[sdiy] Mixing a Clipped fuzz-signal and source signal question

[Toby]

on 10/29/01 1:07 PM,  at media at mail1.nai.net wrote:

Jon:

I agree with your first respondent, i.e. the fuzz face is fairly thin
sounding sometimes and can be gritty.   Some of the best distortion for bass
I've heard is when I play my bass through a marshall jcm900 amp.  I'd
suggest a distortion/fuzz pedal that is constructed similarly to the preamp
of that amp--probably(i'm guessing) a couple of op-amp clipping stages and
maybe a diode or two going to ground.  This is how I get a pretty thick
sound with distortion.  Don't quote me on the marshall distortion circuit,
but it isn't the power amp distorting because I play at low volume.

Also, filtering is important.  Filter out some of that high-end crap and
maybe put a pf cap in the feedback loop of an op-amp to smooth it out.
Maybe some other weird filtering is needed because of the punchiness of the
rickenbacker.  I just remembered-Chris Squire used to run through marshalls
and he used a bassman and I believe on the Relayer tour he was using a
Fender Jazz bass which is pretty punchy.

Or maybe just try building some of the stuff on aron nelson's page and
decide for yourself.

toby