50s wiring and Fuzz

[filtersweep]

Am I missing something? My R8 with 50s wiring sounds awesome with drive— I get a much better response from the volume knobs— compared to modern wiring.

When using fuzz, modern wiring seems completely superior to 50s. The R8 gets anemic when rolled down.

Not sure how or why this makes sense.

 

[ARandall]

Are you sure it's just the wiring scheme....and not the entire guitar?

 

[Banastre]

Is it many different fuzz pedals or just one??

 

[VictorB]

What kind of fuzz pedal are you using?

And where is it placed in the signal chain?

 

[mudface]

I thought that purpose of ‘50s wiring was to go from having a lot of gain to clean by rolling off the volume knob.

Maybe your fuzz pedal is really a gain pedal ?

 

[Flogger59]

My fuzzes clean up very nicely, they go to sparkling, pristine clean from total chaos with 50s wiring.

 

[Dazza]

Am I missing something? My R8 with 50s wiring sounds awesome with drive— I get a much better response from the volume knobs— compared to modern wiring.

When using fuzz, modern wiring seems completely superior to 50s. The R8 gets anemic when rolled down.

Not sure how or why this makes sense.

I actually get what you're saying. I play non master amps turned up with 50's wiring, audio taper pots. Classic old school that works great for me. However if I use a Beano Boost or 69 Fuzz I find the typical traits of volume 'bump' around 8, and roll off clarity exaggerated by the pedals. The results can be too dark with volume on 10, and too thin when rolled off. I find it harder to achieve the balance I like.

Treble boosters and fuzz established their place in guitar history in the late 60's through mid 70's. Era's which typical Fenders and Gibsons did not use 50's wiring and/or audio taper. Coincidentally I wonder how did Brian May wire his Red Special ? I assume 60's wiring, log pots.

Daz

 

[filtersweep]

Are you sure it's just the wiring scheme....and not the entire guitar?

I have a US Les Paul with regular writing— it responds quite differently.

 

[filtersweep]

What kind of fuzz pedal are you using?

And where is it placed in the signal chain?

MI Audio GI fuzz (silicon) and a Danelectro Cool Cat v1 (Frantone Peach Fuzz clone)…. Right after my compressor.

Reading some of the comments, I wonder if I have too much gain going on in the fuzzes. The gain seems to make up for the treble loss associated with modern wiring—- maybe….

 

[kelsodeez]

All of my 50s wired guitars:
Heavy gain, tone rolled all the way down. Fuzz city.
I don't see the problem

 

[filtersweep]

All of my 50s wired guitars:
Heavy gain, tone rolled all the way down. Fuzz city.
I don't see the problem

I guess it is all subjective and we are chasing different tones. My 7-strings sound awesome with my set-up— so it works. But plugging in my R8– was more WTF?!

I cannot imagine rolling the tone all the way down…. But that is just me.

 

[ARandall]

I have a US Les Paul with regular writing— it responds quite differently.

So all you are saying here is that a different guitar sounds different - not really countering my point that it could be the R8 chassis itself that is the issue.

 

[filtersweep]

So all you are saying here is that a different guitar sounds different - not really countering my point that it could be the R8 chassis itself that is the issue.

I own 12 electrics- 4 Gibsons- this one stands out as responding very differently. It is my only with 50s wiring.

 

[ARandall]

Ok, but we are still at the point where you are comparing different guitars.

 

[VictorB]

Put the fuzz first in the chain and see how it reacts.

 

[searswashere]

Put the fuzz first in the chain and see how it reacts.

Before the tuner first, not after the tuner first.

 

[VictorB]

After the tuner, yes.

 

[vanguard]

To clarify further perhaps, your guitar should hit simple-circuit fuzzes first: Tone Benders, Fuzz Faces, Zonks, Fuzzrites, Buzzarounds, etc.

Later fuzzes, Big Muffs and such, don't care as much.

The '50s wiring likely isn't the problem here.

Cool sounds can be had by putting fuzzes after buffered pedals, but they won't be the traditional sound or behavior.

 

[TXOldRedRocker]

50's wiring keeps more clarity, re: treble, as you turn down the volume. It's not specifically a treble bleed circuit, but is a cousin to it.

Here's a little fuzz and circuit discussion by a guy I think explains it pretty well. The link is to the place where he talks about this subject. The whole video is pretty decent.

All of this IMHO.