I know I know I might get crucified for removing the beloved Deco ! It is an awesome pedal but the truth is that it wasn’t an essential on my board and I try to keep it as simple as possible. I tried different combinations with my drive section and the best way for me was to use the Chase Tone Secret Preamp as an always on with the Lightspeed before it for extra crunch and the Deco after it for lead parts.
Then I realized that the Deco was a bit redundant : I slightly prefer the drive from the Lightspeed, and my Diamond Vibrato + Carbon Copy can cover what I love about the Deco (either for slapback or subtle vibrato sounds).
Then GAS caught me back as I wanted to explore grittier and heavier sounds for lead parts, soooo fuzz entered the room.
I made some researches and found out about the Kingtone Minifuzz V2, which seems to be exactly what I needed.
I figured that if I didn’t like it I wouldn’t like fuzz.
I received it last night and tried it as intended, in the front of everything… but boy was I disappointed!
It sounded muddy and far from what I heard in the demos, even after tweaking all the options (bias, fuzz, tone switches). I was prepared to return it the shop when I decided to put it in the place of the Deco… then it happened! It sounds great in that spot, I have some clarity back while keeping the punchy / gritty sound I had in my mind. I activated the buffer on it too.
I know that fuzzes are always supposed to be put first in the chain, but I really prefer it in that way! Am I the only one using it like that or is it blasphemy? I still need to test it with my real amp but it sounds excellent with my TK Imperial Preamp, so I might keep it there (and wait a bit to see if I miss the Deco or not).
Thanks in advance for your input