closest fuzz pedal to Beatles "revolution" sound!?!?

[84K]

The Sam Ash Fuzz. Vintage, but it does it. Also try taking a guitar-fuzz- direct. You can try that with any fuzz. play with the knobs, plugin eq, add verb, bam.

[Jesse Eastman]

I've heard similar tones from those little 1 inch "cigarette amps." Also heard razor blade sliced 6x9 car speakers plugged into a guitar amp which came close.

[johnny nowhere]

Old tube/valve amps utilised a tube as well for the rectifier stage. There's this
phenomenon that occurs when you try to draw more power from it than it can
deliver which is referred to as "sag". Neil Young gets a ton of it on his 'Weld'
album. The attack is compressed before the rectifier catches up and opens.
It's a beautiful thing, but as I said... you ain't gonna get that out of a pedal.

[Jesse Eastman]

Originally Posted by johnny nowhere

Old tube/valve amps utilised a tube as well for the rectifier stage. There's this
phenomenon that occurs when you try to draw more power from it than it can
deliver which is referred to as "sag". Neil Young gets a ton of it on his 'Weld'
album. The attack is compressed before the rectifier catches up and opens.
It's a beautiful thing, but as I said... you ain't gonna get that out of a pedal.

Oh Yeah!!!!!!!

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by telesandtwins

any help would be great! thank you!

pete

I was searching also...... saw this through a buddy of mine. Check it out Dweezil Zappa in the studio playing revolution and getting pretty close to the sound/tone

http://www.dweezilzappaworld.com/videos/86

[Jay Dee]

Dunno about 'Revolution' specifically but I recall reading that the Beatles were using a Maestro fuzz box around about that time, the one with the captive lead.

Google Image Result for http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Gibson_maestro_fuzz_tone_1_752.jpg

[Traktor]

Studio Devil Virtual Guitar Amp (plug in) has a D.I. Box option (in the "PowerAmp" section) that can get that sound ...(i'm a huge Beatle freak by the way).

[jnepo1]

I stack a CAE MC-402 and a MXR Doubleshot Distortion to acquire that sound. I also have my Nova Reverb dialed in as well.

[baikonour]

Originally Posted by 3waytie4last

A Roland Funny Cat is the closest I've ever heard a pedal get to that fizzy distortion.

I love the Funny Cat...The Distortion/Sustainer (SDS) is quite unique sounding. I don't know how it works. guessing as per the name it's a fixed ratio compression+distortion. The envelope follower is crazy in that that it seems to work backwards.
The distortion is rather fizzy even crackly when used Di'ed or with a clean amp setting and it has this overdriven preamp quality. But if used with an overdriven amp it sounds like the best distortion box ever, if you like vintage type tone of course
Roland produced only 2 stompboxes in this serie: the Funny Cat and the BeeBaa, and they are both really unique sounding. Quite hard to find though.

I like to have a BeeGee too, it's the precursor of the Beebaa, not as fat and crazy as the BeeBaa but a nice sounding soft fuzz.

[3waytie4last]

Originally Posted by baikonour

Roland produced only 2 stompboxes in this serie: the Funny Cat and the BeeBaa, and they are both really unique sounding. Quite hard to find though.

You may find one or two Funny Cats a year on ebay, it's certainly more rare from my experience. The BeeBaa is on there quite often (relatively), maybe once every few months.

I've never owned the BeeBaa, but do have a Funny Cat.

[doctor sumatra]

Originally Posted by embrionic

"The single version of Revolution has a very distorted guitar sound to it which was achieved by putting the guitars through the recording console which causes the channel to overload and create a fuzz sound."

huh.....really? and for all these years i though it was yoko singing besame mucho

DS

[Tube World]

I always thought John took a razor blade to his speaker to get that sound. Overdrive the pre amp? Hmmm interesting

[latestflavor]

take a 1980 consumer tape deck, the kind with an input on the front for a microphone, plug it in and then direct into your A/D. Voila, instant transistor fart sound.

[Flogger59]

According to what I've read on the sessions, Lennon was cranking a Fender and the voice came from the control room telling him it was too loud. "But that's my sound!" was his reply (Heard that before?).
So Emerick got out the soldering iron and put two of the console's preamps in series and overloaded both, while leaving someone to block the door in case an EMI suit showed up and fired him. He had to get written permission to even close mic a kick drum, and then only on Beatles sessions.

[thomasdf]

I got really really close results with my 1978 Tone Bypass Op-Amp Big Muff plugged in my console... GrRreat!

[SebCarr]

Originally Posted by latestflavor

take a 1980 consumer tape deck, the kind with an input on the front for a microphone, plug it in and then direct into your A/D. Voila, instant transistor fart sound.

Yes! I got a very similar sound plugging straight into the mic input of a 1980s Technics cassette deck.

(Not a fan of the sound at all, though. Mine, or on the original record).

[nightraven]

the Beatles used pretty much all the fuzzes that were around at various times - Maestro FZ-1, various early Tone Benders, Pepe Rush fuzz etc but i always heard that it was guitar plugged straight into the console. the closest fuzz out there that approximates the sound is the Italian Vox 2 transistor Tone Benders (not to be confused with the Vox Tone Bender Professional Mk II or the 3 knob Vox pedals). check 'em out on the YouTubes.

[Ryan Coke]

As others have mentioned, the "Revolution" sound IS direct into the console, so it's an unusual sound in that it's a fuzz, but without going through a speaker, so as to achieve an intentionally cheap, solid state sound (solid state amplifiers and pedals--pedals usually being solid state in themselves--being a new trend in the mid 60's). In that regard, you're more after a really, really solid state sound from a fuzz, which has traditionally been a high gain solid state sound, but with some of the harshness knocked off of it by a tube amp and a speaker.

Answering your question a bit better, you may want to take a look at ZVex's Fuzz Factory--it's a pretty legendary pedal, and to my ears, it's a super bright sounding fuzz.....much brighter than your usual fuzz pedals, and the total opposite of a Big Muff type circuit where the highs and mids are scooped out of the sound. The knobs sort of work off of each other in that they all vary each other's parameters a bit, and you can get some really trebly, blown out sounds with it. The "Revolution" sound is almost like a lo-fi radio transmission type of sound, and the Fuzz Factory does that well, with the right (and even wrong!) tweaking. It really specializes in "wrong sounds" out of a fuzz.

[byerh]

Originally Posted by pbradt

My question is why are you chasing a tone that's unobtanium, and why are you chasing someone else's tone?

I will NEVER understand the obsessive need for cover-band players to try to duplicate a recording-studio sound live. Believe me, if Lennon ever played that song live, he probably played it through a Twin or a Marshall, and didn't worry for a moment if he sounded like the record. Why would you?

Find YOUR sound and put something of YOURSELF into the song. Make it your own.

Yes this is great advise but it is also important to chase the tones we love and learn how they are created, sometimes just for the sake of learning and trying to master the art of crafting tone - live or in the studio.

The successful result is an education that is quite valuable. Hearing a tone and learning how it was done can give someone new insight to the tools they have or might like to try.

Couple that education with the advise above about not worrying and adding your own element and vibe and you are well on your way to creating your own tone, even for a cover song, that you are happy with....