Cheers everyone,
so got a new pedal a week ago, my first fuzz ever, the Earthquaker Devices Hoof!
I was soo stoked on this after seeing the mini movie from EQD on their website showcasing the attention to detail and love that goes into the manufacture of their pedals together with their lovely staff.
The reason why I went for the Hoof was the Black Keys, I discovered them a few months ago and when I moved back from their more recent and more popular albums all the way back to "the big come up" and "rubber factory" I instantly knew I was ready for a Fuzz pedal after neglegting that effect all those years.
So, where do I start? The packaging was really cool, a carton box with their colorful logo containing a catalogue, a sticker, a pick, a short effect description and most important the pedal itself in a cloth bag.
I opened it up and took the little box out, looked at the powder coating with the graphics and turned all the knobs. Sturdy construction with a good resistance on the pots, the footswitch doesn't click when you press it, apparently the newest addition to the V2 version I got to avoid any noise upon engaging it.
It's so light it almost felt cheap to me, plus when I shook it I could hear something rattling inside, so I instantly went ahead and took off the back cover. The battery clip turned out to be the cause of the rattling noise and I was very happy to find a very neat and tidy PCB, the soldier job looks perfect.
So I connected everything, set my amp to clean mode and stepped on the switch. The LED was so bright I almost got blinded by it. Woah.
With all the controls set to 12 o'clock I was at my starting point and I could hear the fuzz effect for the first time in person with my rig. I played my guitar for a bit but wasn't all that impressed, it felt and sounded like a somewhat fizzier distortion with less compression and saturation. But hey, there are knobs to turn, let's see what we can do, shall we?
The knobs do exactly what EQD says they should. Fuzz controls the amount of mudd, the level is... well the volume (duh) and the shift and tone buttons change the mids and highs/lows. You can go from scooped to searing and singing mids, from dark and blanket over the amp like sounds all the way to piercing bite and hissing. There seem to be soo many sounds in there I'll need at least another month to find them all.
What really amazed me was the versatility. Again, this is my first fuzz ever and at a certain point I had a setting where it felt like my amp was about to explode (in a good way). Endless sustaining biting notes for soloing, dirty riffs, gnawing and barking fire spiting walls of tone. I could go on and find some more verbs to try to describe this thing, but let's just say in my opinion you can't go wrong with this pedal. From subtle to full on mayhem, it's in there. All with a few tweaks.
I tried it with my Strat with EMG SA singlecoils and the SPC midrange booster. It sounds cool with the SAs alone and reacts well to volume roll offs (cleans up great), but the fun really starts with turning up the SPC and boosting those mids. It just sings. And it adds a ton of aggression. Depending on wether you wanna cut peoples heads off with the bridge or make your solo notes sustain with the neck, I like the pedal most with a good and healthy amount of mids.
Same goes for my LP Studio with the EMG 57/66 set. The humbuckers obviously sound better for fat riffs like Mexicola from Quotsa, the neck position again sings endlessly. I can't believe I ignored fuzz for soo many years. Tons of fun!!!
I even tried it with my Bass. AMAZING! The low frequencies stay tight and defined and grind like a mofo. If I ever get hired as a bass player this will be on my pedalboard.
So altogether I can say I don't regret buying it. Great pedal and great choice for first time "fuzzers". I will definately get some more EQD gear, the Dunes OD will probably be my next purchase and I heard great things about their Delays and Reverbs.
If there's a "negative" thing at all I found it's that this thing doesn't like distorted amps. When you feed it through a clean channel the effect sounds clear and defined and is very present, as soon as you add dirt from the amp or switch to the distortion channel it muddies up and looses lot's of presence, I feel you'd get lost in a mix that way. The distortion evens and smooths out and just sounds muddy.
It's supposed to be a take on the Russian Big Muff and I read online that these like to be put in front of a clean amp unlike a Fuzz Face, so I guess it's no wonder the Hoof works the same way.
Anyway, very happy with it and can't wait to finally assemble my pedalboard. If you have any questions, fire away, pics are attached, cheers!
