About Ivor Arbiter: The Man Behind the Pedal Ivor Arbiter wasn’t an engineer—he was a shop owner with good instincts and great timing. Running multiple music shops in West London, he was right in the middle of the British Invasion. One of his most famous moments came when he quickly sketched the Beatles logo on […]
Understanding the differences between overdrive, distortion, and fuzz is essential for guitarists looking to nail the tone that they hear in their head (or one they are trying to mimic). Each effect alters the signal in different ways, affecting everything from dynamics to harmonic content. This article compares the technical aspect of each effect, covering […]
Fulltone ’70 Fuzz V2 The Fulltone ’70 Fuzz V2 is a modern take on a vintage classic that delivers glassy single-coil presence to full on broken amplifier magic in one powder coated, wallet-friendly package. This silicone smiley face impersonator comes from Fulltone’s legacy of making classic circuits at an affordable price. We ran it through […]
Let me just start this off by saying I love fuzz pedals. Fuzz is, without a doubt, my favorite guitar effect out there. In a way, you could call it my “desert island” effect pedal. In my experience as a guitarist, I’ve bought, sold, and collected dozens of fuzz pedals. I’ve become somewhat of a […]
So you finally have a boatload of effects pedals to play around with and a beautiful pedalboard to mount them on… Now comes the difficult part — figuring out what order to put your pedals in. After hundreds of gigs and studio sessions over the years, not to mention many hours of arduous experimentation, I […]
What is pitch? Pitch is how “high” or “low” a given note sounds. In guitar effects, pitch is commonly manipulated to create new kinds of sounds. One of the easiest and most familiar ways to alter the pitch is to change the speed of a recording. Faster will increase the pitch, while slowing down the […]
Overdrive Overdrive is usually a naturally occurring clipping of the signal. It’s often created by turning the volume up too loud on the gain stage of the amp, or by using a gain-boosting pedal that makes the signal too hot going into the amp or another pedal. Often, this will drive the later stages of […]
Let’s talk about the difference between germanium and silicon transistors and what it means to guitar players and audio in general, especially fuzz. The Fuzz Effect Fuzz is a type of distortion that guitar players use. It is most often found in an effect pedal and it creates a buzzy tone that’s associated with an […]
Fuzz Fuzz is a type of distortion that was originally marketed in the early 1960s as a device that can be used to emulate the sound of Orchestra instruments such as the Trumpet, Cello, Bassoon, Saxophone, etc. It was a Saxophone sound that Keith Richards wanted for the beginning of “Satisfaction,” which prompted him to […]