rackmonkey said:
No doubt a lot of folks are anti-direct. But i’ll remind you that direct-into-console fuzziness is the key part of some iconic guitar sounds: “Revolution”/Beatles, “Black Dog”/Zep, several of Neil Young’s Crazy Horse-era riffs, Robert Fripp’s guitar sound on Bowie’s “Heroes”, much of Nile Rodgers’ funkiness in Chic and with Bowie, Roger McGuinn’s Rick 12 on “Eight Miles High”, etc.
These are certainly not my fave examples of fuzz, except Heroes.
However, they are acceptable, but really, my gripe was about some country recordings where I can feel the producer thinking "fuzz is hip, let's do that" and they end up with a turd. I don't have an example now from my head, but I'll check my country music compilations.
BTW, my fave Beatles fuzz sound is "And your bird can see".
True I'm an half-assed anti-DI. Let me explain: I favor it for bass, because it's much easier and gives better results on an average basis, and on acoustic in live situations, because it's the only way to be heard, but I generally hate it on electric guitar.
That said, one day I had a guitar player in my studio that said he didn't want to play through an amp and insisted on plugging his Vox Tonelab direct; I must say he managed to get a more than decent sound. That's the mark of an excellent musician.
Given the differing views on direct guitar fuzz/distortion, you’ll probably either love or hate this:
JHS Pedals Colour Box. Neve 1073 channel in a pedal (or such was the goal of the designer):
The surveys on this have not convinced me, particularly in view of the stiff price.
As you may have figured out, I'm not a fan of fuzz; I was a teenager when fuzz came out, and it was often used as a bad cover for poor playing ability. It left an indelible mark on my judgment, I guess.
) 
