ZVEX Fuzz Factory + other pedals

[tallman]

One of the best pedals ever.  Endless fun.

www.zvex.com

I haven't seen any posts about ZVEX pedals on here and I thought people might want to check them out.  Pricey, but extremely unique.

 

[dudesweet157]

And I thought $180 for my RC Booster was bad!  There is no way that they can sound that much better than the gear I'm using at a 1/3 - 1/2 the cost.

I run a Tuner--->Xotic RC Booster--->MI Audio Crunchbox--->Visual Sound V2 H2O--->AMP.  It sounds good and nothing cost more than $200.  I just cannot see spending $300+ on a pedal.  I could buy a REALLY NICE body or neck from Warmoth with that kinda cash.

 

[RLW]

Zach is a great guy. I bought an SHO ages ago, played with it for a while, and emailed him with a comment about how much I liked it. Fifteen minutes later I get a one sentence response...

"Okay, but what does it DO???"

At first I'm thinking, what an arrogant little nimrod! And then the humor of it hits me, he wants ME to tell HIM what HIS pedal does. So I write back with my best explanation of what the thing does. Another fifteen minutes later I get a three paragraph response about how the ultra-high input impedance is like peddling your bicycle with the chain removed, along with much, MUCH more bizarro techno-babble. He then ends by saying that he has to go to the grocery store, and gives me his cellphone number just in case I have any more questions.

I've been a fan ever since.

He's one of the few people out there trying to do something groundbreaking in effects pedals, rather than "design" the newest, hippest, most expensive Tone Bender/Fuzzface/Big Muff clone in a fancy-schmancy enclosure. Yep, they're expensive. And worth every penny as far as I'm concerned.

 

[tallman]

Yeah, they are extremely expensive.  Right now my kind of budget can only afford the vexter series pedals or the sho.  But if I made some serious cash, I could write some amazing stuff around effects like the tremorama or the ooh wah or the ringtone.  Check out the demo videos -very entertaining

 

[tallman]

RLW - do you have any of his pedals other than the sho or fuzz factory?

 

[bpmorton777]

I always thought that their wah pedels with the theremin interface were totaly cool.

Brian

 

[chuck7]

wow, I'm in love with the Octane 3.  I think I just found my anniversary gift from my wife

 

[Patrick from Davis]

I have a Super Duper and a Fuzz Probe.  Both are great fun.  Both are really expensive for pedals.  I have found wiring diagrams to make my own, but I kinda like the artsy boxes.  I really like the fact that they are so odd.  I am willing to pay for something like that.  One thing I learned was that the Fuzz probe does not have a 3pdt switch, they do not make them tall enough.  That means you can get some noise in the background if you crank the gain.  The switch doesn't send the output of the pedal to ground in bypass.  There is no input to the Fuzz circuit, but it is noisy enough to bleed out.  Here is a sound sample of the chaos.  I just messed with it and found if I turned the gain down a bit it went away.  No real difference in sound.  It is just nutty fun.

The Super Duper is like the SHO.  I like the output knob though.  It is also fun to just have it on and get the impedance kick and then have the second one give a big boost when you stomp on it.  Fun fun.
Patrick

 

[RLW]

RLW - do you have any of his pedals other than the sho or fuzz factory?

I've got a first edition Ooh Wah. If I had to do it all over again, I would have waited for the newer one with the tap-tempo. Live and learn.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Their mini-tube amp is quite impressive.