Would placing an EQ pedal before fuzz help with low impedance from an active bass?

b525

b525

Nov 16, 2013
91
251
4,921
Jakarta, Indonesia
#1
Hi, so basically I have an M-Vave (a.k.a. Cuvave) Fuzz pedal in my signal chain, I usually go fuzz first in the chain, and I usually use my trusty Sterling by Musicman SB-14 bass, which has super high gain, which I believe translates to low impedance (please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm fairly new to the pedal world).

If you didn't know (yes I watch 60 cycle hum a lot) the Cuvave Fuzz is supposedly a Zvex Woolly Mammoth clone (minus the bias knob), which I believe is a kind of a fuzz face style pedal, so it seems to be very sensitive to high gain instruments, because when I max the volume knob on my bass, it gets compressed, like it really struggles and ducks in a sort of a buffered kinda way, because logically I guess the preamp on my SB-14 is a buffer in a way, correct?

Problem is, I can't lower the input volume on the pedal, only the output volume (without doing some DIY wizardry which is way above my understanding). So my current remedy is turning down the volume knob on my bass to like 85-90% of the way, and then the Cuvave Fuzz responds way better.

This gets annoying and impractical, super quick.

So back to the title, I've done some research and some guitarists who face this issue with like an EMG style pickup usually get some sort of debuffer pedal, which acts as a passive pickup emulator, therefore less output from the guitar = a fuzz that behaves nicely.

Unfortunately, these are hard to come by where I'm from, so I was wondering if a cheap standard 5-band EQ pedal would do the same trick if I turn the level down and/or adjust the EQ?

Would love to hear any advice or solutions, thanks talkbass friends :hyper:
 
#2
Passive electric guitars (and bass guitars) have output impedances that are very reactive - they're fairly low at low frequencies, but they are higher in the mid frequencies, and even high at higher frequencies. Although some pedals will have about the same impedance as your bass at low frequencies, at mid and high frequencies, I know of no pedals that have output impedances that are anything like a bass or guitar.

Some fuzz circuits (the old primitive ones, and those that use the same topologies) "rely" on the impedance of your instrument as part of their sound, which (given that different instruments have rather different impedances) means that how they work with your instrument is pretty much a crapshoot. If you like a particular combination, though, you're pretty much stuck, as putting the same pedal later in the signal chain after other pedals that are on won't sound the same. It just won't.

Short answer: No, a 5 band eq pedal doesn't have the same output impedance as your bass. Not even close (sorry).

This pedal does fuzz "right" - it deals with the issue that you have, plus the temperature problem that germanium has:

Germanium Fuzz — BENSON AMPS

Of course, every fuzz sounds different, and that one may or may not be your flavor.
 
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