Kind of stunning that this only has 1.3k likes nearly 9 years later. The comparison was superbly done and really gives one a sense of the character of each. FFM3 for me, no question.
@@Music_is_fun no. Band of gypsys fuzz is totally different from the germanium or silicon standards. Bog is based off of the octavio circuit fuzz. Eric johnsons is a modified silicon
In a scale 1st - Si Panties Blue : Great clean up while rolling back the volume pot & awesome brightness 2nd - Ge Red : Great clean up while rolling back the volume pot but too dark 3nd - Dark Blue : Awesome brightness but doesn't clean so well. Ps.: I have a classic red one, the big, from late 90s. It's an awesome pedal. I don't find it too dark because I have a brazilian ivory scale strat and set the amp EQ like bass:3, mid:8,5, tre:6. So it's just about setting up your gear. Great video btw
Overall, the dark blue one is better if you use your bridge pickup a lot (on a strat), the red one isn't very good at all (IMO), and the Jimi Hendrix one works for the neck pickup with it's epic mid hump.
These should be identically gain structured, but the dark blue silicone one is turned up enough to make the listening test false. It is driving the head a little more and will have more overtones.
Maybe they should, but they are not.. the blue one have always done a worse job of cleaning up.. look at other reviews for reference or try for yourself. However, I prefer the slightly more top-endish fuzziness of the blue one.
great job comparing these (I mean it's obvious how to do it but most people are too busy showing off to play the same riff through each pedal) I have the red and dark blue ones. My favorite is the red (germanium) but it clearly loses this shootout to me. Both the red and blue sound a lot brighter through my amps so the red sounds more natural and the blue can get a little harsh in the treble. I love them both, however. At first I thought the Hendrix was clearly the best but as this went on I started focusing in on an upper mid-range hump in the Hendrix that was a bit unpleasant to me. I ended up thinking the EQ profile of the blue silicon pedal was nicer (with this setup). I hope to own all varieties of the fuzz face when all is said and done. They are very affordable and fantastic. Oh, one last thing: my germanium cleans up a lot better and you can hear that here. (The Hendrix seems to clean up similarly to the germanium red). The red one cleans up to an almost jazzy tone. The blue silicon never entirely cleans up -- maybe if you pick incredibly gently while the pickups are turned 90% of the way down -- but it cleans up to a tone similar to the Beatles' Revolver/Sgt. Pepper guitars. Which is great!
These all sound good. Probably has a lot to do with a great designer and a player who knows what he's doing. To get a good sounding fuzz you need both. Great comparison. Well done.
thanks for keeping the amp clean so its easier to hear the differences in the pedals. hendrix lets guitars natural tone come through best but i think i like the bottom end in the red
Nice demo! I was wondering if those Jimi Hendrix System pedals, specially JH 2s, made in early 90s and 00s sound like any of these? Btw IMO the Silicon FF dark blue sound slightly better than Hendrix FF soft blue. Cheers from Brazil
That was a darn good question - unfortunately here in the states society is constantly degrading it seems, and one of our downfalls is the majority is stuck on new is good and old is well old so it's to be moved on from. We're becoming pathetic as people become less and less individual and free thinking and more "plugged in" to the feeding tube so they can gobble up the "programming" = now I want to fail at sounding brittish - ahh to bloody hell with all of ya - ye worthless little twits!
Well I have the fulltone 70's silicon fuzz and i like that,which is like a fuzzface clone. I've also got a big muff, but thats kind of it's own pedal altogether. Depends what you want in a fuzz. I tried these out today at a music store and prefered the blue one, I like a tighter more high end sound, but you may prefer the low end growl of a more germanium fuzz. Anything based on the fuzzface circuit is usually a winner, and um earthquaker devices check them out but expect 300 for one of those!!!
Awesome! I wish you would’ve played the big original fuzz for comparison. Not sure if that was an old germanium… anyone here know which mini sounds most like that original germanium Face-or even a larger silicon Face? 😝🤘🏻🎸
I have one of the blue ones. It sounds great, the only issue is that the switch is a dpdt and there is not true bypass, something remain connected between guitar and amp when the effect is bypassed.
I bought both the silicon and germanium models and quickly returned the former as it had a horrible volume drop. I had to turn it to practically 3 o'clock to match my bypass signal, anything less than that was completely useless. This was not an issue with the FFM2. I also have a full-size Hendrix which does not have that problem, so it must have been something with the FM1. Also noticed it had a different (personally preferable) sound with a buffered pedal before AND after it, just a note to any potential buyers.
Surprisingly the Jimi Hendrix one sounded the best to me. Brighter and better clean up. I thought the Germanium would sound the best. But is quite dark in comparison.
Nice demo. The dark blue sounds best followed the Hendrix and lastly the red one. Sadly I didn't really notice much upper octave effect on any of these. It's there I guess but should be more pronounced. Cheers
One more question: I imagine that the red germanium thingamabob should not be used with the same power supply as most effects or it will fry your pedalboard, but what about the sea foam hendrix thingamabob -- is that silicon or germanium? I am guessing that it is silicon from the sound.
I'd be inclined to try out the blue silicon fuzz face if it was in the big housing, the innards look far too complicated for a pedal that should consist of two transistors, four resistors, three capacitors and two pots: in fact you could do away with the fuzz pot and just control it from your guitar's volume.
the fuzz pot is part of the feed back network,doing away with it leaves only full signal feedback,which is out of phase with the input signal,so would give minimal signal gain.
Germanium sounds a bit subdued. Silicon for me! (as it also has more gain, and some added nastiness 9:13) That said, the light blue Hendrix one is a great middle ground, so that one might be most people's choice 🙂
Last I heard, these things were supposed to be available in April 2013. It is almost May now. How are we doing on the get the mini fuzz faces to to the people project? Also, since people that might buy these thingamabobs prefer small stuff to the GIGANTOR models of the past, what is the diameter of these thingamabobs?
I got the silicone and germanium FFM’s today, and the silicone seems quieter than the germanium? Like I have to turn the level up almost all the way to bring it to unity volume. Is this normal ?
I already have an MXR classic mini fuzz 108 -- which Fuzz Face should I get that's DIFFERENT sounding? I also have a EHX Big Muff Op Amp? And Earthquaker Device Park Fuzz Sound.
A " pedal switcher"? I always ask myself the question if I have to many pedals in a row if then the signal gets weaker. Does this pedal switcher solves that problem?,... or is there actually not such a problem of any loss?
Signal path length degrades tone over longer distances, so having more pedals and longer cords definitely causes loss. True bypass pedals do this; 'buffered' pedals attempt to correct this problem. Having buffered pedals at different points in your chain can help combat this. It's actually not that big of a problem depending on your gear and your ear. Once you're in a full band mix, it matters even less (unless you have some really bad tone-sucking pedal). A pedal switcher as shown takes pedals (and their patch cables) out of the path while inactive in order to keep the path as short as possible. This can also be useful for keeping different combinations of effects together on one combined switch so that you don't have to try to hit, for instance, three pedals all at relatively the same time for the solo sound you wanted to kick on.
With the Germanium Fuzz Face being PNP, do you have to use a separate power supply, or has a charge pump been added to flip the polarity, so that it can be daisy chained with other pedals?
@@daddyosink4413 🤦♂️ should have known lol... but did you keep both?? Did you ever try the Hendrix or did you stick with the dark blue? I'm thinking of selling my Hoof and buying an OP amp and some version of the mini.
@@Brayden329 yes, I kept both. They are totally different creatures. I played every Fuzz Face when I went shopping, and to be honest I couldnt tell a huge difference between them but kept gravitating back to the blue and red ones. The blue one was the cheapest, so that's what I got. I think that with modern pedals its more of a mojo than a sound thing.
heres something interesting a few years after this demo was produced ..the Blue silicone B108 fuzz is all over the used market cheap..dozens of these things any given day and selling for about 30 % less than the other types, of which there are almost always fewer..
![เจ็บที่ยังฮัก - ม่อน วรวิทย์ [ Official Mv ] จอนนี่มิวสิค](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/KALIGSRSjFs/mqdefault.jpg)
The small ones don't seem as happy as the big one, they seem more shocked
HAHAHAHAHA
🤡 Big Fuzz
😮 Mini Fuzz
story of life
I only just noticed they really looked like faces
Yes, indeed. I must agree. I mean, the big guy is smiling and the others? Well.......
Kind of stunning that this only has 1.3k likes nearly 9 years later. The comparison was superbly done and really gives one a sense of the character of each. FFM3 for me, no question.
In this video, I like the Jimi Hendrix mini fuzz face, the tone fuzz seems to fall in between the blue and the red, best of both world.
This is Dunlop's official TH-cam channel and they're using the term "silicone."
It's killing me man..... of all people....
Hey wait, wait just a minute, isn't silicone valley and silicon valley both in California? So does it matter?
Wow, that Blue Fuzz-Face sounds fantastic. Like a blend between a great Fuzz and a Boss DS-1 type of tone.
I love that powder blue fuzz. Sounds like it has more mids and less "muddy" sounding
Agree
I just love the clean sound of a silicon FF with the volume rolled off...
Which fuzz is your favorite for glassy cleans?
This how a demo should be made. Thanks for the vid.
I love the blue silicon version.
I'd love a mini version of the EJ fuzz face.
Try the « band of gypsys » one
@@Music_is_fun no. Band of gypsys fuzz is totally different from the germanium or silicon standards. Bog is based off of the octavio circuit fuzz. Eric johnsons is a modified silicon
Thanks for an awesome demo! I definitely dig the blue one best, but was glad to hear the differences to make an educated decision. Dunlop rocks!!
Great job at showcasing these pedals. I now know now I would prefer the blue pedal. Thank you for the in·sight.
The blue one is a killer!!!
There are 2 blue ones?
HOLY SHIT GET TO THE DEMO
Jeorge is taking things to the next level at Dunlop!
Best fuzz Demo!
fentastic demo !! thanks !
In a scale
1st - Si Panties Blue : Great clean up while rolling back the volume pot & awesome brightness
2nd - Ge Red : Great clean up while rolling back the volume pot but too dark
3nd - Dark Blue : Awesome brightness but doesn't clean so well.
Ps.: I have a classic red one, the big, from late 90s. It's an awesome pedal. I don't find it too dark because I have a brazilian ivory scale strat and set the amp EQ like bass:3, mid:8,5, tre:6. So it's just about setting up your gear.
Great video btw
If you want that, "ripping people's faces off in Pompeii" David Gilmour tone, you should probably go with the dark blue one.
Overall, the dark blue one is better if you use your bridge pickup a lot (on a strat), the red one isn't very good at all (IMO), and the Jimi Hendrix one works for the neck pickup with it's epic mid hump.
number 1 sounded the best to me. killer for leads.
Gimour used red FF from 68-71, then blue from 71-75
(so yeah, you're right)
Coopersboy7 Yep. Although he used BC109 in the pre-Muff days.
The germanium with the strat was perfect
I really like the sound of the red one, I'll defiantly be picking one up when they're available
Playing starts at 2:52
That red one sounded killer with single coils. The left blue one shinned with the LP.
Fantastic demo and fantastic playing good sir.
I like the fuzz sound of the blue one the best, but the red and the hendrix both clean up better so I am left undecided on which I would buy.
Fuzz should be nasty :v
It's a baby still ! How cute. I want to adopt one.
The guy played "Asa Branca" riff, a Brazilian song, in the beginning. The blue one sounds best to me.
The red one sounds the best to me.
Thanks! :) That's good to know. I think the blue one (silicon) sounds the best for my purposes.
Awesome review. Thanks!
The germanium is heavenly.
These should be identically gain structured, but the dark blue silicone one is turned up enough to make the listening test false. It is driving the head a little more and will have more overtones.
Maybe they should, but they are not.. the blue one have always done a worse job of cleaning up.. look at other reviews for reference or try for yourself. However, I prefer the slightly more top-endish fuzziness of the blue one.
El azul es mi favorito! 🙌😎🎸
THE BLUE ONE for me !
Such a great tour de force of fuzz ❤️
That blue boi gets my vote.
I like the silicon.
FFM1 (Silicon) = 2:47
FFM2 (Germanium) = 3:42
FFM3 (Hendrix) = 4:29
I wish I had a surname like Tripps.
i like the dark blue! sounds better
Blue has best overall sound, love to hear with a Wah pedal!
I hear if you change cap in dark blue from .01 to .10 you get a louder/bassier tone (Red & Hendrix have the .10... but .01 is the correct original)
great job comparing these (I mean it's obvious how to do it but most people are too busy showing off to play the same riff through each pedal)
I have the red and dark blue ones. My favorite is the red (germanium) but it clearly loses this shootout to me. Both the red and blue sound a lot brighter through my amps so the red sounds more natural and the blue can get a little harsh in the treble. I love them both, however.
At first I thought the Hendrix was clearly the best but as this went on I started focusing in on an upper mid-range hump in the Hendrix that was a bit unpleasant to me. I ended up thinking the EQ profile of the blue silicon pedal was nicer (with this setup).
I hope to own all varieties of the fuzz face when all is said and done. They are very affordable and fantastic.
Oh, one last thing: my germanium cleans up a lot better and you can hear that here. (The Hendrix seems to clean up similarly to the germanium red). The red one cleans up to an almost jazzy tone. The blue silicon never entirely cleans up -- maybe if you pick incredibly gently while the pickups are turned 90% of the way down -- but it cleans up to a tone similar to the Beatles' Revolver/Sgt. Pepper guitars. Which is great!
A really important thing to know is how they all sound with the volume around 8 or 9, between clean and full on
I dig the silicon one the best :)
Whichone - there are 2 - Dark blue and light blue?
I liked the blue one.
I think i prefer the germanium for the strat the hendrix one is still good
These all sound good. Probably has a lot to do with a great designer and a player who knows what he's doing. To get a good sounding fuzz you need both. Great comparison. Well done.
Grande Video Grazie Grazie Grazie bro
thanks for keeping the amp clean so its easier to hear the differences in the pedals. hendrix lets guitars natural tone come through best but i think i like the bottom end in the red
Nice demo! I was wondering if those Jimi Hendrix System pedals, specially JH 2s, made in early 90s and 00s sound like any of these?
Btw IMO the Silicon FF dark blue sound slightly better than Hendrix FF soft blue.
Cheers from Brazil
That was a darn good question - unfortunately here in the states society is constantly degrading it seems, and one of our downfalls is the majority is stuck on new is good and old is well old so it's to be moved on from. We're becoming pathetic as people become less and less individual and free thinking and more "plugged in" to the feeding tube so they can gobble up the "programming" = now I want to fail at sounding brittish - ahh to bloody hell with all of ya - ye worthless little twits!
Well I have the fulltone 70's silicon fuzz and i like that,which is like a fuzzface clone. I've also got a big muff, but thats kind of it's own pedal altogether. Depends what you want in a fuzz. I tried these out today at a music store and prefered the blue one, I like a tighter more high end sound, but you may prefer the low end growl of a more germanium fuzz. Anything based on the fuzzface circuit is usually a winner, and um earthquaker devices check them out but expect 300 for one of those!!!
Awesome! I wish you would’ve played the big original fuzz for comparison. Not sure if that was an old germanium… anyone here know which mini sounds most like that original germanium Face-or even a larger silicon Face? 😝🤘🏻🎸
That one sounded extra nice with the Les Paul, in my opinion.
I have one of the blue ones. It sounds great, the only issue is that the switch is a dpdt and there is not true bypass, something remain connected between guitar and amp when the effect is bypassed.
I bought both the silicon and germanium models and quickly returned the former as it had a horrible volume drop. I had to turn it to practically 3 o'clock to match my bypass signal, anything less than that was completely useless. This was not an issue with the FFM2. I also have a full-size Hendrix which does not have that problem, so it must have been something with the FM1. Also noticed it had a different (personally preferable) sound with a buffered pedal before AND after it, just a note to any potential buyers.
Once the Marshall is mic’d up, run through the PA, and surrounded by other instruments cranked up Loud, no one could hear the difference 😮
Jimi Hendrix Fuzz is Awesome for me! Full on it is Fat! Roll off the tone a bit, and it is Amazing!
I WANT THEM ALL!!!!!!!
SKIP 10 MINUTES IN TO GET THE DEMO
The regular blue .1 has this nice hollow empty glassy ? Top end 😋
The difference seems very subtle. There is some slight level of gain on the Blue. The red has the least gain.
If you'll notice their volumes are all up in the same region. Perhaps it's just a louder pedal which is relevant information.
Surprisingly the Jimi Hendrix one sounded the best to me. Brighter and better clean up.
I thought the Germanium would sound the best. But is quite dark in comparison.
What about the big one?!!
I like the blue one's lead tone best.
Nice demo. The dark blue sounds best followed the Hendrix and lastly the red one. Sadly I didn't really notice much upper octave effect on any of these. It's there I guess but should be more pronounced. Cheers
02:45 sil
03:41 ger
04:28 hend
05:24 ger vs sil
06:41 ger vs hend
07:48 clean
08:28 full bridge
09:41 lp bridge
10:20 lp neck
02:45 sil
03:41 ger
04:28 hend
05:24 ger vs sil
06:41 ger vs hend
07:48 clean
08:28 full bridge
09:41 lp bridge
10:20 lp neck
I prefer the silicon version!
I'd like it if the Hendrix fuzz had a bit more push to it.
Thanks!
Number ! for me. Leslie West !
Holy Stain fuzz, Randy Hansen. I'm set.
give me dark and wooly anyday
More than half my pedalboard is from these guys.
Blue #1 w/matched BC108s FTW
So, as far as sound goes, these are identical to the full size fuzz faces they're based off of, right?
One more question: I imagine that the red germanium thingamabob should not be used with the same power supply as most effects or it will fry your pedalboard, but what about the sea foam hendrix thingamabob -- is that silicon or germanium? I am guessing that it is silicon from the sound.
@2m24s you can clearly see the word "Silicon" on the box. You've been voted as the person with the dumbest comments on TH-cam for 2019 thus far.
Definitely the Blue sounds better!
Dynomite!! Lol. Very cool.
I'd be inclined to try out the blue silicon fuzz face if it was in the big housing, the innards look far too complicated for a pedal that should consist of two transistors, four resistors, three capacitors and two pots: in fact you could do away with the fuzz pot and just control it from your guitar's volume.
the fuzz pot is part of the feed back network,doing away with it leaves only full signal feedback,which is out of phase with the input signal,so would give minimal signal gain.
I can hear the bumped mids in the Hendrix and the Germanium is really dark. It's the Silicon Fuzz Face Mini for me.
Germanium sounds a bit subdued. Silicon for me! (as it also has more gain, and some added nastiness 9:13)
That said, the light blue Hendrix one is a great middle ground, so that one might be most people's choice 🙂
The volume on the matched silicon is higher than that on the germanium and Hendrix.
I want all of them ....
as expected...JH is the best...
I think that really is only effected when you put pedals such as Wahs in front of it which have a much lower output impedance.
Last I heard, these things were supposed to be available in April 2013. It is almost May now. How are we doing on the get the mini fuzz faces to to the people project?
Also, since people that might buy these thingamabobs prefer small stuff to the GIGANTOR models of the past, what is the diameter of these thingamabobs?
if it is important enough to compare the size, it is important to compare the sound
I got the silicone and germanium FFM’s today, and the silicone seems quieter than the germanium? Like I have to turn the level up almost all the way to bring it to unity volume. Is this normal ?
I already have an MXR classic mini fuzz 108 -- which Fuzz Face should I get that's DIFFERENT sounding? I also have a EHX Big Muff Op Amp? And Earthquaker Device Park Fuzz Sound.
A " pedal switcher"? I always ask myself the question if I have to many pedals in a row if then the signal gets weaker. Does this pedal switcher solves that problem?,... or is there actually not such a problem of any loss?
Signal path length degrades tone over longer distances, so having more pedals and longer cords definitely causes loss. True bypass pedals do this; 'buffered' pedals attempt to correct this problem. Having buffered pedals at different points in your chain can help combat this. It's actually not that big of a problem depending on your gear and your ear. Once you're in a full band mix, it matters even less (unless you have some really bad tone-sucking pedal). A pedal switcher as shown takes pedals (and their patch cables) out of the path while inactive in order to keep the path as short as possible. This can also be useful for keeping different combinations of effects together on one combined switch so that you don't have to try to hit, for instance, three pedals all at relatively the same time for the solo sound you wanted to kick on.
+James Haire This was every useful info thanks guy. I didn't know if I was ever going to wrap my head around it.
Don't put buffers next to fuzz though!
With the Germanium Fuzz Face being PNP, do you have to use a separate power supply, or has a charge pump been added to flip the polarity, so that it can be daisy chained with other pedals?
I have been trying to decide between a silicon Fuzz Face and an OpAmp Big Muff .....
Did you make a decision??
@@Brayden329 yea..... I bought both. 😂
@@daddyosink4413 🤦♂️ should have known lol... but did you keep both?? Did you ever try the Hendrix or did you stick with the dark blue?
I'm thinking of selling my Hoof and buying an OP amp and some version of the mini.
@@Brayden329 yes, I kept both. They are totally different creatures. I played every Fuzz Face when I went shopping, and to be honest I couldnt tell a huge difference between them but kept gravitating back to the blue and red ones. The blue one was the cheapest, so that's what I got. I think that with modern pedals its more of a mojo than a sound thing.
@@daddyosink4413 thanks! I appreciate the info for sure. It's a big help with planning.
Could you get a Nutbush City Limits effect from it?
Definitely the dark blue =D
yikes Jeorge you hit the strat with the LP :(
fantastic sounding pedals. Got the germanium one!
I like red
heres something interesting a few years after this demo was produced ..the Blue silicone B108 fuzz is all over the used market cheap..dozens of these things any given day and selling for about 30 % less than the other types, of which there are almost always fewer..
im raddle about which fuzz face should i get! my amp is a little Orange 20l !!
Will these remain tonewise unafffected in all types of non-buffered switchers? Im running a CM octaswitch btw
They are identical.
Same circuits & co.
Just friendly size, that's "all".