Wattson FY-6

[zinzin]

the wattson fy-6 sounds like a very nice fuzz to me. it's supposed to be after the shin-ei fuzzes. any owner out there? i can only judge by the youtube demos and it seems to me that it sounds rather similar to the danelectro french toast. anyone can confirm this?

 

[macadood]

echodeluxe'd?

[thom]

Had one for a short while. I was drawn in by the mojo of the slanted box, and I was hoping/assuming it would blow away my beloved Boss FZ-2. 

I did, in terms of copying classic superfuzz tones. Not that I've tried a ton of other clones, but I doubt there's a lot that comes closer and is build as strong and reliable as the Wattson. 

That being said, I really prefered my FZ-2. More gain, darker, nastier, thicker,...

Not as vintage/classic, not the same sputtery octave tones as the Wattson though. Can't comment on the french toast, never tried one. I just know it's cheaper, not true bypass, and the build quality might be questionable...

[amp_surgeon]

 

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zinzin wrote:

 

 

the wattson fy-6 sounds like a very nice fuzz to me. it's supposed to be after the shin-ei fuzzes. any owner out there? i can only judge by the youtube demos and it seems to me that it sounds rather similar to the danelectro french toast. anyone can confirm this?

 

 

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I don't generally make comparisons between our pedals and other current production pedals. There's plenty of other people who aren't affiliated with Wattson can give you an honest comparison.

 

What I can tell you is that the Wattson FY-6 is intended to be a tone-accurate reproduction of the Shin-ei FY-6 and it's many OEM incarnations, including the Univox Super-Fuzz and Shaftesbury DuoFuzz. The circuit is almost identical to the original Shin-ei circuit. We only made a couple of minor changes. For instance, we use slightly smaller fixed resistors in the base bias circuit of the differential amp to make up for the added trim pot. This allows us to use the trim pot to null out differences in the two transistors, just as Univox did, while keeping the same bias point as the original Shin-ei pedal. There is also a bypass cap in the collector circuit of the first transistor to prevent this transistor from breaking into oscillation due to the interelement capacitance of the transistor. Our modern silicon requires a slightly higher capicitance here than the original 2SCxxx transistors did.

As far as the enclosure, the dimensions and control placement is exactly the same as the original Shin-ei pedal. The biggest difference is that we use 16 gauge powder coated steel, while Shin-ei used 20 gauge lacquer painted steel. That means our enclosure looks nearly identical to Shin-ei's, while being substantially more rugged. We also used a Bulgin battery drawer so that the enclosure doesn't have to be opened to replace the battery. You can also use a standard 9V power supply.

Most of our dealers are currently out of stock, but we have a build of FY-6 pedals scheduled to begin in about two weeks.

[macadood]

yea, the fz-2 is pretty {censored}ing nasty, in a good way for the most part. if you're into that.

[zinzin]

 

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amp_surgeon wrote:

 

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zinzin wrote:

 

 

the wattson fy-6 sounds like a very nice fuzz to me. it's supposed to be after the shin-ei fuzzes. any owner out there? i can only judge by the youtube demos and it seems to me that it sounds rather similar to the danelectro french toast. anyone can confirm this?

 

 

---

 

 

I don't generally make comparisons between our pedals and other current production pedals. There's plenty of other people who aren't affiliated with Wattson can give you an honest comparison.

 

 

 

What I can tell you is that the Wattson FY-6 is intended to be a tone-accurate reproduction of the Shin-ei FY-6 and it's many OEM incarnations, including the Univox Super-Fuzz and Shaftesbury DuoFuzz. The circuit is almost identical to the original Shin-ei circuit. We only made a couple of minor changes. For instance, we use slightly smaller fixed resistors in the base bias circuit of the differential amp to make up for the added trim pot. This allows us to use the trim pot to null out differences in the two transistors, just as Univox did, while keeping the same bias point as the original Shin-ei pedal. There is also a bypass cap in the collector circuit of the first transistor to prevent this transistor from breaking into oscillation due to the interelement capacitance of the transistor. Our modern silicon requires a slightly higher capicitance here than the original 2SCxxx transistors did.

 

As far as the enclosure, the dimensions and control placement is exactly the same as the original Shin-ei pedal. The biggest difference is that we use 16 gauge powder coated steel, while Shin-ei used 20 gauge lacquer painted steel. That means our enclosure looks nearly identical to Shin-ei's, while being substantially more rugged. We also used a Bulgin battery drawer so that the enclosure doesn't have to be opened to replace the battery. You can also use a standard 9V power supply.

 

Most of our dealers are currently out of stock, but we have a build of FY-6 pedals scheduled to begin in about two weeks.

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so no volume loss when kicked in - is it that what that technical stuff you talking about means? sorry, i am not fit in that field. good to hear about the new schedule. thanks for your infos.

 

[imbuedblue]

I haven't tried the Wattson or Danelectro, but I do have experience with both of the originals each was based on. They're both octave fuzzes, but the character is different. The FY-6 is sputtery and just plain raw sounding, while the Tone Machine is thicker, warmer, and smoother. The octave is more pronounced on the Tone Machine.

[zinzin]

thing is i already have the french toast. it's just that from those youtube videos you can't really tell the sound.

thanks for the description imbuedblue.