NPD: Crowther Hotcake

[Eric]

Picked up this pedal this morning from a guy I found via craigslist. I got it on my way into work so I haven't been able to play it yet, and I'm going camping right after work, so I might not get any play time until Sunday night.

Nonetheless, here it is:

I wasn't really looking for this pedal in particular, but it's one I've been interested in for quite some time. This is my first boutique anything ever now that I think about it, so I suppose this is a big moment for me. I'll update after I've been able to play it for a while. I'm thinking this will probably displace the Marshall Jackhammer on my pedalboard; I can't get that thing to sound good, so I need to spend some more one-on-one time with it.

 

[Zip]

Nice pedal. I notice it says "Bluesberry". Does it have the internal switch to change it between regular and Bluesberry mode?

 

[Eric]

Nice pedal. I notice it says "Bluesberry". Does it have the internal switch to change it between regular and Bluesberry mode?

I just got back into town and took it apart to see, and it looks like no switch. I think that means this is V2, and it will be bluesberry only. It sounded pretty good when I was dorking around with it just now.

 

[FrankenFretter]

Are you going to post some clips, Eric? Or must we be forced to look it up on the youtubes?

 

[Eric]

Well, I think I'd keep you waiting for a long time if I promised clips, so you might be best served looking on youtube. It seems to be a mild OD, one that works best with a clean amp and that seems to be pretty transparent.

 

[FrankenFretter]

Well, I think I'd keep you waiting for a long time if I promised clips, so you might be best served looking on youtube. It seems to be a mild OD, one that works best with a clean amp and that seems to be pretty transparent.

Anything you know of that it is comparable to? Just curious.

 

[Eric]

Anything you know of that it is comparable to? Just curious.

Well, I'm not really much of an OD freak, so I don't know what sounds like what. There's not a ton of gain on it -- just enough to give some dirt to a clean amp, but without the mid-range yell/honk of a tubescreamer-type pedal. It does come through pretty clear though, even with a fair amount of gain. When comparing it to the other dirt pedals on my board (Turbo Rat, Bad Monkey), it ends up being much more clear when it's engaged. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, but I think it's good.

I got it for roughly half price, so I'll play with it for a while. As mentioned, I have a hard time getting the Marshall Jackhammer to give me a usable sound, so I'm going to work with that by itself and see what comes about.