Carl Verheyen is a guitar chameleon whose whose adaptability puts him in high demand has made him in high demand for everything from TV commercials to major recordings.
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I caught his gig at Hollywoodās legendary fusion hang, The Baked Potato. I heard an eye-bulging fusion of great tunes and styles and that made me want to run home and practice. Verheyen uses the kind of gear that makes guitar freaks need a drool bucket. He uses a mix of vintage amps and guitars married with modern technologyāto great effect. Verheyen has the coolest toys. When he agreed to this interview, I knew this was going to be the perfect opportunity to pick the brain of a great virtuoso. He also turned out to be one hell of a nice guy.
What in your mind distinguishes you from other guitarists who put out records with chops for days?
The problem is that there are so many guitar players nowadays that love to use their home studios and spend hours and hours on their solos. Iām an old school guy sonically. Iāve got to use a real studio. You never listen to your amp with your ear down near the amp. You listen to your amp in the room. The best studios in town, like Capitol Records and Sunset Sound and some of these old school places, have amazing rooms. We mic the amp, but we also mic the room. Thatās the sound of the guitar and thatās what I want to hear. Iām not a home studio guy. I pretty much just do little demos for myself on an old hard drive recorder, and mic amps and mic acoustic guitars and work out parts, so I rarely have to use a real studio.
So instead of my records costing $5000 to $6000, they cost $25,000 or $30,000. Which is dangerous nowadays in this climate where people arenāt buying CDsātheyāre downloading. But thatās ok, too.
The sound on your records is very organic.
I never use plug-ins, and I always mic an amp no matter what. I like to mic it through some of that old API gear that they have at Sunset Sound, but Iām paying two hundred bucks an hour (laughs) so itās a little dangerous. You want to be able to listen to it five to ten years from now and say, āMan, this still holds up,ā
whereas that plug-in stuff may not.
When I go into the studio, I have four to five hours to get this tune completely in the bag. That means the 12-string part, the Gretsch part, the SG part, the two acoustic parts and the solo. The modern art of the guitar records is in the orchestration, because at some point everybodyās got monster chops.
I was listening to Greg Howeās new record and thinking, āOh man, this guyās chops are insane!ā There are a lot of people on a level thatās pretty high in terms of that. Now it becomes, how do you layer? How do you orchestrate? My concept has always been, āHow do I pick whoās going to be Frank Sinatra? Which guy is going to have that main voice?ā On those Frank Sinatra records the whole orchestra comes in and itās beautiful. Thereās this huge level of glorious sound. Then Frank comes in and itās even more glorious!
So when youāre orchestrating all the guitars you have to figure the rhythm part is going to be this clean Strat, but Iām going to back it up with this acoustic. Iāll put the Strat in the middle of the two acoustics to give it a little more sonic girth. Right in the pre-chorus this Tele has to come in with a little hair on it. When the chorus hits Iām going to put the Les Paul here and the SG here through little amps, and theyāre going to play the same unison line. Little amps are key because they can give you that cranked tone. When the solo comes in, thatās a 4x12 in the middle of the room with a mic far away and you get this big huge sound. You can hear the room, and thatās really important.
1969 Marshall 100-Watt head, 1964 Fender Twin, 1963 Vox AC30 and two THD 2x12 cabs. |
In the eighties, just like everybody else around 1981, I met Bob Bradshaw. So I got the big rack. That rack grew and grew, and then there were two racks, an amp rack and an effects rack. One day in about 1989, when all that stuff was going strong, I remember plugging my seafoam green Strat into one of my Fender Princetons and thinking, āYou know what? This sounds better to my ears than $50,000 worth of rack gear.ā In those days we were listening to the sound of the reverbs and the delays and the choruses. When you turned all that stuff off, the sound of the basic guitar through the rig was kind of sterile. I realized that the marriage of a great-sounding guitar with an amp is very important. I had a Vox AC30 and some Marshalls
and stuff like that and I thought, āMaybe I can use these things.ā
It started to come together with an A/B system. I would say right around 1990 I started putting together that kind of clean and dirty rig. I remember talking to Allan Holdsworth and he said, āYou donāt play clean and dirty out of the same speakers do you?ā And I said, āYeah.ā He said, āHow can you do that? I want a real papery warm sound from my lead tone, like Celestions. From my clean sound I want something a little more bright and pingy.ā Then I thought, āWell so do I!ā Thatās what kind of started me thinking down the road of having two separate rigs.
At one point I was playing a show at Billboard Live in Hollywood, and I had my rack stuff and the entire bandās show was programmed in. I just had to go to number one, number two, etc. Somebody walked by the power source and kicked the cable and it came out of the wall. It wiped out all ninety-nine programs! So Iāve got ten minutes until show time, and the other band had a Fender Twin. I thought, āIāll just pull out some pedals, plug into this Fender Twin and go for it.ā Really, when you get into all this changing of parameters of each sound, the only person who knows it is you, unless itās super radical. I realized at that point that itās better to have two amazing sounds than ninety-nine okay sounds.
That rackmount preamp/power amp period was sometimes an eight, but never a ten. My two favorite clean sounding amps are the Fender Twin and the AC30. I get all this nice midrange and fatness from the Twin. With the AC30 I get all this high-end sparkle. As a stereo pair itās pretty cool.
Dr. Z SRZ-65 head, with Carl's rack. |
What I do is come off the A/B pedalboard, and for the clean Iām going through one pedal. It goes into a Robert Stamps reverb unit, which he made custom for me back in 1997 when I was about to do a Supertramp tour. I needed spring reverb, but in rack form, and he did that for me. It comes out of that and goes into a stereo chorus, but I almost never turn it on. When I do, itās very subtle. That comes out in stereo to the left and right inputs of a Lexicon MPX 100 Stereo Delay. I use that ping-pong delay just to give myself some imaging on stage. Iāve got a few settings for various tempos, and all my rack effects are before my clean amps. For the dirty sound, I come off the B-side of the pedal board after going through the three distortion pedals and go into the Doctor Z head. Itās a replacement for my old Marshall. Theyāre becoming $5000 to $6000 for those Plexi heads. Doctor Z made it so that if you turn the master volume all the way up itās out of the signal path. Itās basically acting like a non-master volume amp using the power tubes to the fullest. Then I come into one of those THD Hotplates. That has a direct outāI feed that to a cabinetāand it also has a line level out that I feed into a Lexicon PCM-41. Itās a line level reverb, and the only way you can get into that is by turning the speaker out into line level, which the Hotplate does really well.
The switching is seamless.
An A/B system like that is going to be organic, whereas if you do channel switching or MIDI or any of that stuff, it cuts off. That little millisecond is not organic. If I have a rhythm part going and Iām singing, and I feel like slamming in a little lead line, the rhythm part hangs over in the air while I switch. Thereās no pop or anything with those Lehle foot switches.
Carl's pedalboard. |
Yeah, thereās a really nice distortion pedal Iāve been using called the Cream pedal by Andy Fuchs of Fuchs Amplification. Itās kind of a cross between a saturated Fuzz Face type of pedal and a Tube Screamer. Itās somewhere in the middle, which is nice because I find Tube Screamers sometimes arenāt saturated enough to get that creamy tone. Fuzz Faces are a little hard to manage for me. Theyāre a little out of control. Iāve been using that quite a bit lately.
Doctor Z recently got me a new Carmen Gia head. Thatās a really nice head. Itās only 18 watts, but for recording or a small blues gig itās great. Iāve been able to use that head to get the sound Iāve never been able to get before, real beautiful sounding.
How did you become such a successful session cat? What separates you from other guitarists?
I looked at the guys who just did record dates. They were maybe non-readers. Then I looked at theses other guys who seemed to be able to do everything⦠records, movies, jingles, TV, all that kind of stuff. The guys who can do everything get a lot bigger piece of the pie. To me the number one requirement for that was a thorough understanding of the ornamentation of the styles.
When you really get down to it, blues, blues-rock, rock, country, country-rock, bluegrass, jazz, heavy metal, be-bop, all these different styles of music use the same twelve notes. The only difference between the jazz guys is how they ornament the style. Theyāll play a certain feel so itās a rhythmic ornamentation. Theyāll play a certain choice of notes so itās a harmonic thing and a sonic thing. You take that be-bop style of Charlie Parkerāitās really in many cases the mixolydian mode. Then you go to these blues guys like B.B. King. Heās also playing the mixolydian mode, along with minor pentatonic and various things, but so are the jazz guys. So itās the phrasing and what I call the ornamentation of styles.
I had an awakening one day around 1980. Iād been studying jazz really hard, practicing five to eight hours a day for maybe six to seven years to try to be able to play through changes in the style of Wes Montgomery, Pat Martino, Pat Metheny and all those guys. I wanted to be a jazz guy. One day, Iām driving my car and I hear this Joe Walsh solo on the radio. It was from The Eaglesā tune, āThose Shoes.ā It was just a soulful solo. I think he was using a voice box. I had to pull my car over. The state of the art of rock guitar has come so far. It made me think, [laughing] āThis is the music of my people!ā It made me really think, āI could play twenty-six choruses of āStella By Starlight,ā but who cares? I really like this.ā
Come to think of it, I love that Chet Atkins stuff I was hearing the other day. And I really like the way my friend plays classical guitar, and Iād really love to learn some of those Bach pieces. And I love the way Albert Lee plays. I need to get into everything. It made me come to realize that if you dig it, you must learn it. I just want to be a great guitar player, and not a great jazz playerānot necessarily a great one thing or another. I think that really helped me in the studios.
Give me an example of how this works for
you in the studio.
I come into a session on a country thing, so I pull out this great Fender Tremolux amp Iāve got, and plug my Telecaster in and get the perfect country sound. Then the producer says, āYaā know, I think itās a little too country. Can we rock out?ā So I say, āYeah.ā So I get a Strat and play through a THD head that has some crunch to it. So the artist says he wants to go more acoustic and he wants to take it up a step. So now weāre in a different key and weāre thinking bluegrass or folk-rock.
If youāre the hat-wearing, boot-wearing, country picker guy, once they start changing it youāre sent home. That day is over. They need different guys because that country guy can only play one thing. Anybody who wants to be successful in the world of producers and songwriters really needs to have all that versatility. Itās even more important than reading, unless of course you get into movies.
Youāve got to separate your artistic career from your sideman career. Your sideman career is about you being a well-listened craftsman. I was called into a session once where they said, āI need that ZZ Top thing.ā Thatās Billy Gibbons playing a Les Paul, probably through a little tweed Fender amp. Pinch harmonics⦠a Texas shuffle is very different than a Chicago shuffle so the sound adjusts, the feel adjusts and hereās my impersonation
of Billy Gibbons. That is being a well-listened craftsman, as opposed to an artist. I separate the two in order to make a living. When you are a sideman youāve got somebody elseās musical vision that youāre trying to bring out. When Iām making my own records itās my musical vision.
The styles come through in your solo work.
I hear all that country stuff in my own playing, the jazz stuff as well as the fusion of rock and blues. Itās all part of the expression of the whole. With the well-listened craftsman, youāre kind of like a plumber who looks under the sink and says he needs a 5/8ā wrench.
Knowing your guitar tone history is just as important as knowing the fret board.
Every real serious student of the guitar is also a musical historian. You think back to those old records and you know what they played. Seymour Duncan can name every guitar from every track from the fifties, sixties and seventies. He knows every pickup. He knows it all.
What do you do to further your craft in terms of practicing?
Iām a serious practicer. To me, practicing is where I find my center as a person. If I go a day without practicing, I feel useless. I donāt feel like Iām doing what Iām here to do. I donāt feel like Iām on the level of where I want to be. To practice, Iāve always kept a lick book. Itās an ongoing musical diary thatās always on my music stand.
Iāve got lines for Emaj7th chords, harmony lines, pentatonics in D minor, chord voicings and anything that comes to mind. Iām always writing stuff down. Iām getting ready to do a DVD, so Iām writing five minor, five dominant and five major lines. I have old lick books that are completely full of lines. Iāve transcribedĀ Brent Masonās āHot Wiredā and then start working on ideas from that. Itās a great way of practicing. Iāll say, āI need a line in F# minor that starts on the low F# and ends on the high C#.ā Iāll come up with something new and original, then write it down. Then Iāll transpose it into a major version, and then a dominant seventh version. Then Iāll practice it⦠to see if it fits. Then Iāve got new materialāor I could go back ten pages. I can try it again and it might lead me to new stuff.
Youāve discussed your lick book on your Intervallic Rock video. Itās invaluable.
My personal style is a direct result of the lick book. My intervals are always larger than minor seconds, major seconds and minor thirds. I think in terms of fourths, fifths and sixths. It relates to my lines and my chords.
I would say itās a key element of your style.
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People who are full-time musicians run the risk of picking up the guitar after work and relaxing with it. They end up playing the same stuff they play every night to relax. Itās like the glass of wine. They play a lick, maybe a couple of chords, improvise in D major and it just kind of flows along. That isnāt practicing.
Practicing is finding new things or getting the impossible stuff you already know down better.
Improving. Do you play every single day?
Yeah. Not playing for a couple of days would be really bad.
Whatās your favorite Strat?
The one you saw me play live is a ā61 seafoam green Strat. Itās my favorite rock guitar.
ENGL, renowned for its high-performance amplifiers, proudly introduces the EP635 Fireball IR Pedal, a revolutionary 2-channel preamp pedal designed to deliver the legendary Fireball tone in a compact and feature-rich format.
The EP635 Fireball IR Pedal brings the raw power and precision of the ENGL Fireball amplifier into a pedalboard-friendly enclosure, offering unmatched flexibility and tonal control for guitarists of all styles. This cutting-edge pedal is equipped with advanced features, making it a must-have for players seeking high-gain perfection with modern digital convenience.
Key Features:
- Authentic Fireball Tone ā Designed after the renowned ENGL Fireball amplifier, the EP635 delivers the unmistakable high-gain aggression and clarity that ENGL fans love.
- Two Independent Channels ā Easily switch between two distinct channels, with each channelās knob settings saved independently, allowing for seamless transitions between tones.
- Built-in Midboost Function ā Enhance your tone with the integrated Midboost switch, perfect for cutting through the mix with extra punch.
- Advanced Noise Gate ā Eliminate unwanted noise and maintain articulate clarity, even with high-gain settings.
- IR (Impulse Response) Loading via USB-C ā Customize your sound with user-loadable IRs using the included software, bringing studio-quality cab simulations to your pedalboard.
- Headphone Output ā Silent practice has never been easier, with a dedicated headphone output for direct monitoring.
- Premium Build and Intuitive Controls ā Featuring a rugged chassis and responsive controls for Volume, Gain, Bass, Middle, Treble, and Presence, ensuring precise tonal shaping.
SPECS:
- Input 1/4ā (6,35mm) Jack
- Output 1/4ā (6,35mm) Jack
- Headphone Output 1/8ā(3,5mm) Jack
- 9V DC / 300mA (center negativ) / power supply, sold separately
- USB C
The Gibson EH-185, introduced in 1939, was one of the companyās first electric guitars.
Before the Les Pauls and SGs, this aluminum-reinforced instrument was one of the famous brandās first electric guitars.
Itās hard to overstate the importance of electric guitar in shaping American popular music over the last half-century. Its introduction was a revolution, changing the course of modern musical styles. Today, when we think of the guitars that started the revolution, we think of the Stratocaster and the Les Paul, guitars held against the body and fretted with the fingertips. But the real spark of this musical mutiny was the lap-steel guitar.
In the early 20th century, guitar music was moving out of the parlors of homes and into public spaces where folks could gather together and dance. Guitarists needed to project their sound far beyond where their wimpy little acoustic instruments could reach. Instrument manufacturers began experimenting with larger body sizes, metal construction, and resonators to increase volume.
Around this time, George Beauchamp began experimenting with electric guitar amplification. He settled on a design using two U-shaped magnets and a single coil of wire. Beauchamp was in business with Adolph Rickenbacker, and they decided to stick this new invention into a lap steel.
If we put on our 1930s glasses, this decision makes perfect sense. The most popular music at the time was a blend of Hawaiian and jazz styles made famous by virtuosos like Solomon āSolā HoŹ»opiŹ»i. Photos of HoŹ»opiŹ»i with a metal-body resonator aboundāone can imagine his relief at being handed an instrument that projected sound toward the audience via an amplifier, rather than back at his own head via resonator cones. Beauchamp and Rickenbacker were simply following the market.
As it turned out, the popularity of Hawaiian music gave way to swing, and electric lap steels didnāt exactly take the world by storm. But Beauchamp and Rickenbacker had proven the viability of this new technology, and other manufacturers followed suit. In 1937, Gibson created a pickup with magnets under the strings, rather than above like Beauchampās.
āWhen I plugged in the EH-185 I expected to hear something reminiscent of Charlie Christianās smooth, clean tone. But what I got was meatierācloser to what I associate with P-90s: warm and midrange-y.ā
The first page of Gibsonās āElectrical Instrumentsā section in the 1939 catalog features a glowing, full-page write-up of their top-of-the-line lap steel: the EH-185. āEverything about this new electric Hawaiian Guitar smacks of good showmanship,ā effuses the copy. āIt has smoothness, great sustaining power, and an easy flow of tone that builds up strongly and does not die out.ā
Picking up the 1940 EH-185 at Fannyās House of Music is about as close as one can get to traveling back in time to try a new one. It is just so clean, with barely any dings or even finish checking. Overall, this is a 9/10 piece, and itās a joy to behold. Speaking of picking it up, the first thing you notice when you lift the EH-185 out of the case is its weight. This is a much heavier instrument than other similar-sized lap steels, owing to a length of thick metal between the body and the fretboard. The catalog calls it āHyblum metal,ā which may be a flowery trade name for an early aluminum alloy.
This 1940 EH-185 is heavier than other lap steels in its class, thanks to a length of metal between its fretboard and body.
Photo by Madison Thorn
There are numerous other fancy appointments on the EH-185 that Gibson didnāt offer on their lesser models. Itās made of highly figured maple, with diamond-shaped decorations on the back of the body and neck. The double binding is nearly a centimeter thick and gives the instrument a luxurious, expensive look.
Behind all these high-end attributes is a great-sounding guitar, thanks to that old pickup. Itās got three blades protruding through the bobbin for the unwound strings and one longer blade for the wound strings. When I plugged in the EH-185 I expected to hear something reminiscent of Charlie Christianās smooth, clean tone. But what I got was meatierācloser to what I associate with P-90s: warm and midrange-y. It was just crying out for a little crunch and a bluesy touch. Itās kind of cool how such a pristine, high-end vintage instrument can be so well-suited for a sound thatās rough around the edges.
As far as electric guitars go, it doesnāt get much more vintage than this 1940 Gibson EH-185 Lap Steel. It reminds us of where the story of the electric guitar truly began. This EH-185 isnāt just a relicāitās a testament to when the future of music was unfolding in real time. Plug it in, and you become part of the revolution.
Sources: Smithsonian, Vintage Guitar, Mozart Project, Gibson Pre-War, WIRED, Steel Guitar Forum, Vintaxe
J Mascis is well known for his legendary feats of volume.
J Mascis is well known for his legendary feats of volume. Just check out a photo of his rig to see an intimidating wall of amps pointed directly at the Dinosaur Jr. leaderās head. And though his loudness permeates all that he does and has helped cement his reputation, thereās a lot more to his playing.
On this episode of 100 Guitarists, weāre looking at each phase of the trioās long career. How many pedals does J use to get his sound? Whatās his best documented use of a flanger? How does his version of āMaggot Brainā (recorded with bassist Mike Watt) compare to Eddie Hazelās? And were you as surprised as we were when Fender released a J Mascis signature Tele?
Editorial Director Ted Drozdowskiās current favorite noisemakers.
Premier Guitarās edit staff shares their favorite fuzz units and how and when they use them.
Premier Guitarās editors use their favorite fuzz pedals in countless ways. At any point during our waking hours, one of us could be turned on, plugged in, and fuzzed outāchasing a Sabbath riff, tracking menacing drone ambience, fire-branding a solo break with a psychedelic blast, or something else altogether more deranged. As any PGreader knows, there are nearly infinite paths to these destinations and almost as many fuzz boxes to travel with. Germanium, silicon, 2-transistor, 4-transistor, 6-transistor, octave, multimode, modern, and caveman-stupid: Almost all of these fuzz types are represented among our own faves, which are presented here as inspiration, and launch pads for your own rocket rides to the Fuzz-o-sphere.
Ted Drozdowski - Editorial Director
My favorite is my Burns Buzz, a stomp custom-made for me by Gary Kibler of Big Knob Pedals. Gary specializes in recreations of old circuits, and this Burns Buzzaround-inspired box has four germanium NOS transistors and sounds beautifully gnarly. It improves on the original, which Robert Fripp favored in early King Crimson, by adding a volume control. I went a little stir-crazy acquiring fuzzes during Covid lockdown and now have an embarrassing amount. My other current darlings are a SoloDallas Orbiter (which balances fuzz with core-signal clarity), a Joe Gore Duh (a no-nonsense, 1-knob dirt shoveler), and my Big Knob Tone Blender MkII 66, which taught me how smooth and creamy fuzz can be with carefully calibrated settings. These pedals allow me to cover all of my favorite fuzz sounds from the past 60 years. I do have one more secret weapon fuzz that only travels to the studio: an original Maestro FZ-1 that I picked up used for about $20 in the early ā90s. Itās banged up but functional, takes two 9V batteries, and is righteously juicy.
Nick Millevoi - Senior Editor
The two greatest fuzzes Iāve ever played are a Pigdog Tone Bender build and a Paul Trombetta Bone Machine. Both experiences will stick with me for decades to come. But creations by those two masters of fuzz come with a price tag high enough to keep my time with those pedals fleeting.
Instead, my favorite fuzz is an inexpensive, mass-produced pedal that hasnāt left my board since I reviewed and subsequently purchased it in 2021: the Electro-Harmonix Ripped Speaker, designed to emulate the distorted tones on ā50s and ā60s records that were created with broken or misused gear.
Retro inspiration is not all it has to offer though. The rip knob, which controls transistor bias, is the star of the show, interacting with the fuzz level to deliver everything from a smooth, mild fuzz to sputtery mayhem that can evoke a faulty channel strip or old tube combo thatās been set ablaze. I prefer to crank the rip knob and feed it to a phaser and slapback analog delay, which gives me a bit-crushed-like gnarliness. Pull back on the rip or add a boost in front of the pedal, and it has a more organic but still gated sound, which, for me, can be just the thing to set my sound apart in a more traditional setting.
For a cool $116, the Ripped Speaker, which seems to fly under most fuzz freaksā radars, might be the special something that complements the rest of your board or just a tone you turn to on occasion. Either way, itās a great deal.
Luke Ottenhof - Assistant Editor
You could give me the most powerful-sounding fuzz in the world, but if it was in a stupid-looking enclosure, I donāt know if Iād give it a second look. This is just how we operate: Vision is the sense we privilege most, even in matters of audio.
Luckily, the most seismic, monstrous fuzz Iāve ever heard also happens to come in a beautiful package. The Mile End Effects Kollaps, built by Justin Cober in Montreal, measures an elephantine 7 3/8" x 4 5/8" x 1 1/2", and its MuTron-meets-ā60s-Soviet aesthetic matches the sounds its guts produce. The Kollaps is modeled after the nasty Univox Super-Fuzz circuit, and carries a few of that pedalās hallmarks, including its use of germanium diodes and midrange boost control. Cober added a switchable Baxandall active EQ circuit, with up to 12 dB of boost and cut to both low and high frequencies. Coupled with the mid-boost toggle, this gives the Kollaps a shockingly broad range of tonality to play with.With the mids off, the Kollaps is jagged and ruthless, a deafening turbojet of upper mids and chest-vibrating lows that yanks me toward the darker, less commercially successful corners of ā90s doom and noise rock. Kicking on the EQ circuit and boosting the lows turns it titanic. With the balance (volume) and expand (gain) controls maxed, the Kollaps starts to live up to its name, crumbling into a thick, overextended chaos in a way more polite fuzz circuits rarely do.
My favorite Kollaps sounds occur when the mids are engaged, for an articulate, deeply textured fuzz sound that retains your attack. Playing with your guitarās volume knob, you can coax a range of EQ profiles and take advantage of the upper- and lower-octave content in the fuzz. With guitar volume lower, you can access some unbelievably emotive and sensitive sounds that still teeter on the edge of chaos and violence. Itās a rich, volatile circuit that gets as close as Iāve heard to a sound and physical feeling Iād call āplanet-destroying.ā
Charles Saufley - Gear Editor
My first fuzz, A Sovtek Big Muff, remains tied for first place among many favorites. The pedalās most famous virtuesācorpulence and sustaināare among the reasons I treasure it. But the way the Sovtek pairs with a Rickenbacker 330 and Fender Jaguar, which were once my two primary guitars for performance and recording, made it invaluable in various projects for a long time. Neither the Ricky nor the Jag are sustain machines, but the wailing mass of theBig Muff makes their focused voices an assetāinspiring tight, concise fuzz phrases, hooks, and riffs as well as articulate chords.
A silicon Fuzzrite clone built by good pal Jesse Trbovich (long-time member ofKurt Vileās Violators) runs second place to the Sovtek in terms of tenure, and is a very different fuzz. Itās a piercing, hyper-buzzy thing, but a perfect match for a squishy 1960s Fender Bassman head and 2x12 I adore. Perversely, I sometimes couple it with a Death By Audio Thee Ffuzz Warr Overload or Wattson FY-6 Shin-Ei Super-Fuzz clone. These tandems create chaos and chance, but sing loud and melodiously tooāat least when Iām not intentionally bathing in feedback. The Jext Telez Buzz Tone, a clone of the mid-ā60s Selmer circuit, is often my go-to now. Itās a low-gain affair compared to the other fuzzes here, and I use it in its even-lower-gain (and vintage-correct) 3-volt setting. Itās pretty noisy, but it is thick, dynamic, detailed, raunchy, and plenty trashy when the occasion demands it. Itās also a very cool overdrive when you back off the gas.Jason Shadrick - Managing Editor
I rarely need fuzz in my everyday gigs, but it's one of the most fun effects to explore when I'm noodling around. At a NAMM show a few years ago I plugged into Mythos' Argo and as soon as I hit a note my eyes lit up. The sound of the fuzz wasn't unwieldy or hard to manage. It gave me the illusion of control while the octave was the magic dust on top. I knew right then I wasn't leaving the show without one. After I spent some time with it, I became enamored by how much more the Argo can do.
It's inspired by the Prescription Electronics C.O.B. (Clean Octave Blend), so the control set is similar. The octave is always present in the signal path, but you can dial it out with the blend knob. The fuzz and volume knobs are self explanatory, but dialing the fuzz and octave knobs all the way down gives you a killer boost pedal. I find my favorite settings are at the extremes of the fuzz and blend ranges. Typically, both are either all the way up or all the way down. Another great experiment is to turn the fuzz down and then pair it with a separate drive pedal. And in octave mode, Argo is one of those pedals that inspires you to head directly for the neck pickup and stay above the 12th fret.