actually, to my knowledge and experience the Fuzz Face is quite unique in this respect (turn down volume just a little and the fuzz is almost competely gone). I have plenty of fuzzes that do not react like that.
The Fuzz Factory is also known to be very picky about the input, so I wouldn't generalize the here mentioned difficulties with profiling a Fuzz Factory to be the case with all fuzzes. In fact we already have great profiles from the Musket Fuzz and the Pharaoh pedal and more in the rig exchange.
Hi Don,
You're right that lots of fuzzes don't behave like this, but the Fuzz Face is a long way from being unique. There are lots of very pricey Fuzz pedals out there now which are just tweaked values and mojo germanium transistors in a good old fashioned Fuzz Face circuit. Look at the Analogman fuzz cataloge, the D*A*M catalogue etc. The Tonebender is another classic circuit that loads of makers use to make boutique fuzz. I recon with current fashion about half of what is out there will give you hassle. If it's based on a Muff then it'll be just fine. Based on the above (or several others) then it may give trouble IMO.
The reason for this is that the input impedance is low and causes you to lose high end frequencies. With this in mind, the rest of the fuzz circuit tends to be built pretty bright (little extra filtering). So when you plug in a guitar straight into a fuzz, the impedance darkens the sound, the rest of the circuit does everything it can to not roll off any more highs. If you have a buffer in there, the high end roll off caused by the input impedance of the fuzz is gone. All the high end gets preserved and the filtering that IS present in the fuzz does nothing to counter this hence it sounding shrill and harsh rather than warm and fuzzy.
The Fuzz Factory is (once again) based on a vintage design and has low input impedance. The thing that makes it funky and fun is that it has extra controls in there to alter the stability of the circuit. IMO, half the fun of the fuzz face is being able to tweak the knobs whilst you're holding a note to make it do squeaky weird motor boat farty noises on steroids. As a plain fuzz, I much prefer something simpler as the fuzz factory is a picky thing..... It has so many ways to create noise that, if you find a combo of the 5 knobs that sound musical, you need to take a picture so you can get there again - they are crazy-interactive. Please note that I'm basing this opinion on a home made version (the circuit is all over the web) as I'm too tight to buy a real one when I can have fun building one for 1/10th of the price
Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying 'you cannot get good results profiling a fuzz'. As you rightly say, there are some in the exchange that are very nice already so it's worth a crack for anyone out there. But....... it's likely to sound mighty bright if you choose the 'wrong' fuzz and if you do get a sound you like then the whole profile won't react like the original signal chain as far as the picking dynamics / guitar volume rolloff because vintage fuzz does the volume cleanup in an unusual (and addictive) way.
I would suggest the following acid test to answer the question 'will MY fuzz profile well'.
Get a pedal with a buffer in it. Boss tuner will do, thousands of others. Anything that does not colour the sound in your opinion when the pedal is in the chain but bypassed.
Connect guitar > Fuzz > Kemper. Play a profile you like and record a clip. Then connect
Guitar > buffered pedal on bypass > Fuzz > Kemper. Play the same profile and record a clip.
If you can't tell the difference, your fuzz pedal has a high input impedance and you can hope for good profiling results.
If the one with the buffer in the chain sounds like nails down a blackboard, expect your profile to sound like nails down a blackboard too as the profiling process 'adds a buffer'. The good news is the Kemper has far more EQ options than a standard rig so you may still get a result that, whilst not like the original in terms of behaviour, still makes you smile. And that is what it's all about IMO
FWIW, I love my home-made Sunlion pedal in front of the Kemper. With a vintage battery (I did enjoy that recent thread )
So that's a total of 4 cents today so I suppose that'll do