Official Skreddy Top Fuel Page HERE

Top Fuel Mk 1 (Pinkmour is a Top Fuel, so is HST Gonzo) (Top Fuel #000 is dated 9-10-05) (retired 4-1-09)(How many made?)(Highest known number – )

Marc Says (Via HC and TGP):?
"It's pretty far removed from the "Big Muff" sound, even though it shares the same basic archtecture. Except that the first stage is a treble-boosting mosfet instead of a muddy-sounding bipolar transistor. This helps the Top Fuel to sound like you are using a preamp-equipped guitar, like a Gilmour EMG set for example.

"The distortion threshold in the Top Fuel has been raised high and smoothed out compared to a Big Muff. What this means is you get less fuzz and sustain but more smoothness and WAY more volume. There is still fuzz, but it much, much tighter than a Big Muff."

"The Top Fuel's differences with the Big Muff include: mosfet input stage, mosfets as clippers, midrange-heavy tone control, much more articulation/less fuzz."
"I think it sounds like something Neil Schon would like, for example.

"To me, the sound is kind of a cross between a Muff and a Rat, with maybe even a bit of DS-1 flavor. It doesn't have that huge wall of fuzz that a Muff has, but it sings and has better drive and sustain than a Rat, and it's got a smoother tone than a vintage Rat. It's definitely not intended as a touch-sensitive overdrive. It's a high-gain distortion with lots of sustain and a very fine-grained character to its breakup. Or, another way to look at it is it's a smooth, controlled, articulate fuzz that has a prominent midrange emphasis."

"The Pinkmour is a standard (mid-hump, aka "cutting mids") Top Fuel"

"All Top Fuels have a mid hump (unless otherwise requested). Until recently I offered a "flat mids" version of the Top Fuel, but it never took off."

"It uses mosfets for clipping. But the way I set up the mosfets, I'm actually using the internal diode inside of the mosfet as opposed to the mosfet junction. The difference is this: you can get a much more fuzzy sound by using the mosfet junction instead of the internal diode. But that fuzzy sound to my ear is sort of artificial, too "modern" in character, even though it is very smooth. But the internal diode is much more tight sounding, and, even though it imparts a treblier tone; to my ear, it still sounds more organic than the mosfet junction. So I add a tiny bit more high-end filtering in the tone stack to make up for the trebly tone of the clippers (which consist of the mosfet internal diode in series with a silicon diode to keep the signal flowing in only the desired direction)."

"The Top Fuel's tone stack is set up similar to the Pink Flesh in "juicy" mode. Not the same, but similar. The Top Fuel's tone stack is kind of a custom thing that takes a bit of a departure from the classic Muff sound and is tuned specifically for the Top Fuel's own personality. I've set it up for a strong mid emphasis and adjusted it to retain an "open" quality, so it doesn't end up sounding boxy and constricted even though it does boost the mids (and filter a lot of highs, too, until you crank it all the way; then you'll have quite a treble boost! That extra filter gets canceled at the CW extreme of the tone pot.)."

"The Top Fuel sounds more modern and refined and perhaps a bit more compressed, and it has a more aggressive high end than a Big Muff (but sounds articulate with the tone knob all the way down, unlike a typical Big Muff)."

"The Top Fuel is actually more like the Delicate Sound of Thunder and Division Bell lead tones. Not too fuzzy but plenty of gain and sustain, and with lots of high end articulation, unlike a Muff."

"First, I trim out the woofy, mushy, congested bass. Then amplify (a lot) and distort using mosfet soft clipping (twice), for a fine-toothed, modern, tube-like distortion character.Then trim out the harsh and fizzy high end and use a mid-hump tone stack that's centered around 700Hz. The string attack is always preserved throughout the entire range of the fretboard, regardless of the sustain level. Tonal emphasis is placed on the midrange in order to showcase the player's technique."