Recently I've spent some time at my local music store playing with their selection of fuzz pedals. I personally am not a huge user of fuzz in my sound. I love the over-saturated sounds that some pedals can get. I don't use much in the applications that I currently play, also I am notoriously cheap, so I haven't whipped out the cash to get a pedal that I don't use much. So when Electo Harmonics came out with the Satisfaction Fuzz my interest was peaked. EHX makes my current favorite fuzz, the Big Muff Pi with Tone Wick. So I'm a fan of what EHX can do with a fuzz circuit, but the satisfaction fuzz was made with a particular sound in mind: the guitar sound in the Rolling Stone's Satisfaction. If you subscribe to rock and roll folk lore, the sound in question was made when the amp Keith Richards played through busted a speaker, creating a nasty buzzing sound. They decided they liked the change and the rest is rock and roll history. EHX set out to make a pedal that recreated the sound of Richards' amp.
Was I satisfied?
With that in mind, I plugged into a Fender Super Sonic amp and started playing with a Blacktop Telecaster. The sounds the pedal made were good. There was a lot of top end. This pedal refuses to be covered up in the mix. I cut the highs on the amp to recreate some of the other fuzz noises that I like. Thinking that I could recreate some of the Big Muff Pi sounds. No dice. With the highs at 10 o'clock and the bass almost pegged, the sound was nearly the same as before. I cut the tone knob down, but nothing really produced the kind of sounds that I was looking for. I'm not trying to say that there is no way to produce other tones with this pedal, but from the beginning this pedal had one thing on its mind.
Who's really in control?
The lack of control is explained in the fact that it only has two knobs: Volume and Attack. You'll notice that neither of those knobs control tone. Compared to the Big Muff Pi this fuzz is very one sided. If you are looking to recreate those famous tones that the Stones played decades ago, then you have your pedal. If you are looking for an all-around fuzz that you can use to create different tones, look elsewhere. The ugly truth, The EHX Satisfaction Fuzz is a one-trick pony. To some it up, I didn't get no satisfaction.
actually this is a recreation of 60s fuzz pedals, based on Jordan BossTone. Keith Richards played a Maestro FuzzTone pedal, theres no such thing as busted speaker. He used the pedal because he was trying to simulate the sound of horns (he actually wanted horns on the song but the band liked the way he first recorded it). As the Maestro FuzzTone and the Jordan BossTone, theres no tone control, once the conception of the pedal is this simple.
ReplyDeleteYou, are exactly correct
DeleteYou, are exactly correct
DeleteThis stomp box is built especially to recreate the vintage fuzz sounds of Satisfaction, American Woman, and a few other classic rock/pop hits from the 1960s without the benefit of the studio production tools that made those performances sound so special. The Satisfaction stomp box does that one thing very well, but you will want to roll down the guitar tone control a bit and use your pickup selector switch on your guitar to help get the kind of sound you desire. The tone controls on your guitar and amp are very important when using this uncompromising box. Otherwise,save a few bucks by buying a Big Muff Pi instead and you will be happy.
ReplyDeleteOh boy. Ray Davies of the Kinks cut his speaker for You Really Got Me. And the Satisfaction fuzz was a Vox tonebender
ReplyDeleteOh boy. Ray Davies of the Kinks cut his speaker for You Really Got Me. And the Satisfaction fuzz was a Vox tonebender
ReplyDelete