A signature fuzz for Boris's guitar sorceress is a unique twist on the Big Muff formula.
Easy to navigate. Unique fuzz tones. Range-y knobs reward tweaking.
Trebly settings can be harsh.
$149
EarthQuaker Devices Hizumitas
earthquakerdevices.com
Boris know a thing or two about fuzz. As volume dealers by trade, they've spent nearly three decades dousing audiences in waves of distorted decibels. So, when the folks at EarthQuaker Devices decided to honor Boris guitarist Wata, they looked to her favorite vintage fuzz, the Elk BM Sustainar.
Let's get one thing out of the way: It's simply not possible to capture all the deep, dark, and bone-crushing tones of Wata or guitarist/bassist Takeshi in one neat little box. Whether the band is drawing from early Sabbath, playing at balefully slow tempos, or manifesting explosive sounds that evoke a five-alarm fire blazing into the night, Boris does many kinds of heavy. But while the Hizumitas can't cover every heavy Boris tone, its sounds are a treat.
Sent from the Source
The Elk Sustainar is an early-1970s Japan-made copy of the triangle Big Muff. Look for a vintage unitāusually under the name Elk Big Muff Sustainar, Elk Super Fuzz Sustainar, or Electro Sound Co. Big Muff Sustainarāand you'll encounter nutty prices that reflect their rarity and reputation. When EQD designed the Hizumitas, they checked out vintage Sustainars and Big Muffs and concluded that there was too much variation to nail down a faithful copy. So, they went to the source and Wata graciously shipped her own Elk pedal around the world to EQD HQ.
Familiar Design, Different Results
The 3-knob layout of the Hizumitas will be familiar to any Big Muff user, though Hizumitas's controls behave in some unusual ways. The output is hot and unity gain is around 9 o'clock on the volume knob for most sustain settings. The sustain knob increases distortion, but don't look for clean tones at the lowest settingsāit starts hot and goes from there. The tone control is responsive and the knob you'll probably reach for most. But heads up: Rolling the knob all the way counterclockwise is the most trebly setting and it adds bass as you work clockwise.
Because the pedal sustains so well, I could use the tone knob as an almost synth-like filter control on sustained notes, letting embers of drop-D riffs slowly burn and change shape as they decayed.
Devastating Bass
While it's easy to find tones in a pedal with three knobs, one of which is output volume, the wide range of the sustain and tone knobsāand the interactivity between those controlsāleads to surprises. Like a lot of people that will be interested in the Hizumitas, I was most curious to see how much low-end it had on tap. Using my Gibson SG and a Deluxe Reverb, I started with the sustain and tone cranked. These settings resulted in my favorite sounds. The bass is huge but doesn't get overly woofy or dark. Low power chords and riffage on the bottom three strings benefitted from the added heft, and single notes were strong and rich with sustain.
Adding treble tightens up the pedal's focus, but it can be an unusual ride. I sometimes imagined I was hearing bass bumps as I worked my way back toward trebly settings. High treble tones can be noisy and might sound harsh to some players. But others will love how cutting those settings can be. When I plugged my guitar directly into my interface using nothing but the Hizumitas and a little reverb, the sizzling tone burned right through the heavy, low-end riff I was tracking over.
The way the tone control works with the sustain control is another big part of the Hizumitas' charm. Because the pedal sustains so well, I could use the tone knob as a noise filter on sustained notes, letting embers of drop-D riffs slowly burn and change shape as they decayed.
The Verdict
Without a vintage Elk Sustainar on hand, I can't really speak to the accuracy of EarthQuaker's reproduction. And, of course, I'll never achieve Wata's tone. But Hizumitas is well-suited for anyone trying to reach noisy, slow, and low spaces. By offering tight bass-boosted tones, well-seared lead textures, waves of sustain, and knob-twisting fun, the Hizumitas will inspire you to stay there.
Boris + EQD = FILTHY FUZZ ā EarthQuaker Devices Hizumitas Demo | First Look
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Do you overuse vibrato? Could you survive without it?
Vibrato is a powerful tool, but it should be used intentionally. Different players have different stylesāB.B. Kingās shake, Claptonās subtle touchābut the key is control. Tom Butwin suggests a few exercises to build awareness, tone, and touch.
The goal? Find a balanceādonāt overdo it, but donāt avoid it completely. Try it out and see how it changes your playing!
The author dials in one of his 20-watt Sonzera amps, with an extension cabinet.
Knowing how guitar amplifiers were developed and have evolved is important to understanding why they sound the way they do when youāre plugged in.
Letās talk about guitar amp history. I think itās important for guitar players to have a general overview of amplifiers, so the sound makes more sense when they plug in. As far as I can figure out, guitar amps originally came from radiosāalthough Iāve never had the opportunity to interview the inventors of the original amps. Early tube amps looked like radio boxes, and once there was an AM signal, it needed to be amplified through a speaker so you could hear it. Iām reasonably certain that other people know more about this than I do.
For me, the story of guitar amps picks up with early Fenders and Marshalls. If you look at the schematics, amplifier input, and tone control layout of an early tweed Fender Bassman, itās clear thatās where the original Marshall JTM45 amps came from. Also, Iāve heard secondhand that the early Marshall cabinets were 8x12s, and the roadies requested that Marshall cut them in half so they became 4x12s. Similarly, 8x10 SVT cabinets were cut in half to make the now-industry-standard 4x10 bass cabinets. Our amp designer Doug Sewell and I understand that, for the early Fender amps we love, the design directed the guitar signal into half a tube, into a tone stack, into another half a tube, and the reverb would join it with another half a tube, and then there would be a phase splitter and output tubes and a transformer. (All 12AX7 tubes are really two tubes in one, so when I say a half-tube, Iām saying weāre using only the first half.) The tone stack and layout of these amps is an industry standard and have a beautiful, clean way of removing low midrange to clear up the sound of the guitar. I believe all but the first Marshalls came from a high-powered tweed Twin preamp (which was a 80-watt combo amp) and a Bassman power amp. The schematic was a little different. It was one half-tube into a full-tube cathode follower, into a more midrange-y tone stack, into the phase splitter and power tubes and output transformer. Both of these circuits have different kinds of sounds. Whatās interesting is Marshall kept modifying their amps for less bass, more high midrange and treble, and more gain. In addition, master volume controls started being added by Fender and Marshall around 1976. The goal was to give more gain at less volume. Understanding these circuits has been a lifelong event for Doug and me.
Then, another designer came along by the name of Alexander Dumble. He modified the tone stack in Fender amps so you could get more bass and a different kind of midrange. Then, after the preamp, he put in a distortion circuit in a switchable in and out āloop.ā In this arrangement, the distortion was like putting a distortion pedal in a loop after the tone controls. In a Fender amp, most of the distortion comes from the output section, so turning the tone controls changes the sound of the guitar, not the distortion. In a Marshall, the distortion comes before the tone controls, so when you turn the tone controls, the distortion changes. The way these amps compress and add harmonics as you turn up the gain is the game. All of these designs have real merit and are the basis of our modern tubeāand then modelingāamplifiers.
Everything in these amps makes a difference. The circuits, the capacitor values and types, the resistor values and types, the power and output transformers, and the power suppliesāincluding all those capacitor values and capacitor manufacturers.
I give you this truncated, general history to let you know that the amp business is just as complicated as the guitar business. I didnāt even mention the speakers or speaker cabinets and the artform behind those. But whatās most important is: When you plug into the amp, do you like it? And how much do you like it? Most guitar players have not played through a real Dumble or even a real blackface Deluxe Reverb or a 1966 Marshall plexi head. In a way, youāre trusting the amp designers to understand all the highly complex variations from this history, and then make a product that you love playing through. Itās daunting, but I love it. There is a complicated, deep, and rich history that has influenced and shaped how amps are made today.
Lenny Kravitzās lead-guitar maestro shares how his scorching hit solo came together.
Hold onto your hatsāShred With Shifty is back! This time, Chris Shiflett sits down with fellow west coaster Craig Ross, who calls in from Madrid equipped with a lawsuit-era Ibanez 2393. The two buddies kick things off commiserating over an increasingly common tragedy for guitarists: losing precious gear in natural disasters. The takeaway? Donāt leave your gear in storage! Take it on the road!
Ross started out in the Los Angeles band Broken Homes, influenced by Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, and the Beatles, but his big break came when he auditioned for Lenny Kravitz. Kravitz phoned him up the next day to tell him to be at rehearsal that evening. In 1993, they cut one of their biggest hits ever, āAre You Gonna Go My Way?ā Ross explains that it came together from a loose, improvisatory jam in the studioātestament to the magic that can be found off-leash during studio time.
Ross recalls his rig for recording the solo, which consisted of just two items: Kravitzās goldtop Les Paul and a tiny Gibson combo. (No fuzz or drive pedals, sorry Chris.) As Ross remembers, he was going for a Cream-era Clapton sound with the solo, which jumps between pentatonic and pentatonic major scales.
Tune in to learn how he frets and plays the songās blistering lead bits, plus learn about what amps Ross is leaning on these days.
If youāre able to help, here are some charities aimed at assisting musicians affected by the fires in L.A:
https://guitarcenterfoundation.org
https://www.cciarts.org/relief.html
https://www.musiciansfoundation.org
https://fireaidla.org
https://www.musicares.org
https://www.sweetrelief.org
Credits
Producer: Jason Shadrick
Executive Producers: Brady Sadler and Jake Brennan for Double Elvis
Engineering Support by Matt Tahaney and Matt Beaudion
Video Editor: Addison Sauvan
Graphic Design: Megan Pralle
Special thanks to Chris Peterson, Greg Nacron, and the entire Volume.com crew.
Tobias bass guitars, beloved by bass players for nearly half a century, are back with the all-new Tobias Original Collection.
Built for unrivaled articulation, low-end punch, and exceptional ergonomics, the all-new Tobias Original Collection comprises an array of six four and five-string bass models all offered in both right and left-handed orientations. The Tobias range features Classic, Killer B, and Growler models, and each is equipped with high-quality hardware from Babicz and Gotoh, active electronics from Bartolini, and the iconic Tobias asymmetrical neck design. Crafted from the finest tonewoods, Tobias Original Collection bass guitars are now available worldwide on Gibson.com, at the Gibson Garage locations, and at authorized Gibson dealers.
The bass world has been clamoring for the return of the authentic, high-end Tobias basses, and now, Tobias has returned. Combining the look and tone of the finest exotic tonewoods, such as quilted maple, royal paulownia, purpleheart, sapele, walnut, ebony, and wenge, with the feel of the famous Tobias Asym asymmetrical neck and the eye-catching shapes of the perfectly balanced contoured bodies, Tobias basses are attractive in look and exceptional in playing feel. However, their sonic versatility is what makes them so well suited to the needs of modern bassists. The superior tone from the exotic hardwoods, premium hardware, and active BartoliniĀ® pickups and preamps results in basses with the tonal flexibility that todayās players require. Donāt settle for less than a bass that delivers everything you want and need āthe look, the feel, and the sound, Tobias.
āIām thrilled to release Tobias basses, emphasizing the use of exotic woods, ergonomics, and authenticity to the original Tobias basses,ā says Aljon Go, Product Development Manager for Tobias, Epiphone, and Kramer. āThis revival is a dream come true, blending modern craftsmanship with the timeless essence of Tobias.ā
āItās amazing to see this icon of the bass world return,ā adds Andrew Ladner, Brand Manager for Epiphone and Kramer. āThese models are truly a bass playerās bass, and true to the DNA that makes Tobias world-classāthe ace up the sleeve of bass players around the globe since 1978. Todayās players can find that unique voice and feel that only Tobias can offer.ā
For more information, please visit gibson.com.