ELECTRO-HARMONIX CRYING BASS
Snarling Dogs Bootzilla Fuzz Wah
For several decades now Cry Baby and Voxstyle pedals have thoroughly dominated
the wah-wah market, such that many other
innovative and interesting designs haven’t
been able to achieve much lasting success. This
seems to be changing, however, and recent
years have seen a remarkable assemblage
of non-traditional wah-wah designs making
a serious dent in the market. Among these
are the strikingly unique Crying Tone wahs
from Electro-Harmonix. Low-enders should
be particularly interested in the Crying Bass
model, which combines EHX’s indestructible
futuristic wah pedal design with a fat, gnarly
on-board fuzz circuit. The wah and fuzz can
be used independent of each other or in
tandem, and the sounds are uniformly smooth
and funky. EHX has done an excellent job of
making sure that the bass frequencies are
preserved, and one can even boost them
with the Crying Bass’s low-pass filter control.
The unique no-moving-parts design makes
the Crying Bass rugged as all get-out, and its
switchless, silent bypass makes it a pleasure
to engage. The EHX Crying Bass sells new
for less than 100 bucks, which is an amazing
deal.
Before Bootsy Collins was a Gig-FX SubWah
endorser, his official wah pedal was the
Snarling Dogs Bootzilla. Snarling Dogs is no
more, of course, but one can still locate the
Bootzilla in many places where used gear is
sold, and often for well under a hundred bucks.
It consists of a highly-tunable wah combined
with a fat, independently selectable fuzz
tone, and of course it features the signature
Snarling Dogs foot-shaped treadle with the
glowing LED dog eyes. This time, however,
the dog is decked out in Bootsy’s iconic top
hat and star-adorned sunglasses. If nothing
else, the Bootzilla wah looks cool as hell.
Popular opinions are divided on the sound
of this pedal, but most would agree that the
massive fuzz makes the whole thing worth
it. It works really well with just about any
instrument—not just bass—and its extended
low end response will let you get funky all
the way down to low B. Downsides include
its enormous enclosure, and Snarling Dogs’s
penchant for somewhat chintzy build quality.
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TONE TALK //
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