedal.

lmfao bliss factory 1000$ and up on reverb, i think i'll be just fine with my diy builds XD

Mine's the RAT. Not even close

Yeah asking someone what their favorite food is; yeah that's just crazy! That never happens...lmao

What are those switches and knobs on the side of the Caroline Shigeharu?

If I had to be on a desert island, I would probably take an acoustic guitar. For some reason...

I am grabbing a HoofReaper for the board now.

Nutz was hoping the mk 1 tonebender would rock out once again.

I 100% agree Fuzz is the greatest effect

Keeley Rotten Apple
Hoof Reaper
Fuzzrocious Grey Stache

I forgot Rhett is a huge guy and makes pedals look miniature.

Browne T4 fuzz all day

Rhett Big fan of your vids always quality content. What Fuzz would you recommend to get that Royal Blood type fuzz tone?

When can we see the Slide-off between Josh and Rhett?

Woahhhhh i cant afford any of these…

Graphic eq

if i had 2 pick 3 pedals this wopuld be it

fuzz, flanger delay

fuzz can give me all my gain needs, flanger is a very versatile modulation and delay is delay

Which headphones are you using?
Could you recommend a good pair for playing with a plug-in?

pizza

Without further ado? That ship has sailed!

Hi Rhett,
How would your rate the Hoof Reaper stacked with a overdrive pedals?
I use a bluesbreaker-style-pedal has an "always on", and the hoof reaper looks like a awesome option to use before overdrive and cover both muff and fuzzface needs.
My main concern is that some fuzz pedals don't stack that well with overdrives, so I would (very much) appreciate your opinion on the matter.
Congrats on a great channel.
Cheers.
HM

lil confusing what pedal is doing what, because we see like 56 pedals & the red is flashing & sometimes the top left will be on, what pedal will give me the sound at :4:55???

Octavie means Female in Latin

I try not to knock anything just because it's not my thing but the beetronics seems like a good pedal & all but I buy pedals for guitar tone only, I don't want be charged extra money just because the circuit board inside has art graphics on it & because of the cool design. If that's your thing more power to ya but if they offered a plain jane grey one with a plain green or brown or even orangutan orange with titty pink polka dots circuit board for $75 less id definitely go for the money saved version

I heard that “third planet from the sun.” NOICE!

My favorite fuzz is the Ram's Head Big Muff. Only 100 bucks and it just has some kind of black magic happening. Just stellar.

Thank you for fuzz demo

Thorpyfx Field Marshal destroys the Cheese Ball :) that pedal was created by Andrian Thorpe and the guy behind the original Big Cheese :)

So your favorite pedals of all time just came out a few months ago. This sounds like an advertisement

Notice how a little verb, or a little too much delay, makes most Fuzzes and Drives sound similar, or at the very least, loses much of the character that made them stand out? Not always the case when you run the verb into the Fuzz, but that is a whole diff ball of wax.
A touch of delay does the job well, without going full on Tom Scholtz.

I'm torn between the Shigeharu and Cheese Ball....

This is so sick!!!!

There are so many great fuzz units available now compared to when I bought my first Big Muff Pi in the early to mid 70's. One that I've been having tons of fun with lately is Walrus Audio's Kangra Filter Fuzz. Didn't make your list, but man... I'm really blown away by it! Especially flexible and versatile when using an expression pedal with it. Great for filtering other effects and for stacking gain stages. Great video and tones as always... cheers!

Man, that Beetronics jam was a boogie

It’s my favorite pedal of all time, really, no really, really, no really

Cachalote Audio 214, check it out.

Love the beetronics, i just worry its too crazy, even for a heavy blues, alle gary clark jr. , i think the cheesepuff was the most velvetty, which i like.....Brett, your gonna reach a million subsribers, in the next couple years, no doubt about it, great channel...also just heard the Hoof, sick pedal...