Geni Swing Guitars

Fuzz Factory

Have you ever tried making a fire without matches or a lighter? It looks easy on television. Recently, on an episode of "Man Versus Wild," the host/survivor simply spun a stick between his hands for a few minutes, with one end on a fire board (a piece of wood with a hole and a notch in it), and soon had a burning coal. He easily blew this into a flame. Easily?

We don't see the whole process in one camera shot of course. It would be boring, because it takes a long time to make a fire using primitive means. Also - unlike on television, it's easy to fail at any one of the six crucial steps, and that means no fire. The six steps to making a fire without matches or a lighter:

1. Gather the right kind of tinder.

2. Gather firewood and lay a good fire.

3. Make fire-starting tools.

4. Use the tools the right way to create an ember.

5. Blow the ember into a flame using the tinder.

6. Start a fire with the burning tinder.

Making A Fire

Steps 4 and 5 are by far the toughest. Anyone can quickly learn how to gather dry wood and lay it in a way that allows air into it, with tinder at the center, kindling around that, and small pieces of firewood ready to be added. Fire starting tools, whether a hand-spun spindle or a bow and drill setup, are relatively easy too make too, once you've seen how and try it a few times.

Knowledge helps. Tinder, for example, needs to have very specific qualities when you don't have matches. Paper is a good tinder for starting a fire with matches, but it won't easily take and hold a spark or ember and allow you to blow it into a flame. Good tinder materials when you don't have matches include lint from your pocket, cattail seed head down, fine dry grass, cotton twine, cotton cloth, and dry-rotted wood.

A few types of dry funguses that grow on trees work as well. You can experiment with these. You can also scrape the outside of western cedars and some other trees, to get a small pile of fuzzy bark for tinder.

Place the tinder in a nest or ball of dry grass. When you get your spark or coal, you'll drop it into the center and blow into it gently, hopefully blowing this ember into a flame within a minute or so. If it doesn't work, try other tinder materials, and even mix several, like lint, cattail fuzz, and finely shredded soft bark.

The basic routine, whether using a bow and drill, a fire plow or a simple spindle and fire board, is to create enough friction to get a small burning ember. You drop this into the tinder you have prepared, and blown into a flame, then transfer the flame to the kindling and firewood you have prepared. Soon you have a blazing fire in front of you.

Now it's time for my confession. I've worked on every element of this process. I lay a good fire, collect great tinders, and I can blow them into a flame from an ember. I even make a decent bow and drill fire starter. However, I've never created an ember from friction. I can make clouds of smoke and a lot of sweat, but I have never started a fire using primitive tools. I have always had matches, which may have limited my motivation.

The lesson? Step number four is tough. Practice all the others to get your confidence up. You can light a small stick and blow out the flame to get an ember for practicing. Or maybe the lesson is that if you think you might be making a fire, bring matches or a lighter.

Copyright Steve Gillman. To see exactly how to make a bow-and-drill and fire plow, visit the page on Building Fires, at the Ultralight Backacking Site: http://www.The-Ultralight-Site.com/building-fires.html

Used Zvex Fuzz Factory $129.99 In Store Used USED ZVEX FUZZ FACTORY

ZVex Vexter Fuzz Factory Guitar Effect Pedal $179 ZVex Vexter Fuzz Factory Guitar Effect Pedal

Zvex Vexter Fuzz Factory Guitar Effect Pedal $179 ZVex Vexter Fuzz Factory Guitar Effect Pedal

ZVex Hand-Painted Fuzz Factory Guitar Effects Pedal $299 ZVex Hand-Painted Fuzz Factory Guitar Effects Pedal

ZVex Hand-Painted USA Vexter Fuzz Factory Guitar Effects Pedal $249 ZVex Hand-Painted USA Vexter Fuzz Factory Guitar Effects Pedal

Zvex Hand-Painted Fuzz Factory Guitar Effects Pedal $299 ZVex Hand-Painted Fuzz Factory Guitar Effects Pedal

Zvex Hand-Painted Usa Vexter Fuzz Factory Guitar Effects Pedal $249 ZVex Hand-Painted USA Vexter Fuzz Factory Guitar Effects Pedal

Fuzz Hangs On $10 Fuzz Hangs On

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March To Fuzz $9.49 March To Fuzz

Fuzz $7.99 The detectives of the 87th Precinct are confronted with a call - clearly a crank call - that threatens the life of the city's parks commissioner unless a ransom of $5,000 is paid. The deadline soon passes and the parks commissioner is shot in the head as he leaves a rock concert. Soon, another anonymous warning follows and the deputy mayor is blown up in his Cadillac. The next target is the young, charismatic Kennedy-esque mayor who is on the hit list of what can only be called a serial assassin. It is up to the hardworking detectives of the 87th Precinct to find the shrewd murderer before he can strike again. For almost fifty years, fans of crime fiction have followed the boys of the 87th Precinct, a fictional urban police department that grapples with every imaginable kind of crime. The plot of Fuzz was highly topical when originally published in 1968, when respect for the police was at an historical all time low and the title comes from the insulting nickname people used to describe police. The U.S. was rocked by explosive dissent and haunted by political assassination. No author handled these tensioned better than Ed McBain. Police fiction - which became known as the police procedural novel - changed forever with the appearance of Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels. McBain is a superlative writer, dazzling in his seemingly inexhaustible ability to heighten the intensity of his plots with humor, atmosphere, and telling detail. Fuzz is as much about the cops themselves as it is about the crimes they solve. Fans of Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue will find themselves very much at home in Fuzz , a fast-paced thriller that is at once edgy and skillfully crafted.

ZVex Vexter Series Fuzz Probe Guitar Effects Pedal $219 The Vexter Fuzz Probe is a cross between a theremin and a ZVEX Fuzz Factory. There is an antenna (proximity plate) that projects a field of RF energy that is affected by your foot, altering the circuit that generates it and in so doing, controls the Stability (STAB) knob on the back of the pedal. This lets you select your favorite squealy Fuzz Factory setting. You can also mess around with the STAB knob with your foot creating melodies and interference modulations with your guitar.Made in the U.S.A.Volume, Gate, Comp, Drive and Stab controls3-5/8" Antenna plate3-5/8" by 7" aluminum base1 Year ZVex factory warranty

Zvex Vexter Series Fuzz Probe Guitar Effects Pedal $219 The Vexter Fuzz Probe is a cross between a theremin and a ZVEX Fuzz Factory. There is an antenna (proximity plate) that projects a field of RF energy that is affected by your foot, altering the circuit that generates it and in so doing, controls the Stability (STAB) knob on the back of the pedal. This lets you select your favorite squealy Fuzz Factory setting. You can also mess around with the STAB knob with your foot creating melodies and interference modulations with your guitar.Made in the U.S.A.Volume, Gate, Comp, Drive and Stab controls3-5/8" Antenna plate3-5/8" by 7" aluminum base1 Year ZVex factory warranty

ZVex Hand-Painted Fuzz Probe Guitar Effects Pedal $349 The Fuzz Probe from ZVex is like a cross between a theremin and a Fuzz Factory pedal, controlled by tweaking its Stability knob and interacting with the pedal's RF field with your foot. There is a 3-5/8" copper plate mounted on a chunk of 3/8" clear acrylic that passes over the top of the pedal housing, angles down to sharp turn, and goes back to the pedal. Under the whole mess is a 3-5/8" x 7" sheet of aluminum that provides shielding from annoying ground effects and wires under the stage. It also serves to protect the knobs from being knocked off if you drop it on them, and it makes a nice toe chopper if you are barefoot, so here's the legal disclaimer: don't drop the Fuzz Probe on your foot, small children, or animals.The Fuzz Probe's copper antenna projects a field of RF energy that is affected by your foot, altering the circuit that generates it, and in so doing, increasing the brightness of the LED on the top of the ZVex pedal, also controlling the Stability (Stab) knob on the back. This control lets you select your favorite squealing Fuzz Factory setting and then mess around with the Stab knob with your foot and create little melodies and interference modulations with your guitar. To get the widest range for the probe control, be sure to leave the Stab knob on 7 o'clock. The Probe adjusts the Stab knob from wherever it is set, upwards toward the most clockwise position as you get closer to the antenna. It you set the fuzz pedal's Stab knob more clockwise, the Probe will let you raise that pitch up to the top as you get closer.Note: Due to the nature of each hand-painted Fuzz Probe pedal, there may be a slight difference in design from the posted image.Hand-painted artwork Copper antenna emits RF field that interacts with with your foot like a thereminTweaking the Stability knob and playing around with the Probe's RF field results in crazy, squealing fuzz tone

Zvex Hand-Painted Fuzz Probe Guitar Effects Pedal $349 The Fuzz Probe from ZVex is like a cross between a theremin and a Fuzz Factory pedal, controlled by tweaking its Stability knob and interacting with the pedal's RF field with your foot. There is a 3-5/8" copper plate mounted on a chunk of 3/8" clear acrylic that passes over the top of the pedal housing, angles down to sharp turn, and goes back to the pedal. Under the whole mess is a 3-5/8" x 7" sheet of aluminum that provides shielding from annoying ground effects and wires under the stage. It also serves to protect the knobs from being knocked off if you drop it on them, and it makes a nice toe chopper if you are barefoot, so here's the legal disclaimer: don't drop the Fuzz Probe on your foot, small children, or animals.The Fuzz Probe's copper antenna projects a field of RF energy that is affected by your foot, altering the circuit that generates it, and in so doing, increasing the brightness of the LED on the top of the ZVex pedal, also controlling the Stability (Stab) knob on the back. This control lets you select your favorite squealing Fuzz Factory setting and then mess around with the Stab knob with your foot and create little melodies and interference modulations with your guitar. To get the widest range for the probe control, be sure to leave the Stab knob on 7 o'clock. The Probe adjusts the Stab knob from wherever it is set, upwards toward the most clockwise position as you get closer to the antenna. It you set the fuzz pedal's Stab knob more clockwise, the Probe will let you raise that pitch up to the top as you get closer.Note: Due to the nature of each hand-painted Fuzz Probe pedal, there may be a slight difference in design from the posted image.Hand-painted artwork Copper antenna emits RF field that interacts with with your foot like a thereminTweaking the Stability knob and playing around with the Probe's RF field results in crazy, squealing fuzz tone

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