Fuzz and the Tiny Terror: Suggestions, please!

[Twangpunk]

I know the Tiny Terror is notorious for not playing nicely with pedals, esp. with the gain up to any degree but I'm trying to figure out what to do to correct my problem in the cheapest way possible:

I finally got a nice fuzz pedal (Ashbass Fuzzbrite) because I need that buzzy, 60s fuzz and it sounded great through the little solid state practice amp at home but when I took it to practice and ran it (and my Telecaster) through the TT, and the Orange 2x12 it sounded pretty cool, but guess what....THE FUZZ went away. Not the buzzy, velcro-ripping sound I was drooling over the night before. Yikes!

I tried every combo of pick-up setting, tone knob, etc. to no avail. About the only thing I didn't do was lower the gain to under high-noon because if I did the drummer would drown me out (Volume is maxed out). I'm not interested in getting a bigger, louder head right now but any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I've considered upgrading the tubes and/or getting some kind of mod (Jule perhaps) for more headroom but otherwise I'm at a loss.

Fellas?

[Knuckle Bones]

Use your SS practice amp.

[Twangpunk]

Thanks...that was easy!

[Twangpunk]

BUMP!!!

Okay here's the deal:

If one of you Orange-Heads doesn't at least attempt to give me an honest answer I'm selling this "lunchbox" and getting a real amp that's not 3 times what I paid for it...Like a Fender.

[Kev]

Sounds like you should sell it and get a real amp.

[Twangpunk]

Maybe I will!

And then what?

[Fred the Shred]

One thing I don't understand is what you mean by sayin "no fuzz". I have plugged Big Muffs and Fuzz Faces in my TT with great results so far, and I can get it to fart or squeal just by tweaking the settings.

[Neiloler]

In my opinion, for rippin' fuzz you need an amp with a high amount of head room, otherwise you get a lot of the amp's compression and texturing being applied to the pedal's tone, which isn't bad (look at how many times it's worked to make great music in rock history), but it sounds like that's not what you want.

I get the same thing (well, it sounds different, but it's still not what I'm looking for) when I try to play my big muff into my tweed amp cranked. The best tone (aka the tone I hear from the pedal with no amp coloration per say) is when I turn down the volume of the amp and turn up the volume of the pedal.

Look into turning your TT down to a cleaner setting and cranking your pedal. The TT was meant to get you to ripping gain levels at giggable volume. That's great, but it means that you won't get the twin reverb clean that some of these pedals demand.

My $0.02.

[not_again]

Neil makes a great point (he does have his moments).
IMHO the only fuzz I ever found that worked at all with the
Tiny Terror was the Barber Trifecta, But I used it set very
very low as it could easily turn the sound into a "slurpy"
from 7-11

[Twangpunk]

Thanks for the thoughtul responses!

I thought it was probably a headroom issue, so that's why I was interested to see if anyone had done any of the common mods to the TT to achieve more. I've only played the pedal through the TT once so far and that was at a full-band level which is how I would be using it for all practical purposes.

My Big Muff sounds pretty cool through the set-up but tends to get lost in the mix for some reason. The Fuzzbrite does a little better but loses it's 60s buzz as previously mentioned. My analog delay seems to work like a charm at the same settings but I know fuzz pedals can be finicky.

To be honest I've been trying to avoid investigating a tube, or tube that has possibly gone microphonic because I'm lazy, technophobic, and didn't want to open the thing up. Guess it's time to break out the screwdriver...

[breakfast]

I get a WICKED fuzz tone from my TT without a fuzz pedal, but with my MXR CAE-401 cranked to +20 dB (you'd probably get something similar with a Micro Amp but not exactly). It's very transparaent except that it adds some low and and makes the amp rip. Love it.

I also had bad luck with my Big Muff initially but I haven't had it out for a while.

[Knuckle Bones]

there in lies the problem with low wattage amps....no headroom. You have to love them for what they do and live with what they can't....like give you more fuzz because everything is already overdriven when you are at a volume you need to be at.

You need a higher powered amp so you can get less amp overdrive (i.e. more clean headroom) so you can hear the effect of the fuzz pedal. As it is your fuzz is getting lost in the amp overdrive.

[Mauro Samuel]

I bought a TT Head this week and at the first time I used my JH-1 fuzz face I did not like it. Today I tried again and got very good results!! As said before, you need to turn the gain down a bit and take care with the fuzz volume too. I set my fuzz face with max fuzz but not too much vol and control everything with my strat volume pot. I got a real wonderfull fuzz sound with a lot of colour tones, and some great tones with my strat pot around 5, I think the secret is to master the amp gain, but the more important is the fuzz and guitar volume setings. Anything not set with care in that chain can make your sound awful. I use my fuzz face as the first effect in chain that's very important too. My set up in that test was: Fuzz Face JH-1 ----- VOX WHA ------ OCD (set as booster but not turned on toguether with the fuzz). Both pedals sounded great that way.
My test setup pic with TT head:

[Twangpunk]

Thanks Bro, but have you tried it at "concert level"? (Loud enough to play with others) Without my gain up fairly high my TT isn't particularly loud, and w/the gain up pedals lose their character/bite.

People seem to think the TTs natural overdrive is hard to beat but can't you crank a 50 Watt Orange for a similar effect?

I'm at a crossroads here. Love the TT for what it is but I really need more watts for the new band....

[kittenface]

it's a 'low wattage' amp - it'll only do so much and that's it