Not your dad’s tremolo—or anyone else’s.
RatingsPros:Unique distortion/modulation effects. Cons: Tricky to use. Tones may get tiring. Poor documentation. Street: $190 Nunomo Grain shop.nunomo.com | Tones:  Ease of Use:  Build/Design:  Value: |
Nunomo calls its Grain a tremolo pedal. It is, in the sense that it modulates the amplitude (volume) of your signal. But the sonic results aren’t like anything you might expect from a conventional trem effect.
Here, the modulating signal is a fast square wave. This is hard, on/off modulation at rates that begin where most trem effects max out. Grain doesn’t do slow, throbbing sounds. Instead, the speedy modulation generates a unique distortion timbre. “The original idea,” says Nunomo, “came from how a human shouts. In rock or metal songs, people shout like ‘goaaaahhh!’”
A Fast Flicker
This sonic stroboscopic flicker reminds me of the throaty, trilling sound Spanish speakers produce when properly pronouncing double-r words like torre and borracho. Since Nunomo creates the effect by nixing portions of waveform cycles, the modulation rate varies according to pitch and modulates faster at higher pitches. If, say, you bend a note, you can hear the rate change as you stretch and release the string. I suppose it sounds something like a heavy metal singer shouting “burrrrrrrr-ito!”
The pedal also includes gain and volume controls capable of overdriving an amp on their own. But, as Nunomo points out, the Grain sounds most dramatic when placed after a separate distortion or fuzz pedal. (I used a Tone Bender MkII clone for the demo clip.) The Grain doesn’t change your fuzz pedal’s innate timbre. It just sort of flutters it.
Meanwhile, the process also generates sub-tones between two and four octaves below the pitch you play. Many settings are reminiscent of the old MXR Blue Box effect heard on Led Zeppelin’s “Fool in the Rain.” Like a Blue Box, the Grain is clearest when playing above the 12th fret. Below that, the sub-octaves become indistinguishable. Anything other than single notes (and sometimes fifths) sounds pretty sloppy. But hey—depending on how much noise you like in your rock, “indistinguishable” and “sloppy” might suit your style and tastes.
Mix and Match
The Grain’s additional controls let you vary the pedal’s core timbre. A trio of knobs activates the effect—each one generating sub-tones in a different octave. A 3-position transition toggle controls the intensity (i.e., the choppiness) of the effect. There’s also a much-needed mix knob to blend straight and effected signal. A little effect goes a long way here.
In fact, at aggressive mix levels I find the Grain’s tones fatiguing. But having said that, the effect could be deployed to good use in small doses. For example, fluttering the last phrase of a solo heading into a chorus might lend the perfect touch of drama and eccentricity. The Grain is ready for such applications: a second mini-toggle activates a momentary mode, wherein the effect is only applied while holding down a foot switch.
Dialing It In
I initially found the Grain difficult to use. Even with the one-page manual, I simply couldn’t get it to produce modulation effects, though the gain controls worked as expected. We contacted the manufacturer and Nunomo responded with a diagram depicting a starting position for the knobs—one that doesn’t appear in the manual. It turns out the three depth control knobs aren’t exactly depth controls. They’re more like trimpots that provide one ideal setting, as opposed to a range of usable ones. In other words, they do nothing useful across most of their range.
The same is true of the wet/dry mix pot. Fully counterclockwise, it outputs an effect-only signal. With the knob raised to around 10 o’clock, you get maximum dry. Nothing else happens in the upper two-thirds of the knob’s range.
The Grain is solidly made, with a tidy circuit board and enclosure-mounted pots and jacks. The pedal lives in a standard BB-sized box and runs on the usual 9V power supplies. There is no battery compartment.
The Verdict
Listen to the accompanying demo clip and to others online. (All feature similar sounds.) Do you think these tones could find a place in your toolbox? Well, that’s your verdict. To my ear, the Grain’s effects could be effective in short bursts. Your aesthetics may differ. I didn’t dig the fact that four of the six knobs only do useful things in a fraction of their range, or that the one-page manual failed to get me up and running without frustration. Again, your mileage may vary.
Watch the Review Demo:
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With the ability to dial in transparent boost or use the active EQ to summon radically voiced overdrive, what’s not to love?
RatingsPros:Active EQ yields wonderful array of tones, from powerful transparent boost to low- and medium-gain dirt. Cons: Dedicated midrange control might enable faster, more precise dialing of tones. Street: $179
earthquakerdevices.com
| Tones:  Ease of Use:  Build/Design: Value: |
For years now it’s seemed a day can’t pass without at least five companies debuting a supposedly transparent overdrive. Plenty of them are good, but most have very linear (and passive) tone, gain, and level controls that offer limited palettes—which is fine, if that’s all you need. What’s tantalizing about EarthQuaker Devices’ Westwood is that it ignores the notion that radical and invisible must be mutually exclusive.
Not only does Westwood bust the usual one-tone-knob approach into two frequency bands, but its active treble and bass controls also offer up to 20 dB of boost or cut from their flat, handily detented center points.
for aggressive rock.
That means the controls are highly interactive with each other. For example, middling level and gain settings are much tamer with treble and bass at noon than they are with higher EQ settings.
This makes Westwood a wonder for myriad applications where you don’t need mondo saturation—though it’s got more than enough for aggressive rock—or for instantaneously giving your axe a highly contrasted personality, from skanky thin and toothy to grodily girthy, but its powerful EQ also makes it killer for, say, making a lower-output guitar viable in a rig tailored to higher-gain pickups.
Test gear: Schecter Ultra III with TV Jones Magna’Tron bridge pickup, Squier Vintage Modified Tele with Curtis Novak Tel-V and JM-V pickups, Fender ’76 Vibro Champ, Jaguar HC50, Goodsell Valpreaux 21, MXR Reverb.