Boost question - husky boy adjacent...

[greysun]

Hi everyone!

Noting that I'm using all madbean stuff out of the gate... Been trying to figure out a boost scenario with my big muff (e.g. pig butt and mudbunny) pedals - I have 3 versions: pig butt (the quietest of them), mudbunny (modded with bc550 and a mid pot) and another mudbunny (modded with mid pot and JMK clean blend). They have all the usual trappings: not enough clarity, loses notes in chords, etc., and I LOVE that sound, but am just not writing for that sound - wanting fuzz, wanting some note clarity, trying to work with what I've got.

I've tried running several overdrives in front of em, overdrives after em, amp tweaks left and right (I have both an Allen accomplice (deluxe reverb) and a mojotone jtm45 clone, and my overdrives are the green bean (ts9), egghead (clark gainster), cherry bomb (coloursound overdriver)).

As such, I've been tapping into my rats (e.g. slow loris) which can sound amazing, but also a bit quiet. I also have a mudbunny with a jmk clean blend circuit, so trying to play with that a bit, but again - too quiet.

I breadboarded up a husky boy to test it out, but only had 2n5457s on-hand (from what I've read, it's essentially a lower gain j201)... that circuit definitely helps with the volume, but also colors the fuzz tone into something more gritty than I'm wanting (running the fuzz into the boost to get the volume bump) and not letting me control the tone using the muff much. Wondering if the 5457s are the culprit, or if that's just how a boost will behave with a fuzz.

Open to suggestions, easily impressionable, and have lots of parts on-hand, hehe... Let me know if you have any suggestions, and as always, thank you in advance!

[jimilee]

5457s are part of the problem, I would start there for simplicity. I'm not quite understanding what you're looking for in the end. Sounds like you want a fuzz but not.

The rat is too quiet? Can you expand a little bit, are you talking not loud enough?


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[greysun]

5457s are part of the problem, I would start there for simplicity. I'm not quite understanding what you're looking for in the end. Sounds like you want a fuzz but not.

The rat is too quiet? Can you expand a little bit, are you talking not loud enough?

Hi Jimilee!

I'm on the waitlist for 201s from pedalPCB (the PCB mounted version is more my speed, hehe)... "fuzz but not" is somewhere in the ballpark, but I'll try and give more context... I love the fuzz tones I get, but as an example - one of my songs doesn't use your standard C chord; it's more whatever this version of C is:

7
8
0
0
x
8

(can you tell music theory isn't my first language? hehe) - A standard C chord through any of these muffs can sound amazing (cherub rock is a great example - at least how BC plays in the music video, it seems they move from power chords to standard ones for the chorus), but my version of C gets really murky and unsettled in a bad way - too many notes, too little clarity. When I'm recording, I can record a clean track over my version and get it to sound good, but worry about live playing a bit.

Also, when I go from clean to fuzz, I get a notable volume drop - especially with the slow loris and pig butt. I read and thought if I could get a volume boost into the amp, it could solve potentially one of my issues, and having a treble/bass on the boost circuit might be able to get me some extra high-end from the muff - which is how I landed at husky boy.

All in all, I'm not writing for the big muff / fuzz sound of the pumpkins or silversun pickups or stoner metal - but I want to incorporate fuzz into what I'm doing, so it's a balancing act. Trying to figure it out, welcoming any advice. :-)

Let me know if I can clear things up more... And thanks for the reply so far. :-)

[midwayfair]

one of my songs doesn't use your standard C chord; it's more whatever this version of C is:

7
8
0
0
x
8

It's a C major 9th (CM9), or C major 7th suspended 2nd (technically more correct, though it's the same note names as CM9), or you could read it as a G/C (G with C in the bass).

Anyway, Fuzz or any heavy amount of distortion is going to be REALLY unhappy with the C and D notes in that chord (the open D string and the C on the 8th fret of the E) -- low frequencies tend to have trouble that close together even on clean sounds, usually the solution is to use the 9th instead of the 2nd, so for a Csus2 versus Cadd9, something like x32030 tends to sound cleaner than x30010. This is an arrangement/physics problem, not necessarily an issue with which distortion pedal you decide to use. The way I'd handle it is to use the interesting 4-note chord in the clean parts and power chords in the distorted part unless you WANT the extra dissonance from the distortion -- people use power chords with distortion for a reason.

Swapping the transistors you're using in the boost isn't going to change it very much. I'd actually highly recommend sticking an EQ pedal after your fuzz and figuring out if any tone shaping will work better. You can then either just use the EQ pedal if it's complicated or make a boost with a tone control in the right spot if it's just a matter of cutting some highs.

[greysun]

one of my songs doesn't use your standard C chord; it's more whatever this version of C is:

7
8
0
0
x
8

It's a C major 9th (CM9), or C major 7th suspended 2nd (technically more correct, though it's the same note names as CM9), or you could read it as a G/C (G with C in the bass).

Anyway, Fuzz or any heavy amount of distortion is going to be REALLY unhappy with the C and D notes in that chord (the open D string and the C on the 8th fret of the E) -- low frequencies tend to have trouble that close together even on clean sounds, usually the solution is to use the 9th instead of the 2nd, so for a Csus2 versus Cadd9, something like x32030 tends to sound cleaner than x30010. This is an arrangement/physics problem, not necessarily an issue with which distortion pedal you decide to use. The way I'd handle it is to use the interesting 4-note chord in the clean parts and power chords in the distorted part unless you WANT the extra dissonance from the distortion -- people use power chords with distortion for a reason.

Swapping the transistors you're using in the boost isn't going to change it very much. I'd actually highly recommend sticking an EQ pedal after your fuzz and figuring out if any tone shaping will work better. You can then either just use the EQ pedal if it's complicated or make a boost with a tone control in the right spot if it's just a matter of cutting some highs.

I've thought of the EQ route, but maybe this is the nudge to pursue it - no clue if there's one I can build or if it's worth getting a MXR or something on the less expensive side. Might look into it...

I'm not opposed to a bit of dissonance - it's why I'm always looking for odd chords or alternate versions of standard ones - but you're spot on: for recording, I can do clean/OD with the weird chords, fuzz with the power chord versions... but I like to experiment - hoping the right mix comes along.

I played around a bit more with my 2-amp set up - one issue is that the JTM45 is so Bass heavy and I never realized it until I bought the Allen - put a MBP cherry bomb that has bass/treble controls in front of a mudbunny, which helped a lot with that, and moved a slow loris into that pedal chain and amp, which works for more articulate parts (even if a bit crunchier)

On the Allen (deluxe reverb), the bright switch was very shrill initially, so I tried it again after setting the bass and raw control up a bit, and then threw a MBP egghead in front of a mudbunny with clean blend on it. Pulled back the sustain, and put the clean blend about 55% clean 45% mudbunny. (I think the JMK clean blend always has some clean in the mix, but it's working pretty good). I'm getting close, but still find volume discrepancies, mostly with the slow loris.

Might look into the EQ route for the mudbunnies on the JTM and see if the 201s in the husky boy work well with the slow loris.

More experimentation to follow... Keep the suggestions coming, folks! :-) And thank you, midwayfair!