Fuchs Amps

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playloud
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:03 pm
Location: Miami, Florida, USA

Fuchs Amps

Post by playloud »

Anyone use the Fuchs ODS amp? Am thinking of buying one, but they are not cheap. Maybe using some pedals, like the ZenDrive by Hermida or an AC or RC Booster by Xotic, would be a cheaper option, into a clean tube amp. Comments would be appreciated.

Thx. Joe
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ayan
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Re: Fuchs Amps

Post by ayan »

playloud wrote:Anyone use the Fuchs ODS amp? Am thinking of buying one, but they are not cheap. Maybe using some pedals, like the ZenDrive by Hermida or an AC or RC Booster by Xotic, would be a cheaper option, into a clean tube amp. Comments would be appreciated.

Thx. Joe
If you like Fuchs amp, you will probably like the Fuchs Valve Job pedal. It captures a lot of the nuance the tone of the amp in a small box. :) Personally, I think it's a great sounding overdrive.

Gil
Firestorm
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Re: Fuchs Amps

Post by Firestorm »

Yeah, but pedals don't quite give you it all. Most guys think that amps only exist so you can hear guitars. Some of us think that guitars exist so you can hear TUBES.
Andy posts here. Tell him what you want to hear and see what he says. He won't be completely objective, but no one is ...
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ayan
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Re: Fuchs Amps

Post by ayan »

Firestorm wrote:Yeah, but pedals don't quite give you it all. Most guys think that amps only exist so you can hear guitars. Some of us think that guitars exist so you can hear TUBES.
Andy posts here. Tell him what you want to hear and see what he says. He won't be completely objective, but no one is ...
Not sure what Andy's prices are, but I guess the ratio of pedal to amp price is 1 to 10. Some of the best tones have been achieved using solid state... Check your recordings if you were born in the 20th century! :D BTW, the Fuchs' pedal I am talking about has a 12AX7 in it, for what it's worth.

Gil
Fischerman
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Re: Fuchs Amps

Post by Fischerman »

playloud,
Regarding the pedals you mentioned...I don't have a Zendrive but I do have an AC and an RC booster and they don't really get a Dumbly tone IMO. I like the RC as a clean boost but I have never really bonded with the AC. I have a Jetter Gain Stage Red in the mail which is another Dumble-flavored pedal...there is also the Menatone Howie pedal which is sort of like a Dumble preamp (clean and OD) in a pedal. And of course the new Fuchs pedal.

There have been comparisons of the Zen, GSR, and Howie elsewhere and from what I could tell there was no consensus on what sounded best (lol...shocker!)...they all seemed to get high praise. The Fuchs pedal is pretty new and wasn't compared (in the threads I saw) but I'm sure it won't be long.

I think any pedal will be at least a little different from an amp (not saying one is necessarily better) but IMO if you have a good base tone and a good pedal then it will likely equal or surpass all but the 'good' examples of an ODS (which the Fuchs amp is).
pamaz67
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Re: Fuchs Amps

Post by pamaz67 »

Hi all.
I am lucky enough to own a Fuchs amp, some d-clones I made, the zendrive and had in the past other Dumble inspired stompboxes.
All of the impressions that I report are my personal point of view and I don't expect that are shared by others.

I can say that each one of these things is really a good one.

Fuchs amps are really great. BTW having the opportunity to play different fuchs from various years, I can say that ( leaving them stock) I prefer the older ones.
Fuchs, like any other amp BTW, needs tweaking to reach its maximum potential. I have done this tuning to my amp ( and to some others fuchs ) and now I can say it's really excellent.

D clones. Many people on this board are surely able to build excellent things.
If you have the chance to test a serious D clone, do it.

Zendrive: not really in the same league of what an amp like Fuchs or a good d-clone can do, especially in terms of dynamics and pick response. Tonewise it's a killer box.
In any case one of the best stompboxes ever made.
Let's say that if you can't play with your own rig, having one in your bag could be really helpful. For me mandatory.
There are other decent stompboxes out there (dumble inspired), but to me the zendrive is the easier to get a good tone out of it .

Just to close my impressions, I second the point of view of Gil: many wonderful tones are made out of silicon!
I still own two Pearce g2r and in no way I'll part with them, although they have plenty of limitations!

hope this helps.
Ciao

Paolo
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