Wah Before Fuzz?
By Screamin Seth W, Ph.D.
A lot of people ask the question “where is the best place to put a fuzz in relation to my wah-wah pedal?” so I thought I would write a little on the topic.
Quick Summary: This article talks about how fuzz pedals will feed back, usually with a wah before the fuzz, and make an oscillating screeching noise which you don’t want. Then it offers some solutions for the problem which can be as simple as adding a Boss pedal turned off between the wah and fuzz. I designed a special Clarionix buffer to take care of this. Overall, the most important thing is to place pedals where you think they sound best. But here are some general guidelines
New Video: How to Fix Wah and Fuzz Problems
This video explains why a wah and fuzz oscillate and feedback due to a resonant circuit. I then show different methods to fix this including using the Clarionix buffer I designed. I also talk about a cheap buffer by using a Boss pedal turned off.
How does a Fuzz Pedal Work
The way a fuzz pedal works is that it takes your relatively low level guitar signal and basically smashes it through a very high gain transistor fuzz circuit. You can think of the circuit almost like a tube amp cranked up, where it is so loud that the tubes start to distort your guitar signal. In a fuzz pedal, the same thing happens, there is so much gain that your signal is distorted and you get a fuzzy sound. Fuzz pedals are so hard to build because they are very temperamental and picky about which transistors are used and how they are biased... just like tube amps and the tubes they use.
The input impedance of a fuzz is relatively low which means that it is very sensitive to anything that is connected before it. The benefits are that they are very expressive, the harder you pick the more fuzz you can get and they are very also very sensitive to your volume knob. This sensitivity is also very apparent when you play a guitar with single coil pickups compared to a guitar with humbuckers.
However, fuzz pedals are also very sensitive to pedals before them. The two main problems you can run into are:
Problem One – Wah Before Fuzz:
You are ready to jam out to some crazy Hendrix and plug your wah into a fuzz, you crank your amp but before you can rock out, a terrible screeching oscillating sound is produced when you turn on the wah and fuzz, especially when the wah is in a more bassy position. How are you going to do the intro to Voodoo Child with all that noise? .
Reason for fuzz pedal oscillating:
The output impedance of your wah and the input impedance of your fuzz don’t get along together. They form a feedback network together, and at a certain audible frequency feed it back and amplify it through the fuzz until it reaches a peak value. You have just made an oscillator, and in fact it is usually tunable by changing the position of your wah?
Solution - Use a Buffer:
One easy solution is to try placing the wah after the fuzz, but I don’t like this sound very much because the wah makes the fuzz sound like it is swelling. I don’t think you get a good enough sweep out of the way, but this is just my opinion!
So, the second solution is to place something between the wah and fuzz and isolate them from each other. The ideal component is a buffer! Its job is to have a low input impedance and high output impedance, exactly what you want in this situation to separate the two pedals. With a buffer between the wah and fuzz, you will notice that you can hear more of the guitars treble and you will get much better wah sweep with the fuzz on. However, this may lead to another problem.
Figure 1. One good method to make a fuzz and wah work well together is to place a buffer between them. However, a buffer can be too strong and destroy your fuzz. I designed the Clarionix for this purpose - it is tuneable to keep your fuzz sounding great.
Problem Two – Pedals before a fuzz can cause it to sound like its crackling:
If the buffer or pedal before your fuzz is too strong, it may make your fuzz sound like it is cracking and ruin the sound of the pedal.
Reason for fuzz pedal that sounds like its crackling:
Fuzz pedals are very sensitive to electrical currents. If you inject too much, they sound bad. This sounds very simple but it can be a major headache to fix.
Solution - Try a different pedal or buffer before the fuzz. For example, my Clarionix buffer was designed for this application.
Try a different buffer or pedal directly before the fuzz. I designed a special Clarionix buffer for this situation, which has a control for the buffer strength and therefore works well with fuzz pedals and simple distortion pedals such as a Rat. It is the only tunable buffer designed for this application It is basically an offshoot of the buffers that I put in all my fuzz pedals, but stand alone so that it can be added anywhere in your guitar signal path.
Not everyone wants to spend money on a stand alone buffer so there are ways to test and try other options which I recommend before buying something new. A good and relatively cheap way to test a buffer between your wah and fuzz is to place a pedal that you already have between the two pedals. Many Boss pedals have buffers that are always on, even when the pedal is off. Most guitarists when they start out end up buying a Boss pedal, so if you have one sitting around try it out! All you have to do is put the buffered pedal in the order wah - buffered pedal (Boss) - fuzz. Don't even turn the middle pedal onjust make sure it has its power supply connected. ,If the wah and fuzz work better together with the buffer pedal between, then you are set! If you hear a cracking sound, try a different buffer or pedal between.
Here is my suggested test plan for a Wah before Fuzz:
- Set up your guitar so that it goes Guitar -> Wah -> Fuzz and test it out. If it sounds good and you don’t get any single tone feedback then you are good. The feedback usually happens when the wah is in a bassy position and you are not playing.
- If it feeds back, try Guitar -> Wah -> Pedal you already have with buffer -> Fuzz. If this sounds good you are done. If the fuzz sounds bad, try another buffered pedal or a pedal set to a very clean sound.
- If it sounds a little better but not great, try out a buffer like my Clarionix buffer. My buffer is tunable so that you can dial in your fuzz sound. Other people sell buffers too so definitely check them out, but you may run into the problem that it will also make the pedal sound like its crackling if the buffer is too strong.
