Fuzz for bass with active pickups?

Ale_jellybelly

Ale_jellybelly

Well-known member
My bandmate has a Music Man with active pickups, and from what I've heard it's pretty picky when it comes to fuzzes.
Do you guys have suggestions? I was thinking maybe a Cream Pie or a Kewpie, but not opposed to some more fancy stuff
 
Possibly picky because of high output levels. Especially if they're running the preamp at 18v. If they are, may want to shoehorn a input trim on whatever you go with(if it doesn't have one).

That being said, the brass master is a classic. Really original design with the whole bridge rectifier/carrier design and it has a clean blend.
Madbean has a board that I believe is being restocked soon.
 
I play an SBMM Ray34 and have found good tones with the Brassmaster, MBP Gas Tank, PPCB Snuffy (prefer over the Aloysius), Shika fuzz, and the Obsidius (more drive than fuzz though). Working on a Aionfx Binary build. Will report back
 
Also need to add the Colorsound Bass Fuzz. I have a Stomp Underfoot Rhinosuar and it kills! can be built on any basic Muff board, just omit the first stage diodes and clipping cap, as well as, the recovery gain stage and beef up the input/output/coupling caps. GGG and GPCB both have boards for the Bass Fuzz itself. Either way it ROARS. I have a Delano MC 4 FE/M2 quad coil running into a mojotone 3 band MM pre with parallel/split/series switching and I lose no bass or fuzz on any of the settings. Plenty of articulation no fart
 
Get them a p bass, problem solved. But to be serious, your first thoughts were very good and all these suggestions are excellent. I prefer the cream pie to the kewpie for bass.

I don't mess with musicman style basses but the active electronics on my electric upright can be pretty finicky with fuzzes. I've found some unexpected ones to work especially well like the sodameiser, DAM Ezekiel, unpleasant surprise.

My dizzy elk gets along with every bass I own.
 
If you want weird fuzz, the prunes and custard plays pretty well with my ray. Does lose a little low end, but makes up for it in flavor.
Mentaltossflycoon said:
I've found some unexpected ones to work especially well like the sodameiser, DAM Ezekiel, unpleasant surprise.

My dizzy elk gets along with every bass I own.
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I was ab to ditch my Unpleasant Surprise in the meh, sell if I can pile. Need to give it a whirl on bass and bust out my Dizzy Tone too
 
Diynot said:
Also need to add the Colorsound Bass Fuzz. I have a Stomp Underfoot Rhinosuar and it kills! can be built on any basic Muff board, just omit the first stage diodes and clipping cap, as well as, the recovery gain stage and beef up the input/output/coupling caps. GGG and GPCB both have boards for the Bass Fuzz itself. Either way it ROARS. I have a Delano MC 4 FE/M2 quad coil running into a mojotone 3 band MM pre with parallel/split/series switching and I lose no bass or fuzz on any of the settings. Plenty of articulation no fart
Click to expand...
I leave the recovery stage on, then the pedal won't invert the signal's phase. Helps further down the signal chain if using a clean-blend.



I've got an active Jaguar HB, but have yet to mess with it and my pedals — didn't even think about it until this thread. I mostly play my upright acoustically as I'm not in a band now. Otherwise, it's Underwood into a HPF-Pre > effects...


Dizzy Tone is one of my all-time favourite fuzzes, and I like the Acoustic 360 fuzz, though I don't have that yet. Do they work with an active bass? I don't know, but I aim to find out. Lots of great suggestions in the thread already.
 
Diynot said:
If you want weird fuzz, the prunes and custard plays pretty well with my ray. Does lose a little low end, but makes up for it in flavor.

I was ab to ditch my Unpleasant Surprise in the meh, sell if I can pile. Need to give it a whirl on bass and bust out my Dizzy Tone too
Click to expand...
Second the prunes. My first unpleasant was built with j201 that I auditioned by ear, the second with j201 that I selected using a DCA75. Both rob the low end with the onset knob dimed but the second is petty great with the onset closer to noon. I mostly mention it because I was shocked how much I liked it with the active piezo. I've been considering an unpleasant parallel build with another favorite like the cream pie.
 
Feral Feline said:
I leave the recovery stage on, then the pedal won't invert the signal's phase. Helps further down the signal chain if using a clean-blend.
Dizzy Tone is one of my all-time favourite fuzzes, and I like the Acoustic 360 fuzz, though I don't have that yet. Do they work with an active bass?
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But then it’s just a Bass Muff🤣. I did build the GPCB version and Barry did include a recovery stage, but I can’t recall it really adding anything. I’ll let you know ab the Dizzy Tone here in a minute, but keep in mind it is a 3 transistor circuit as well.
 
Bass Muffs have only one clipping diode stage? I did not know that. I like to stick one or both stages clipping diodes on switches anyway. Maximum versatility.

I've got some of GPCB's SuperToneBender Muff-Bender boards, the "Colourtoan". I'll have to get busy building again.
 
Feral Feline said:
Bass Muffs have only one clipping diode stage? I did not know that. I like to stick one or both stages clipping diodes on switches anyway. Maximum versatility.

I've got some of GPCB's SuperToneBender Muff-Bender boards, the "Colourtoan". I'll have to get busy building again.
Click to expand...
Unsure of the diode config in a Bass Muff, just referencing the number of gain stages. I just did a litttle shoot out between the Dizzy Tone, Unpleasant Surprise, and my modified NYC Muff with diode lift and mids pot mod. All performed admirably. The US has a great square wave fuzz to it, so a little different flavor than the DT and Muff. Between the DT and Muff I think I preferred the muff with diodes lifted and mids engaged by a hair over the DT. For purposes of the OP all worked great with an active pup. Now I need to build a damn bass muff with diode lift and mids pot
 
Diynot said:
Unsure of the diode config in a Bass Muff, just referencing the number of gain stages. I just did a litttle shoot out between the Dizzy Tone, Unpleasant Surprise, and my modified NYC Muff with diode lift and mids pot mod. All performed admirably. The US has a great square wave fuzz to it, so a little different flavor than the DT and Muff. Between the DT and Muff I think I preferred the muff with diodes lifted and mids engaged by a hair over the DT. For purposes of the OP all worked great with an active pup. Now I need to build a damn bass muff with diode lift and mids pot
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https://www.pedalpcb.com/product/bayonetfuzz/ with diodes on a switch?
 
Definite possibility. Was looking at the colossus or ungulate fuzz since both have the mids pot already integrated. I would omit the switch on the colossus and increase input/coupling/output caps to 220nf and remove the first stage diodes. Since my beloved Rhinosuar uses BC549c, I would just go 5088 across the board.
 
Diynot said:
Unsure of the diode config in a Bass Muff, just referencing the number of gain stages. I just did a litttle shoot out between the Dizzy Tone, Unpleasant Surprise, and my modified NYC Muff with diode lift and mids pot mod. All performed admirably. The US has a great square wave fuzz to it, so a little different flavor than the DT and Muff. Between the DT and Muff I think I preferred the muff with diodes lifted and mids engaged by a hair over the DT. For purposes of the OP all worked great with an active pup. Now I need to build a damn bass muff with diode lift and mids pot
Click to expand...
I just today built a Green Russian/Civil War muff variant with Jack Orman’s germanium diode mod (six in three series triplets) with a switch to go back to the stock two 4148s. As one might expect, the silicon option has more midrange edge and the germaniums are very dark, which may or may not suit your musical preferences. This variant is also very bottom-heavy (as before).

I’m revisiting muffs in general (no sniggering offstage please 😉) because awhile back (several years ago in fact) I ordered a whole mess of boards from Klaus to try out all these variants.
 
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