So I finally got my new place set up with a ton of shelves to house my pedals.
As I was putting them away today and taking a nostalgia trip down fuzzy lane when I ran into my
[center]Morley Power Wah Fuzz[/center]
This was one of my 1st "vintage" fuzz pedals and I remembered really loving it.
So I plugged this baby in and BOOM! (well more like CRACKLE! /BUZZ! /ZZKZZZK!) it sounded awesome!
Before I played an FZ-1a I always figured that it would sound like this, but now I realize that the Morley Fuzz is actually different enough, in a really cool way, that I feel as though it's either its own unique circuit or something modded to the point of obscurity.
It also has a really cool/funky wah going on with a photo-sensitive circuit!
and I love that this thing is so huge!
someone should really make a Fuzz only version of this pedal...
The controls are pretty easy;
One is for Intesity, which is actually Volume and not Gain.
and the other for Tone, which is actually a pretty decent tone control.
Contrary to popular belief, Cliff Burton DID NOT use the Morley Power Wah Fuzz,
what he actually used was the Morley Power Wah Boost + Big Muff (probably Rams Head or maybe IC Muff?).
The Fuzz itself is similar to an FZ-1a, but there are many differences:
1. More full sound/low end.
2. Cool gating effect.
3. Real "static" high end sort of crunchiness and crackles.
You can have just fuzz, just wah or both at the same time, the wah being 2nd in the series.
OK, so yeah! these go for real cheap usually on ebay and come up quite often, so what the hell?
Graemey made a demo of one of these a long time ago where he goes into some detail of what's going on inside:
here is another one I found with bass and a few other pedals showing off more of the wah side:
and here is the big chromey porno!
Oh, DB? That's just slang for Dandy Big muff collector.
----------------------- Tone Machines, Vintage Effects Blog: www.tonemachinesblog.com
I was gonna buy one of these a while ago. Great Fuzz, great wah but I just don't like the sound when both are engaged. Could never understand that. A Fuzz only version would indeed be awesome. Would it still need to be mains operated?
Jim Goad wrote:I was gonna buy one of these a while ago. Great Fuzz, great wah but I just don't like the sound when both are engaged. Could never understand that. A Fuzz only version would indeed be awesome. Would it still need to be mains operated?
I see Morley distortion boxes on US eBay... Not sure what the circuit is.
"...Being shot out of a cannon will always be better than being squeezed out of a tube. That is why God made fast motorcycles, Bubba…" H.S.T.
Jim Goad wrote:I was gonna buy one of these a while ago. Great Fuzz, great wah but I just don't like the sound when both are engaged. Could never understand that. A Fuzz only version would indeed be awesome. Would it still need to be mains operated?
the one schematic i've got shows the fuzz running at 7v so one should be able to run that circuit from a battery. i recall reading that there were several versions of the PWF and I've got two that have different fuzz circuits. my original that i've had since the late 70's is cool, nasty, and unique, the other that i bought a couple years ago was pretty dissapointing in comparison. the "good" one was made in burbank, CA the other was a north hollywood made unit. looks from the serial numbers that burbank was earlier? these are a lot of fun for bass guitar with the wah fuzz used together... not so much on guitar as was stated.
