"The Gilmour Update" | New Fractal Fuzzes | Ram's Head Muff, Colorsound Power Boost & More

[@LeonTodd]

What's your favourite fuzz?

[@skipneumann1]

Ram’s Head

[@Marc9889]

Historically, it's the Fuzz Face (thanks, Eric Johnson), but since you went and posted that video with the Nobelium OVD-1, I can't seem to bring myself to use anything else.

[@shaharbar]

ZVEX Fuzz Factory, the thing always sounds like its about to explode…

[@pennyroyaI]

Just ordered my Axe Turbo! Im a recording engineer in Seattle setting up a small studio, and this box solves the "options problem," more than anything else and it just keeps getting better! Ive found that clients will almost always want to use the gear they bring, but having the option to use something different when the need arises is an invaluable part of the creative process! And instead of me having to dedicate well over 20,000$ for an amp and effects wall, i can just get this! What an insane piece of gear!!!!

[@LeonTodd]

Love this approach!

[@JimothyDandy]

Leon, Some of the nicest playing I've heard from you on the PRS. Much different from what I normally hear. Thank you for your time in creating these videos. Much appreciated.

[@LeonTodd]

Thanks mate! Really fun to experiment with some different things

[@michaelallen434]

That was great playing, Leon. I loved the bluesy feel. I gotta spend some time with that fuzz. Sounded epic. 🤘

[@LeonTodd]

Glad you liked it. I'm loving the fuzzes!

[@skipneumann1]

Very timely video following David Gilmour’s interview on Rick Beato! Love me some Fractal Gilmour!

[@JohnRobbfl]

That's some fantastic playing today Leon! 🤘

[@LeonTodd]

Cheers man! I'm enjoying these fuzzes!

[@davidshankle7359]

Cool Leon.

[@heavybrett-al4082]

I come for the shred, and the whole time I'm being teased by the Les Paul in the background , "you know you want me" I swear it's whispering .

[@eucberserker9049]

I came too lol

[@Wadey1960CS]

Thank you Fractal and @Leon Todd!! I was up at 3am this morning messing with all the new goodies, I will forever be known as the WICKER man 🤘🏼

[@peterharvin2775]

Those bends. Oh my.

[@chrisdaviesguitar]

Beautiful intro dude🤘

[@paulpoppleton1335]

Had to immediately rewatch / listen to this one... some damn tasty playing brother! You probably just sold another 1000 units with this demo ;)

[@LeonTodd]

Cheers, glad you enjoyed it!

[@rutger4131]

Such a great backing track for endless noodling 😊 i've always been a Green Russian Muff fan.

[@sugarnap245]

Green Russian is a completely different pedal than the rams head. I know, I own both :) both are fantastic though!

[@rutger4131]

@@sugarnap245 completely different is a bit of an overstatement. Both use the exact same circuit topology with near identical components for the most part. Swap a few bypass and tone filtering caps / resistors in a Ram's Head and you've got a Russian. But this goes for most all EHX Muffs. They used the same circuit and the resistors / capacitors that were available and affordable. There's a near infinite number of ways to make a Muff, way more than Tube Screamers. I've built a dozen or so different ones. There's a great comparison by MustyGuitar. I don't think Gilmour cared too much about the sonic differences between the two. Enjoy the muffage!

[@sugarnap245]

@@rutger4131 gilmour actually cared so much about the differences and inconsistencies between rams head models alone that at one point he had 8 of them that he tested against each other and once he landed one his one, he’s kept it forever and got rid of the other ones. That is the exact muff Pete Cornish cloned and beefed up for his P1, which to this day is the only actual clone of Gilmour’s Big Muff, and the same clone that was built into his pedalboard that he used in the studio and live from Animals to The Final Cut. Sorry not trying to argue here, but within the family of big muffs, there are pretty significant sonic differences between each version, and even within each version until the quality control got a little better.

[@sugarnap245]

@@rutger4131 I hear you, I build too, I understand what you’re saying, but in the crazy obsessive tone world that you and I celebrate, those tiny differences do become quite big :)

[@rutger4131]

@@sugarnap245 you're right, I remember that now. I also remember a story where Gilmour had multiple HiWatts and one evening the amp du jour didn't sound right. Gilmour asked it to be replaced. The roadie at hand thought it was BS and tried to fool Gilmour by not swapping the amp, though pretending he did. Gilmour called him out on it.

[@kevinpolochak9477]

Behringer just released a clone of the maestro brassmaster fuzz. Would love to see a video trying to replicate those sounds in the fractal!!

[@Mojen_Marc_Music]

I notice some Knopfler style finger picking too! ❤

[@LeonTodd]

That's been the Friday vibe!

[@Mojen_Marc_Music]

@@LeonTodd Can't go wrong with that! Even as a more metal kinda guy, Gilmour and Knopfler remain two of my all time favourites. Absolute legends, both!

[@guitarfilipe]

Great stuff Leon as always!! Great playing and tone. Can you share the signal path on the Axe? Which amp block/cab did you use? Thanks and keep on rockin' 💪

[@LeonTodd]

Drive block into the ods clean and an EV IR. MTD Circular Delay

[@guitarfilipe]

@LeonTodd many thanks!! ROCK ON!!

[@BertiIII]

And the winner is....the Colortone stuff!

[@LeonTodd]

So good!

[@Smith5665jim]

How are you getting these Gilmour fuzzies?

[@LeonTodd]

there's new beta firmware for the Axe-Fx III - check the forum

[@whiteroom2773]

Awesome playing and tones. What pickup is in the neck on the Gibson?

[@LeonTodd]

Burstbucker 1

[@Allan-ts1ux]

Hey leon did you read the flamin banna comment from lupin on your driving in La in 1986 ? That was a special tribute to our special beautiful animals we have been lucky to own.. 😺😺😺😺😺

[@Allan-ts1ux]

That muff and stuff was tastier than a vegimite 🥪... Tonight your playing was over the top mate ! 🌏 😺. Hard to beat the sound of a rams head but you came up with a winner ! But what does our little project manager think of that while lapping up his goat milk ❤.

[@andyl1118]

What a coincidence that I've been listening to Pink Floyd recently 😄

[@Taylor___]

What string gauge do you use man? I have to guess 9’s but they even look like 8’s the way they’re so slinky when you play

[@LeonTodd]

10-52's on the PRS, 11's on the LP

[@Taylor___]

@ Gees how strong are your hands man?

[@LeonTodd]

@Taylor___ having well set up guitars and plenty of time to warm up helps!

[@Taylor___]

@ Yeah for sure. I can tell they’re set up well, but man, you bend those thick strings like they’re spaghetti’s.

[@gerrykavanagh]

these will come to VP4 too maybe?

[@LeonTodd]

I would imagine so!

[@gerrykavanagh]

@@LeonTodd honestly that's kind of awesome. I haven't even gotten it yet (still in transit from Germany) and already have the possibility of new effects to look forward to

[@ToneScientist]

You're welcome for the title 😛

[@LeonTodd]

Hahaha it's a good'un! How are you enjoying this fw?

[@ToneScientist]

@@LeonTodd I'm not enjoying it at all cuz I only have a fm9 now, sold my axe a while ago... and these are the moments I regret it😅 Can't wait for these to be added on the fm9, especially after hearing the tones in this video

[@A.J.S.6.9]

🤘🏼

[@sugarnap245]

Not bad but definitely lacks a lot of the “life” of the real deal. I love the fractal stuff but I own a few vintage big muffs, and even the hardware EH reissues don’t quite sound right. The closest is for sure the op amp muff, but that’s probably realistically because there was better quality control with the op amp muff. The early rams head and triangle muffs had such horrible quality control that 8 rams head muffs could all sound pretty different.

[@LeonTodd]

I'd be really keen to get my hands on some of the vintage ones to compare to popular modellers and reissues. Funny that something so simple can be so hard to recreate

[@sugarnap245]

@ totally. my bands other guitarist has an Axe FX8 and we’ve compared lots of modeled pedals to my library of vintage pedals and we’ve never been impressed. The fractal does amps pretty decently, but there are so many nuances with pedals it’s really hard to model them well. He ended up building a $1500 analog pedalboard to keep up with my rig lol. Still not against the fractal stuff, I thought he had some great tones with the FX8 and I got some great tones out of my old rack FX, but I’ve been able to blow any fractal rig out of the water every time with jump about any combination of my gear, live or in the studio. I jump between my 1979 Marshall JMP 2204, my 1974 Hiwatt DR103, and my Mesa Mark IVa for heads and have a 1986 JCM800 1960A cab with vented white label G12T-75’s and a 1974 Sunn 4x12 cab loaded with 2 Fane Crescendo A’s and 2 Celestion Creambacks. Not to mention a few rotating speaker cabs, one being Gilmour’s Yamaha cab. Main rig is the Hiwatt/Sunn combo with the Yamaha rotating cab. Won’t go into the list of vintage pedals lol looks like you’ve got lots too. Psyched to see Fractal try their hand at the gilmour stuff, just isn’t really going to happen. Also have two Cornish P1’s on their way as we speak!