- Published: 24 April 2022 24 April 2022
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Hello, Effects Fans!
Today we announce our new Nectarine Fuzz module. The Gerlt Technologies Nectarine Fuzz compares to the Frantone Peachfuzz. Fran Blanche began building Frantone pedals in the '90's. You may remember that she also worked with EHX to design the v9 "NYC Reissue" Big Muff Pi. The 2-knob (no Tone) version of the Peachfuzz was introduced somewhere around 1996. A pause in production of these hand-built pedals from about 2009 to 2016 made them somewhat scarce (and pricey) on the market.
This is a big, no-holds-barred fuzz, a bit on the dark side. You should have no problem getting a thick and heavy fuzz tone. It is a simple circuit of three distortion-producing op amp stages feeding a Big Muff style hi cut / lo cut Tone control, then out through the Volume. The heavy sound is achieved by letting a good deal of the bass go through the circuit, so bass players take note. Usually, a fuzz tends toward muddiness or flub when the bass isn't trimmed back, but that doesn't happen in this circuit except maybe a bit when you wander into the extreme ranges of the Fuzz and Volume controls.
At first, you may jump to the conclusion that it is another "blanket over my amp, bassy fuzz. You need to twiddle with it for a minute to figure out that isn't the case. Yes, the Tone is shifted more toward the bass end, but if you dial it the other direction, the bass rolls down and more highs come through. Either way, you've got a good fuzz going on. Another thing you'll notice is that your guitar tone is still coming through in all that fuzz. For instance, you expect those woodier tones on the higher frets and you get them, nicely fuzzed up, but clearly there. This might be a good fuzz for stacking, staying articulate and not getting muddy. The fuzz itself will go from kind of cleanish to heavy duty. It sounds and feels somewhere between a heavy fuzz and a high gain distortion. You can hear what your fingers are doing more than you can with most heavy fuzzes.
There's a good amount of Volume on tap. With humbuckers, the fuzz tends to thin out more than clean up with the guitar volume. With single coils, it cleans up a bit more. But that's not what it is about. It's best to think of it as a medium to heavy high gain fuzz, with the top end trimmed back a bit. The trimming of the top end keeps the noise pretty low. It didn't seem that remarkable when we first started playing it - just another woolly, heavy fuzz. But the more we played it, the more we liked it and now we "get it". Find your settings and let it rip!
Nice as this fuzz is with guitar, it seems to pair equally well with a bass. The controls feel like they have a wider range with bass. Fuzzes have some noise, of course. That noise is trebly by nature and can be more apparent when you are just sending in bass. But a quick adjustment of knobs on our bass or the module let us dial it out to yield a surprisingly noise-free, heavy fuzz bass on our J-Bass with N3 pickups. As with guitar, the fuzz stays nicely articulate and you can still clearly hear your base tone. This fuzz doesn't cover up sloppy playing like some others, so you can easily hear what your fingers are doing. Very nice. Best bass fuzz...??? That's pretty subjective, but if you haven't found your bass fuzz yet this one is worth a try.
You can see more details about our Nectarine Fuzz module at: Nectarine Fuzz. Or look for it in the Fuzz Modules section under Products -> Modules -> Modules By Type.