DBA Fuzz War

[tune_link]

Been thinking of buying one of these for a loooooong time and have never been able to convince myself to pull the trigger. Figured someone here has one or would have been through one before. I love the DBA demo video of this, it sounds so burly and thick and wooly but then I'll turn around and watch someone else demo it with the exact same settings and it sounds tinny like a weak OD or distortion instead of the kind of saturated gnarly fuzz I expect. I know Ollie's demo runs it through a tiny little Fender amp so of course it sounds massive through that, probably completely overwhelming the front end of that little thing. I'd be using it into a Rockeverb 100 or Twin Reverb and I'm more concerned that's where I'd run into some issues.

So tell me your love story with this thing or how you got it and it wasn't right for you and you flipped it.

[Gavanti]

I had one for about half a year. I loved the sounds I could get, and the tone knob has this really wild curve that seems to reset the sonic agenda at specific points, making it pretty flexible. It was definitely one of the more fun fuzzes that I've had. It can definitely sound huge. However, I tend to stack pedals, and it didn't do that as well as some others, and I ultimately decided that running through a clean Princeton or Deluxe Reverb, I wanted something with more push in the mids. It's also not the most space-efficient pedal on a board. I think it's well worth picking one up to see if it's your thing.

[tune_link]

I had one for about half a year. I loved the sounds I could get, and the tone knob has this really wild curve that seems to reset the sonic agenda at specific points, making it pretty flexible. It was definitely one of the more fun fuzzes that I've had. It can definitely sound huge. However, I tend to stack pedals, and it didn't do that as well as some others, and I ultimately decided that running through a clean Princeton or Deluxe Reverb, I wanted something with more push in the mids. It's also not the most space-efficient pedal on a board. I think it's well worth picking one up to see if it's your thing.

I definitely also stack pedals, usually multiple drives and fuzzes. Were you running other stuff into the Fuzz War or vice versa where you ran into the stacking issue?

[Gavanti]

I had one for about half a year. I loved the sounds I could get, and the tone knob has this really wild curve that seems to reset the sonic agenda at specific points, making it pretty flexible. It was definitely one of the more fun fuzzes that I've had. It can definitely sound huge. However, I tend to stack pedals, and it didn't do that as well as some others, and I ultimately decided that running through a clean Princeton or Deluxe Reverb, I wanted something with more push in the mids. It's also not the most space-efficient pedal on a board. I think it's well worth picking one up to see if it's your thing.

I definitely also stack pedals, usually multiple drives and fuzzes. Were you running other stuff into the Fuzz War or vice versa where you ran into the stacking issue?

I was running the FW into overdrive pedals. I've changed things up a bit since then so I can't remember which ones I was using at the time.

[MechaBulletBill]

i always buy one, find it too heavy to be useful, sell it, then buy another one coz i miss how good they sound. i've had about 5. the apocalypse is really great too, if you can spring for it.

[Nick and the Noise]

I ultimately decided that running through a clean Princeton or Deluxe Reverb, I wanted something with more push in the mids

So it has that same (imho) horrible scooped EQ curve of a muff?

[MechaBulletBill]

no it's much better than your average muff IMO

[Gavanti]

I ultimately decided that running through a clean Princeton or Deluxe Reverb, I wanted something with more push in the mids

So it has that same (imho) horrible scooped EQ curve of a muff?

It’s a muff-derived circuit, and the scoop is more or less prominent depending on how you set the tone. I thought it would likely work better in a small band than with keys and another guitarist in the mix. What I liked about some other muff-based pedals was an independent mids control that allowed me to dial in how much I wanted to be forward in the mix. I use a Rat now or a Spooky Tooth, but the Fuzz War is well worth a try.

[tune_link]

I did buy one and have had it for about a week now. Haven’t had practice yet but it sounds great at home by myself. And it def has enough mids depending on the setting. In fact it kinda sounds like my EQD Hoof when the mids are turned up depending on where you put the tone knob of the Fuzz War. Only it has more gain than the Hoof which seems to derive its tone from being based on a Civil War muff meaning lower gain (relatively speaking anyway it’s still a muff). I’ve been through an absolute fucking truckload of muffs and muff variants and other fuzzes. This one feels pretty on point.

I did have the Apocalypse briefly and sold it a few years back. It’s entirely possible that I didn’t fully know what to do with it at the time but if I’m honest I think the Fuzz War is a better pedal and the War Fuzz setting on the Apocalypse doesn’t really do what the actual Fuzz War pedal does. I had that thing at practice and absolutely disappeared in the band mix. It wasn’t for lack of volume either.

[jorri]

I did buy one and have had it for about a week now. Haven’t had practice yet but it sounds great at home by myself. And it def has enough mids depending on the setting. In fact it kinda sounds like my EQD Hoof when the mids are turned up depending on where you put the tone knob of the Fuzz War. Only it has more gain than the Hoof which seems to derive its tone from being based on a Civil War muff meaning lower gain (relatively speaking anyway it’s still a muff). I’ve been through an absolute fucking truckload of muffs and muff variants and other fuzzes. This one feels pretty on point.

I did have the Apocalypse briefly and sold it a few years back. It’s entirely possible that I didn’t fully know what to do with it at the time but if I’m honest I think the Fuzz War is a better pedal and the War Fuzz setting on the Apocalypse doesn’t really do what the actual Fuzz War pedal does. I had that thing at practice and absolutely disappeared in the band mix. It wasn’t for lack of volume either.

Ive been looking at the apocalypse. I thought it was a fuzz war multiplied by various other modes. Odd that its different.

I built a few fuzz war clones, despite it being hard to gather most authentic schematic. They are essentially "supa tonebender" which is more of a big muff than a tonebender, and then DBAs own tone circuit is like an extremified muff tone and many components tweaked

My version had a mid switch (bit like Hoof) but would say it wasnt always essential to cut through in a band.

What i liked was the rougher texture though. Muffs can be smooth. Other alternatives might be the Cloven Hoof, which is on the grittier side. All in the diodes and how they are linked up.https://shop.pedalparts.co.uk/Fuzz_Raw_ ... 89179.aspx maybe its not 100% accurate as DBA designs evolve a lot without notice, but its a good pedal.

[tune_link]

Ive been looking at the apocalypse. I thought it was a fuzz war multiplied by various other modes. Odd that its different.

Yeah it’s an odd difference really. I kind of want to get another Apocalypse just so I can do a side by side and also to see if there I just had a bad one initially. The way the War Fuzz setting on the Apocalypse operated when I had it was like having a Fuzz War based circuit within another circuit that seemed to affect the tone slightly and then the frequency sweep knob was like having only a portion of the full Fuzz War tone knob. I’d love to talk to Oliver and just ask if those guesses are correct or just my imagination. And again, I really do believe that some pedals are just made better than others by random chance not having to do with the builder but maybe they had some components and this one drifted more than others in a batch or was faulty in a way that was hard to quantify. I loved all the settings on the Apocalypse and how they sounded though. It wouldn’t keep me from trying another. DBA has consistently made stuff I tend to like, I have the Micro Harmonic Transformer and had an Interstellar Overdrive that I gave to a friend (probably will end up with another at some point as it was real good).

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

Hey Tune_Link!

I have and use the Super Fuzz War - which is the next step from John Dwyer‘s Thee Fuzz Warr Overload. It has got the Fuzz War side and a booster and both are internally adjustable. While I have trimmed the boost side to a „strangle“-equivalent (especially nice in front of my Fuzz Bear/Tonebender MKII) I still use the Fuzz War on the original setting ...so we should be on the same page concerning the sound!

I really like the Tone knobs range especially from 10 to 2 'o clock - from super doomy to trebly/perfect for that neo-garage-psychedelic thing.
And unlike others here I really like to stack it with the Tonebender variant I have. I use it with the various Fender amps I have and like what I get out of it!
Great pedal(s)! I don‘t know their other Fuzzes and drives but their Echo Dream 2 and Echo Master and love them too!

Had a clone of Dwyers Fuzz War - that had a very similar voicing but the boost section was too ice picky and (don‘t laugh) the footprint of the pedal was too small!
On the last diy-pedal order a friend ordered their Fuzz War MK-1 and the pcb was missing - now they sent two pcbs - so I‘m gonna build that one too! Let‘s see how they differ!

[jorri]

Ive been looking at the apocalypse. I thought it was a fuzz war multiplied by various other modes. Odd that its different.

Yeah it’s an odd difference really. I kind of want to get another Apocalypse just so I can do a side by side and also to see if there I just had a bad one initially. The way the War Fuzz setting on the Apocalypse operated when I had it was like having a Fuzz War based circuit within another circuit that seemed to affect the tone slightly and then the frequency sweep knob was like having only a portion of the full Fuzz War tone knob. I’d love to talk to Oliver and just ask if those guesses are correct or just my imagination. And again, I really do believe that some pedals are just made better than others by random chance not having to do with the builder but maybe they had some components and this one drifted more than others in a batch or was faulty in a way that was hard to quantify. I loved all the settings on the Apocalypse and how they sounded though. It wouldn’t keep me from trying another. DBA has consistently made stuff I tend to like, I have the Micro Harmonic Transformer and had an Interstellar Overdrive that I gave to a friend (probably will end up with another at some point as it was real good).

Back when I was building stuff, I heard that the Fuzz War has been through MANY iterations or even spontaneous substitution of parts and 'rough' quality control at DBA. Even an earlier circuit that looks completely different, using 7-stages, versus 4-stage 'muff' or 'supa tonebender' style, and some with no external volume control. Could be it, but could be tolerance. Building runs of my own designs always had a bit of that to it, especially ones 'on the edge' of bias- superfuzz style on was so bad I measured out the resistors and transistors to match which was so laborious!.
well only one way to find out. I'm not sure my FW clone ever sounded quite like demos i've seen though, so i wouldn't compare it with that.