BJFE / BearFoot fx Guitar Effects Community

Hulakatt wrote:

Ah ha, so the Mystoury fuzz comes with a cloaking device- very cool.

Can't wait for your review Hulakatt!

Ok. started into the fuzzes today and I got to spend some good time playing with the EGDM, PPF and the CAF. I just didn't have enough time to fire up the Mystoury fuzz yet

All testing done with my (SSS, pretty vintage correct, slab board) strat so far. Will test more with the Tele and LP tomorrow.
Started testing on the Marshall 2061x until I blew the power tubes. All pedals tested on the 1484.
Other pedals were just an Analogman ARDX20 Delay and a BF Baby Pink Booster.

Anyway,
EGDM - "The Always On Award". I still have a hard time seeing this one as a fuzz, even maxed out. It is far too emulative of a specific amp (Vox-ish) and feels more like a distortion than a fuzz. Very compressed almost all over the range of knobs and closer than I expected to my BJFe EGDM considering what we've heard about the "aggressive trannies" in the BF version. The treble knob left me flat anywhere but near max but my amps are all kinda dark (5e3, 1484, 2061x) and I never worry about too much treble. The pedal just seemed more "alive" and responsive with the treble up higher. I tended to run the gain lower on the edge of breakup and ride the line with picking dynamics and the BF EGDM responded beautifully. Ride the Lightening!

PPF - "The Smooth Pedal Award". Never played one before and have itching to try out a PPF for the longest time. I didn't really know what to expect except I've heard that it can be "Muff like" and also it has been described as more of an overdrive. As those two things are kinda not-at-all-similar I had wide open expectations. I used to have an Analogman AstroTone and as much as I liked that it was both a really good overdrive and also clearly a fuzz, it just didn't have any "huevos" or guts so I never really used it. The PPF straddles that same line of being both clearly an overdrive but also a fuzz but it has the heft and punch that the AstroTone lacked and that you typically expect to find from a good big muff. Coupled with a nice delay, it made me think of Mr. David Gilmour the whole time I tweaked it. Very inspiring and very smooth, not aggressive but plenty of heft behind it. As good as the PPF sounded all over the Fuzz knob I just keep turning it up and up to get more fuzz!

CAF - "The Crazy Pedal Sitting Alone At the Bar With A Loud Shirt On And A Twitchy Eye Award". I had also never experienced the CAF before and have been looking forward to it since it was announced, perhaps more than any other BF so far. If the PPF is Gilmour than the CAF is Hendrix. If the PPF is Pot, the CAF is Acid. Is it more wild, unstable, sharp and cutting, takes off in different directions, pretty intense and over the top.
I like it. A lot.
It makes me pissed that I just blew the power tubes in my Marshall (while comparing the BF and BJFE EGDM's). It makes me want to play loud until the cops start knocking. It makes me want to drink rum and punch some random dude that kinda looks like a douche. I only wanted to play this one with the Fuzz and Treble knobs maxed. The Nature sounded cool all over the knob and I just kept twisting and twisting to get different crazy. Sometimes I got little bits of octaves in one place on the Nature knob and in one place on the fretboard and changing the Nature got me different octaves somewhere else. It is kinda garage band trashy and sounded amazing with the 1484. I played the CAF until my wife yelled at me because she and my daughter were trying to sleep and I needed to go to bed too. Again I could do without the Treble knob but as I stated, I tend to prefer dark amps anyway so they balance out in the end. Definitely on my short list now.

MysToury - "I dunno Award". We'll see tomorrow...

Looking forward to hearing others' opinions of the Mystoury Fuzz....

So I got a couple of minutes with the Mystoury Fuzz this morning and it's a classic! It reminds me of the best qualities of a good fuzz face and a good tonebender rolled into one remarkably flexible fuzz. The Fuzz knob runs from pure clean to classic full fuzz and every sound in between is not usable but excellent. I would happily own it just to use it as a great, pretty transparent, clean boost but I really liked running the Fuzz knob around 60% or at 1:00 where the sound was clean but with fuzzy overtones riding around each note. Haven't really gotten to the Tone/Nature knob yet.

On a side note Donner, can I buy the Prototype from you after production gets rolling on whatever this gem is? I'm quite serious on this. This thing is just too damn cool. Please PM me if you don't want to answer here. I don't know what becomes of these workhorse prototypes after testing is done and production is underway and I have seen BJFe Prototypes up for sale once in a blue moon, I think at Custom Sounds iirc...

Hulakatt wrote:
On a side note Donner, can I buy the Prototype from you after production gets rolling on whatever this gem is? I'm quite serious on this. This thing is just too damn cool. Please PM me if you don't want to answer here. I don't know what becomes of these workhorse prototypes after testing is done and production is underway and I have seen BJFe Prototypes up for sale once in a blue moon, I think at Custom Sounds iirc...

(Oh the mystoury fuzz is a BearFoot proto made by the bearfoot crew from Bjorns proto/recipe as usual - thats exactly what the BF production units will sound like if it goes into production.. but dont tell anyone )

Donner wrote:(Oh the mystoury fuzz is a BearFoot proto made by the bearfoot crew from Bjorns proto/recipe as usual - thats exactly what the BF production units will sound like if it goes into production.. but dont tell anyone )

Oh I don't doubt that Donner but I'm still interested in this specific box.

Anyway, played the batch with my LP today and for the most part the character of the pedals remained unchanged and just the gain was affected (increased) with the exception of the CAF. Both of these is a good thing. Most fuzzes I've played sound like crap once I plug in with humbuckers. The EGDM, PPF and the Mystoury retain everything good about them and just have more grind on tap. The CAF just got more bonkers and the Nature knob became more effective. The octaves really jumped out now and were more pronounced and the gated sounds were more heavily gated. Everything just got so much "more" in the best ways possible. More hairy, more twitchy, more "acid flashback" but still more usable than the average octave pedal.

So, how did the Mystoury Fuzz differ between the LP and your other guitars?

thiscalltoarms wrote:So, how did the Mystoury Fuzz differ between the LP and your other guitars?

The character of it remained unchanged but there was more gain at the same settings on the fuzz knob. I never wanted for more fuzz using it with the strat but there was more of it with the LP. Aside from the increase in gain, it was very consistant with each guitar I tried it with. Most fuzzes I've used sound best with single coils or humbuckers, not both. If they sound good with single coils then they usually take on a brassy timbre and you can tell you're beyond the limits of the poor pedal (which was designed in the first place to sound "beyond the limits"). I could easily get the same sounds out of the Mystoury Fuzz with humbuckers or single coils just by adjusting the fuzz and volume knobs.

All 4 fuzzes were not rig dependent. The EGDM, CAF and, to a lesser extent, the PPF each overpowered with their own character but the Mystoury Fuzz remained "transparent" and kept with the character of the amp and guitars I used. My LP into my 5e3 still sounded like my LP into my 5e3 but with a fuzzy halo surrounding each note. The Fuzz knob almost seemed to be more of a blend between clean boost and fuzz if that makes any sense.

I didn't get my mystery fuzz review in yet. Being a full time Dad in the summer sure sucks.

This was the pedal I was most interested in trying due to the fact that the only BJFE fuzz I ever owned was a CAF and with my rig at the time was just too bright! I'd actually like to try a BJFE CAF again and try a PPF as well though I am super pleased with the Bearfoot versions.

THe thing with the mystery (spell check keeps fixing Mystoury) fuzz, for me, was it didn't have the obvious personality of a CAF or PPF. Both of those fuzzes have a strong personality as well as many faces. They also work well through the whole range of the fuzz knob. They are not fussy about placement, pickup type or if the amp is clean or dirty.

The Mystoury Fuzz does not color the sound much for being a fuzz and I cant think of many other fuzzes I can say that about. Into a clean amp I found the Tone knob to be really useful through the whole range, but with vintage Strat style pickups I needed the Fuzz knob at least 80% of the way up. Even at 100% it was not a sustain machine. Into a dirty amp that has some natural sustain going the Mystoury Fuzz was exceptional! Especially with stock Strats and Teles and even more so with my orange Tele with a Novak paf sized WRHB in the neck and a hot T3 Zexcoil bridge pickup (which is rather nocaster-ish and no noise) which can get too dark with some Ge fuzz face type pedals.

One of my favorite uses for the Mystoury was to crank the volume and move the tone to the brightest setting > most any other dirt pedal as you would normally use it, or even the cranked amp, and adjust the fuzz knob to keep things under control. Or not! I wont say it could replace a treble booster, but for stacking with other Bearfoot or BJFE pedals it actually works better due to both the stability of the pedal and lack of noise most Ge treble boosters inject. I remember the first review of the Mystoury said it didn't have enough high end. I do not know if the pedal was tweaked again before I got it and the screws were glued in place so I couldn't see if there was a re-solder, so maybe Donner could chime in? I felt the tonal balance was close to perfect and if I could change one thing the option for more gain (for home practice volumes), even as a toggle switch or pre-gain knob, would be nice though at jam levels there was plenty of gain.

I changed the Voltages a bit from 7.5 - 18 and preferred 7.5 to 9 Volts the best as it had just enough sag to feel like you were interacting with the pedal with your fingers and pick. I knew I would only have it for a short amount of time as well as being new so maybe that is why I played it so much while it was here. With a dirty amp I think I used it so much due to the transparency. I have my 3 Swart amps tweaked to perfection with tubes and speakers so I am finding I am using pedals a bit less save for the time I can only play quietly. The Mystoury just fit in with what I am doing now though, strangely, I do not miss it like I did for the Purple Humper and my original Model H.

I agree with Hulakatt that it has a foot inside both the Fuzz Face camp and the Tonebender MKIII camp. The pedal I have that most closely resembles the Mystoury is a Lumpy's Tone Shop Led Bender (TB MKIII) with lower gain which I like enough to not sell, but it doesn't get used much either. Maybe in a few months when I build my LP Junior double cut and carved top LP (both with P-90s and stop bar bridge) I will be using the Led Bender or the Mystoury fuzz for often for the clarity and transparency.

Liked: Clarity and transparency, ability to resemble a treble booster when stacking, the space-age faux stainless steel enclosure and the lack of noise.
Want more of: It needs the ability to show a stronger personality with either a little TB MKI thrown in or the ability to get more extreme settings by itself.
Disliked: I would like unity volume to be closer to 9 - 9:30

That is about all I can think of at the moment. But I hope this stirs the pot a bit and it will be interested to see who has to have one now and what other peoples ideas are for tweaks.

I can't say I wanted more "personality" from the Mystoury Fuzz. It's easy to find a great fuzz like the CAF or PPF that dominate with their personality but it's much harder to find on that is more transparent and works so well with such a wide range of gear. Plus I loved that I could run it clean as a boost, halfway up for some fuzz around the boost or all the way for fuzzy goodness. It could be whatever I needed it to be along the dirt spectrum. That truly is harder to find in a fuzz.

I'm still loving the heck out of the CAF and laughing my @$$ off as I play with it though. This thing is too much damn fun!