Ugly Guitar Truth: EHX Hot Wax Overdrive

Somehow, EHX was about to the keep the announcement of their new overdrive pedal a secret from me for the last few weeks. They have produced a new dual overdrive pedal that has taken me by surprise. The Hot Wax is not at all what I expected for Electro Harmonix. As it is explained by EHX, the Hot Wax overdrive is basically the Hot Tubes overdrive mated with the Crayon overdrive. Is this a match made in heaven or some hellish concoction? Let's discuss.

It's Probably Not What You'd Expect

Unlike previous match ups, the two drive circuits share some functions. This means the two drives are not independent from one another. Unlike the Turnip Greens and Soul POG, this pedal shares tone controls and does not feature an effects loop. Were these cost cutting measures or lazy design? Maybe neither. Electro Harmonix is, if nothing else, a company that doesn't suppress creation. Does this mean that everything they make is a winner? Hardly. I imagine when something at EHX make Mike Matthews say, "That's cool." it gets produced. At least they aren't telling us that this is the latest and great, brand new, totally original design from EHX. They're honest. They told us that if these two pedal had a baby, then this is the result. It's not two pedals in the same box, it's a product of commingling,

It's Nothing New

I know we discussed how it was the product of two other pedals, but there is a problem whenever you have these situation. These two pedals, respectively, have been on the market a while. I checked out the Hot Tubes when I first noticed it a few years ago. I passed then. I was rather excited about the Crayon during its release, and it continues to be a go to pedal for me. It could be that these pedals sound great together, but that would only prompt me to buy a Hot Tube pedal to test that theory.

Rebranding

What EHX may be doing is branch out into larger, more complected drive pedals. Looking back at the catalog of EHX drive pedals, you'll notice their wasn't much that didn't have MUFF in the name. The popularity of their (for the lack of a better word) clone pedals is allowing them to move in a different direction. Let the Muff return to its fuzz roots and develop overdrive circuits that stand on their own. While most drive options have been compact, three-knob-jobs, the line needs more complete and capable gain stage options. Instead of reinventing the wheel, Eletro Harmonix married two existing circuits. Instead of blowing (cigar) smoke up our collective butts, they gave us the truth. Respect. But this could all just be EHX trying to flesh out there Drive pedals with a more diverse offering.

Conclusion

For me, I already own a Crayon, so it doesn't make a lot of sense to pick up this pedal. I would like to give a run through. For someone looking for a overdrive/boost or dual overdrive pedal, then this might be your thing. The Hot Tubes in my opinion does a fine job at being a mid/light gain, mid-humped overdrive. The Crayon is a good sounding, flexible overdrive. Put them together and what do you get? Magic? Gold? ... Hot Wax...

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Ugly Guitar Truth About Pedal Board Amps

Diffidently not a new thing, but a huge trend this year at NAMM, the pedal board amp has seen a huge rise in popularity among manufactures. Seymour Duncan, among others, have put forth product that are designed to basically take the place of the power section of your amp. Vox has put out a tiny amp head that would be easy enough to mount on a board. Hotone has designed a 20 watt head that is to be paired with their amp model pedals to create a varity of tones. A conglomerit of boutique amp called Boutique Amps, have devised a system of enterchangable preamp circuits to recreate a range of... boutique amps. What does all of this have in common? Not very much, I kind of went off the rails there a little bit. What I want to talk about is that we are seeing tiny little power amps flood the market and what that fact means for the world of guitar players. Shall we?

First Things First

Guitar player hate change, or we love it depending on who you ask. I can't wait to see what pedal or piece of kit come out next. Then I plug my Telecaster directly into a Vox AC15... Loopers, Delays, pretty much everything Strymon does, has facilitated progression in the guitarist spectrum. However, we still love playing amps that were designed in the 1950s with antiquated technology. We can plug a pedal into a Blues Jr. to make it sounds like a space ship taking off and then talk about the richness and warmth that you value from that amp (to make space noises with).

Then Something Happens




Something that the average guitarist has is pedals. Collect a few of those, and you get a pedal board. The most common pedals, or the ones that seem to pile up, are drive pedals. The ones that give you a boost or gain can really help your amp be all that it can be. In fact, so pedals emulate completely different amps. Pedals like the 30 Something, or Golden Plexi practically tell you, "This is a Vox sound," or "This pedal sounds like a Marshall." So if your pedal sounds like an amp, what is your amp doing.


What Are We Doing?


On my board there are several pedal that handle Gain, EQ, Reverb... so I set my amp clean, flat and kill any reverb. If I set my amp to a nice tone (not hard) I will be finding it difficult to find a application other than simple signal processing for my pedals. However, set my amp flat, and I can use my pedals to create a wider range or tones leaning more heavily on the pedals to come up with the distinct sounds. What I'm saying is: you can have a range of great sounds from a particular amp, but they are going to sound like that amp, but a flat (pedal friendly) power section can give you more room to let you pedals shine through.


Conclusion


I meant to talk about amps like the one Seymour Duncan are putting out, but looks like I've just chased my tail for 500 words. Long story... still long actually... pedals are covering a multitude of tasks. Some of those tasks have long been associated with guitar amplifiers. As we are doing more signal processing before the amp, we are asking less of the actual amp. Thus, we are seeing amps that compliment this by having few features and simply push our tone into a speaker. I like this, and at the same time, I don't really like this.

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Ugly Guitar Truth: EHX Blurst Moddulated Filter

EHX has once again put a new and rather innovative product to market. They call it the Blurst and describe it as a Moddulated Filter. While that sounds like it makes sense, I don't recall anyone really talking about the limitations or features of their prized modulated filter. It seems like a oddity or niche type of effect. I decided to take a closer look at what this pedal does and see if there is any reason to get excited about this pedal.


You Don't Need(?) It

Yeah, this thing makes some weird noises. These noises are not what you typically think of when you imagine guitar noises. But that could be fun, right? Sure. There isn't a lot of information or demonstration out there right now. But, from what we can hear on the EHX demo video, it sounds like a synth filter. However, the interesting part of this filter is that it is time based rather that controlled by your guitar input. You can choose your wave form, tempo, and mix. I feel like there is a lot of versatility with this pedal, but the video only gives us a glimps at what it can do.


Its Strengths Are Its Subtleties

If you watch the demo then you hear a whole lot of 'bwwaaaahhhh' types sounds. To be honest, I don't see much use for these noises. I understand that there are types of players that can make some great sounds with filters, but typically don't use them or just use them in a very limited capacity. However, at the end of EHX's demo, they stick the Blurst in the effects loop of a Deluxe Memory Man and it's actually pretty epic. Plus, I have to give honorable mention to the sounds in the video made with help of EHX's 8-Step Program (stepping expression controller) which give you a step filter/seek wah/FM4 type sound. These two pedal can create lots of combinations, but seems like a lot hardware to create an effect done by a single pedal (just my 2 cents).


Conclusion

Look, I want to like this pedal. It looks... interesting. It has lots of knobs and buttons. It makes weird sounds, but maybe I'm just thinking to much like a guitar player. I want to be able to riff and jam, and this things seems like a noise maker. So let me completely contradict myself. The couple of sounds that I did like, were actually pretty cool. Plus the one thing that make this pedal different is what really makes this pedal. The tap feature allows you to sync up with the tempo of the music being played. I'm not the biggest fan of filters, but I'm not aware of many that let you do this. Can you make to sounds in the demo with other pedals? probably, but is a rather versatile pedal with expressive features.

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