The Hunt for Grady Martin's FUZZ TONE | History of the first Fuzz Pedal
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- Опубликовано: 16 июл 2024
- Join SFW on a (never-ending) hunt for Grady Martins #FuzzTone, we'll take a deep dive into the history of the Quonset Hut Studio and its faulty fuzzed out console in #Nashville.
Correction, I said Baritone in the video when I should have said “six string bass”
Not mentioned in this video is Revis V. Hobbs who helped to configure the Maestro Fuzz-Tone circuit.
0:00 Distrokid intro
0:03 SFW Intro
0:23 Fuzz-Tone begins
1:35 Maestro Pedal
1:53 Distrokid Add
2:42 The Reason Why
3:10 What Pedals Will Grady?
3:35 Vintage Gibson Fuzz Add
4:15 Back to Hunting..
5:35 Attempting to Grady
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Check out #GradyMartin and his Paul Bigsby guitar!:
• Grady Martin and his P...
PEDALS IN THE HUNT:
@jhspedals Josh, make me a damn Grady Martin Fuzz Box already...
www.jhspedals.info/colour-box-v2
@wampler_pedals Velvet Fuzz:
www.wamplerpedals.com/product...
Clusterfuzz:
function-fx.com/site/clusterf...
Guitars:
1962 Martin F-55 Archtop Electric guitar
1990s Danelectro Baritone (Curtesy of Fred Stuart)
Music:
Intro - The Fuzz / Twist and Turn | Grady Martin
Backing tracks- Cam Baldeon 
Видеоклипы
Thank you for doing a video on my great uncle! The Nashville A-Team were such an underrated part of music and it's crazy how this was discovered by complete accident!
I had a Maestro Fuzz Tone when I was 16 in my first band. Used it a ton. That was back in 1967.
Me To in Benton, Arkansas The Band was "The Malibus" pronounced manibooz where Beer was Booze.
Fantastic. Just learned about Grady Martin's use in 1961.
Often wondered where my first pedal ever used originated from back in the mid 60s. KEITH Richards owes those guys. Thanks to Neil Young Talkin on the Musician's Hall of Fame interview today
“Don’t Worry” is my favorite of the songs with the fuzz tone.
Underrated guitarrist
Are you kidding? Anyone who actually knows guitarists not named Eric Jimmy Jeff or Jimi knows Grady......I do not think he is under-rated
I'd say among non-country fans he's underrated
@@doitnowvideosyeah5841 I think on RUclips "underrated" means "underappreciated"
Not to the producers and other men who counted.
Thanks. You Straightened something out for me. I had always heard it it was a blown speaker in my younger years. Now we have the correct info. I rem Marty's song as a kid & just loved that tone.
I wonder if people get confused with the story about "Rocket 88"?
That amp had a torn speaker from being carried on the roof of their car.
At least that's what I have heard.
ruclips.net/video/Gbfnh1oVTk0/видео.html
Hello sir !
Maybe a different sound like
@@1978garfield overdrive? Maybe the broken speaker sound.
Great video! Thanks for the history lesson.
I think the tone you seek requires a very carefully damaged transformer, functioning more or less as a spark gap. Another way to do it would be to bias a tube well into Class C, almost Class D, so it's just being triggered at the peaks of the waveform.
The "spark gap" is exactly what happened in this case. Glenn Snoddy discovered the bad transformer when diagnosing the problem. It was arcing across the center tap. There were multiple bad ones due to the outsourcing of the transformer construction for a brief period.
Thanks for this clip, really great!!!
Great work, thanks for sharing. Sounds amazing…. I need one.
awesome vid, thanks
I love that old fuzz sound.
Thank you for this video! I’ve been on a similar hunt, and have been through a lot of these pedals. I’ll definitely be trying the Clusterfuzz. Liked and subscribed!
Hell yeah man! The Clusterfuzz is a fun pedal, I just dime the 8bit knob n let it ride.
So glad a stumbled onto this video. I keep buying fuzz pedals and while cool, not hitting the spot. I have been wanting a swampy vintage sound. This may be the one. Thanks! Happy Holidays.
I built myself a simple fuzz circuit back in 1977, it was giving great farting sounds which I didn't dig at the time but now looking back I think it was best sounding fuzz I ever played, that must be because of the vintage components I used forty five years ago. ✌
We LOVE THE FUZZZ !! thanks great video !
Some of Grady Martin's singles heard in this video were recorded in 1961 and 1962 and featured fuzztone guitar: Tippin' In/The Fuzz (recorded on January 12, 1961 and released in January, 1961); Twist and Turn/Good, Good, Good (recorded on February 8, 1962 and released in April, 1962) and Ramblin' Rose/Big Bad Guitar (recorded on February 8, 1962, but released in the US in July, 1965 under the name Beauregard and the Tuffs). Curiously, all six tracks were never compiled onto an album for US release (even today), but were the tracks on Side B of the Grady Martin, His Guitar, And The Slewfoot Five's 1963 album "That Good Grady" which only had a release in Australia and New Zealand. Side A included tracks from sessions recorded in 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957 and 1959 - before Marty Robbin's 'Don't Worry'. One could only imagine that the average 1963 audience was probably not prepared to hear Side B.
The last pedal sounds pretty dang close. Loved the video!
Wow the cutaways on those guitars are so cool.
Bigsby was tha MAN! I think Leo Fender was influenced by Bigsbys headstock for the strat
Sorry if I'm late, but I used to play thru a reel to reel tape deck with the record level cranked. Crazy fuzz!
It’s never to late for FUZZ!
But of course, Grady HAD the Fuzz, to a degree, even before he perfected it with "Don't Worry" and thereafter...
His main rig was of course his Bigsby Doubleneck... The Bigsby pickups were made with square magnet which was wound with square wire... And were incredibly low-ohm pickups... Anyhow, he ran that guitar through either an old Standel amp, or sometimes a Ray Butts Echosonic amp.
You can get a "close" tone by running a vintage 53-ish Telecaster through a low wattage tube amp.
Drive the tubes but lay back on amp volume... Turn the guitar volume control UP.
"Mud-out" the treble n bass pots on the guitar...
It's a pretty close replication.
You can even run through a Tremolo pedal, set the "speed" up for a faster clip, set your "depth" down so as not to get the "outer space Surf" vibe....
Turns out this same setup can also replicate the Cliff Gallup sound... Just add to it a good, fast 1 or 2 repeat delay... Roll your drive on the tubes down, brighten your treble a bit.... It's a fun way to run!
Interesting observations that you mention. I think I will try it out. I have been looking for that classic Grady Martin rockabilly sound. I even considered buying Bigsby pickups for my Gretsch, but before they produce some that replicate the appearance of my Dynasonics, it will not happen
53 Tele into a low watt amp + a booster or one transistor dist --> Spirit in the sky :-)
Sounds killer
When I was young I can't afford a guitar amp so I used to play plugged on an old radio and it have a unique fuzz sound ... good days
I used to have a Guyatone "The Fuzz" pedal that was pretty decent, that Clusterfuzz sounds closer though. Cool vid!
Sounds pretty close. Cool! Grady's always sounded like when guys use a wound up rubberband with a quarter in a vinyl chair seat to sound like they are letting out a real greasy fart. The sawtooth waveform is real tall and narrow with some second and third harmonics mixed in.
Love my EHX ripped speaker fuzz ..It's damn close🤟😎
Killer!
A great Fuzztone is a highly personal thing, what one person may regard as a great Fuzztone, another person may not, I own a Jim Dunlop JD-F2 red fuzz face pedal that I converted over to use silicon BC108C transistors after the original NTE158 germanium transistors went bad and no longer worked anymore, it's a great sounding fuzz pedal, I'm currently waiting for two new issue 2 fuzz face PCBs to turn up in the post so I can do some more work on my fuzz face pedal.
Fab!
That baritone sounded great.
I got a Catalinbread FUZZ-RITE for Xmas when they were just reissuibf them. First plug in I thought, "What the hell do I do with this?" while graciously smiling, hearing just a bunch of noise come out of my amp.
A deep dive into that thing has revealed a lot of those very similar sounds. Stacking it with other drive's and fuzz can also create tones that are pretty dead on to what I'm hearing. Once you start playing with your guitar's Tone and Volume knobs it really hits the mark.
Complicated litte guy. Highly misunderstood w/ the potential to emulate such tones and more.
Really interesting stuff -you could have a channel strip built but yes expensive ...
Play it on a 6 string bass. That's the secret to the Grady Martin tone on those recordings
I touched base on the 6 string bass in the episode
Did he use a six string bass though?
The coolest thing about fuzz type pedals is that it's no doubt the simplest pedal of all so even the poorest starter guitarist can ask to his friend electronic technician to build him one for free with some trash parts. Make a fuzz pedal is as easy as putting together two diodes and my first pedal ever was one of these back in 1984. The beauty part is that if you have 10 thousands different fuzz projects they all will sound unique.
My mum found a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face at a Car boot sale in Essex. She didn’t know it’s value and apparently neither did the seller. She paid £20 for it. For years it sat in a draw because although I knew it was a vintage I had no idea that it would be truly worth. I then took it to Macari’s, the famous Guitar shop in London and home of the original Tone Bender. The guy in the shop told me it was an original 1971 with the Germanium transistors. As great as it sounded, I wasn’t enough of a fan of it to warrant having such a valuable pedal. So I sold it and bought a new Strat. Not bad for £20
The demage that board made on music is trumendous. But some technical info for you looking for that sound. That distoriton is specific since it’s not adding any sustain. It’s just huge amount of clipping, that is occuring on signal. Most pedals work the way they boost signal then they clip. This is reverse, clipping and then some makeup gain, but clean, no sustain added only demage. To have something like this I think some company should custom make it. Hell, maybe even I will try to design it.
Do it! I I’d use a custom Grady Fuzz pedal all day.
I subscribed and liked the video ✌️ 🥳🎉🎊🎆🧨🇺🇲HAVE A HAPPY HEALTHY SAFE NEW YEAR
Happy New Year Randy!
Holy cow THAT's dirty ... I love it !
That sounds like a pretty common fuzz with more sustain than Grady had.
I got a 90s Ibanez FZ7 (that generation of Ibanez pedals with the pop-up knobs and squarish brushed aluminum case). I use it for one song only...and it's hilariously spitty, sputtery and over-the-top sounding. Makes (country)audiences look confused and terrified, makes everyone onstage laugh like crazy. It's like WWIII when you step on it.
I’d probably pick something like the Japanese Shin-ei Fy-2 “Companion fuzz”, that pedal has that really gated “brassy” sound to its attack. Probably not the later fy-6 “super fuzz” as that has the octave effect. I’d also maybe suggest some sort of fuzz pedal with a bias or voltage control, intended to simulate the effect of a dying battery. All the best!!
Hey thanks, I’m definitely going to check the Shin-ei out!
did you ever try the Pigtronix "Fat Drive"? i use it on a solid state acoustic amp and i think it does the job really well. but it would probably give you more of that Grady fuzz on a tube amp.
The merkin fuzz from catalinbread does that country fuzz, I have one and it's great
Awesome I’m going to check it out!
@@soloflightwest yeah, i would say the merkin or mosrite fuzzrite, which the merkin is a clone of i guess. although the Cluster is doing a damn good job. well done!
it was the lap steel. you can find this when they perform it later.
Sound like not just everything is fuzzed , but the low fq modulates the whole sound...
Have you tried a Mahoney buzz tone in a pedal form. It's based on the Jordan boss tone from the late 60s
The way I see it, what these are all missing is an actually over-driven speaker. The problem is, the people who build these fuzz boxes are engineers who are formalists with rules . . . they naturally will not overdrive a speaker past a certain point. I once took an old Craig 8-track player, one that had been a top-of-the-line player in its heyday, connected a guitar up to its input tape head, then ran the output to a three-inch speaker and cranked the volume way past the normal limit, I was actually trying to blow that sucker . . . . it did not blow, but what I got out of it was a sound very much like to song Spirit in the Sky, ruclips.net/video/W2msh0jut2Y/видео.html . . . . no fuzz box involved, so when it comes to Don't Worry, I am quite sure the reason why you are not getting a good matching sound is it is highly likely the speaker was a bit larger speaker than a 3-inch in the case of Marty's song, but well over-driven. Most people won't do that because they don't want to blow their speakers, and I'm sure there is a risk involved. The 3-inch I used was something that was a throw-away so I didn't care. The pitch is a bit higher on as 3-inch than Marty's song was. Anyway, that's my take on this issue, have been a big fan of Marty Robbins and Grady Martin, grew up listening to their music.
Its a real shame martin didn't do interviews. So many unanswered questions
I was great friends with Grady's son Tal. I was lucky enough to meet Grady several times at his old farmhouse just this side of Chapel Hill Tennessee. I'm also lucky enough to own one of Grady's guitars. This is not the story I was told about the incident during the Marty Robbins recording session. I really enjoy your videos though. Grady did want to re-record the solo.
Hey Donnie, I’d love to hear your story about that recording! I used this NAMM interview with the engineer Glenn Snoddy as my reference, I’m sure there’s many details left out. Here’s that link.
www.namm.org/library/oral-history/glenn-snoddy
@@soloflightwest Hey, I know memories get cloudy over time and I'm in no way saying who's right or wrong. This is what was told around 94, by Grady and Tal. Grady used a danelectro baritone guitar and an amp (can't remember the make). The amp had been moved recently from another session. Grady said that because the amp was mishandled while being moved that a tube or something was dislodged or blown. So I don't know if he was mistaken or not. But his belief was the issue itself was in the amplifier. He was not happy and wanted to re- record the solo. But apparently he was outnumbered lol. That's the short version of the story I was told. Grandy was a great guitar player and by the time I met him a pretty simple man living on a small farm.
Donnie, Mr. Martin gave me my first guitar lesson when I was very young. I know the farmhouse you are talking about. I was so young I didn’t realize the history I was in the presence of. I do remember all of the awesome pictures on his walls. I took a few lesson from Tal many years later. Good times. (I’m from Mooresville)
What was he like in person?
And did you ever meet Marty?
Try the Deep Trip Pedals from Brazil. Really, try it.
Everything needs more Fuzz
Frijid Pink do a great fuzz guitar on their remake of the House of the Rising Sun back in 1970. Just gave me an idea for my next cd compilation to put that song plus Don't worry about me back to back on the cd to get 2 great fuzz tracks almost a decade apart and using vastly different types of music.
Grady Martin's contribution to modern music has been so forgotten its sickening. I have found a few examples
of his playing on youtube and he was a Genius. He is the only guitarist to have backed the big 3 - Hank Williams, Elvis and Buddy Holly in the studio. He also played with so many greats of country and pop of the 50's and 60's. Here's just a few.. Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty, Kris Kristofferson Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee and Willie Nelson. Just his contribution to Patsy Clines hits ( on his Wikipedia pg.) is staggering.
The Beatles sound wasn't produced with a Neve console. They went through EMI REDD consoles.
they also used fuzz tones- rarely but they did . although i think i heard "revolution" was direct into an overloaded pre on the board ,. there is images of them with some fuzz tones in the studio but they are rare .
Here is this one thought of you when I heard it. J Rockett Audio Designs WTF Fuzz
I’m betting you know James Burton’s Jimmy’s Blues but he used a six string bass I believe You could combine 2 pedals or maybe ToneBender type stuff if no one’s already mentioned some of these things
I haven’t listened to Jimmys Blues, thanks for that! I’m listening to it as I type.
Niel Young told me to come here
This is great. It sounds like a slightly more articulate Fuzz. Very close, maybe a hair better.
The fuzz tone I've been chasing is the Maggot Brain/Super Stupid fuzz tones
Check out the joyo voodoo octave. 25$ on reverb
Did you ever try the BrassMaster?
Definitely on the bucket list.
I am more interested in Grady Martin's tone from his Bigsby and how to copy it with today's gear.
Nice, check in with TK Smith he has some products that can help you.
Sorry Bashville wasn't the first, I had a catalog fuzz box longtime (years) before Gib-son could spell Mae-stro Nice MusicMan amp by the way and his (Grady's) ES-335 custom-custom rig was a Varitone switched ES-355. Couple of pics on the web to view if you search for it. Carvin guitars pre-dated both Bigsby & Fender on the inline 6 headstock.
Wow that would put it pre 1961? So possibly late 50s? I wonder why I can’t find any documentation on this, do you have any recollection of what and where you got this device?
@@soloflightwest Not that early Gibson was around 1966 and the timeline's a little fuzzy around that era. So better said that I saw and got a mail order fuzz-tone long before I viewed a Gibson model at a local dealer, so a plus or minus, on the first built date thing. "Lafayette Catalogs" was the vendor, just added a 9-volt battery. Built similar to later Electro Harmonics boxes. During that same period Supro came out with the best one... I got to borrow and use one but could never buy it from the owner, still looking for that one...all chrome by the way. Take care and keep on rocking and don't brother knockin' just Come on Inn !!
Can someone who has the fuzz maestro from 2022 and has played the 1962 fuzz maestro or still owns it tell me how similar they sound
I think you pretty much got it, sounds about right to me. But opinions my vary.
Thanks, and you can bet my pedal setup has definitely shifted dramatically since shooting this.
@@soloflightwest So the ClusterFuzz is OUT? If there is something else, did you do a follow up video on it. The further pursuits of the Grady sound.
@@ksharpe10 the Cluster fuzz with a buffer infront of it using a single coil pickup seems to be the closest, but I’m currently using the Jackson Audio FUZZ for the variety at the moment as I have gigs that require it. I haven’t made a follow up on it yet- but if I find another way to get a better Grady you bet a videos coming!
What is a Buffer? And what kind of product is used for it. Like is it a Compressor and or a Graphic EQ item?
That’s a nice pedal that cluster
I heard that the Amp speaker was kick and ripped the speaker cone. Must have been a lie
Pigdog makes a FZ-1 clone but with added sustain, it is that sound….hard to get though and pricey.
Pretty sure Don’t Worry was a Danelectro Bass VI. Not a Baritone guitar. The lowest note heard in that solo is the open E string of a bass guitar
You’re correct! The only difference between a Danelectro 6 string bass and “baritone” is string guage and tuning. Scale lengths are the same. I shouldn’t have said baritone, I cleared it on in this video-
ruclips.net/video/LsPoSZPKguA/видео.html
«The great british fuzztone» talking about transistor Neves, with a picture of a transistor EMI consoles, while the tone in question was a Tube consoles based on german telefunken preamps. I can see why this guy is struggling to find his tones;-)
American Langevin. Don’t give the British credit on this one.
Didn't The Ventures use a fuze tone?
Possibly, I know they used the Mosrite Fuzzrite for sure.
@@soloflightwest That's right...thanks
In this video, she is breadboarding a fuzzface circuit. At 2:45 she explains that it didn't work at first, then shows it making a sound I think is like the sound you are talking about
m.ruclips.net/video/KA1wjCTcNoM/видео.html
Mosrite Fuzzrite
Set up and amp,single coils it's a crap shoot to get that and early 65-6 garage rock had that cool unbiased type decay.....fuzz is a personal taste... It's now overwhelming to try million pedals claiming to have the best fuzztones from 60,s ..
Bass vi
Danoelectro 6 String Bass
Have you tried a Fuzzrite by Mosrite? Here's a cut with it from The Ventures album 'Wild Things'. It's titled 'Fuzzy and Wild'. ruclips.net/video/XU_ErhQtOsI/видео.html
I haven’t! Thank you for showing this to me, now down the rabbit I go lol
ventures never used the fuzzrite in the studio. red rhodes build them a fuzz
When you are playing bass lines on your guitar because anything else would get lost in all that mud. You call that tone?
Sound is subjective to the individual.
My god these ads in the videos are so annoying
I agree, this was my first sponsored add and since I decided to to not go that route in the future.
here's my problem: you rave all thru the video about "Grady Martin's SOUND". But this SOUND happened by accident AT THE STUDIO. Was he able to reproduce THE SOUND LIVE? i don't think so. The FIRST, worldwide-accepted distortion sound able to be produced LIVE, was in The Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction", which you do not mention. The Beatles used distortion too but no sound like The Rolling Stones ever opened a door into the unknown dimension of distortion. So Grady might have been THE FIRST but only by an accident. He could not reproduce it LIVE.
I touched on your point in the video in regards to the accidental fuzz sound. The theme of this video is try and reproduce Grady’s fuzz tone.