NPD: EHX Hot Wax

[marnold***]

Well, my birthday present to me arrived today in the form of an EHX Hot Wax. I haven't had a ton of time with it yet. I hope to get some clips up eventually. Here's my initial review/thoughts.

It is really two overdrives in one. The left side is the EHX Hot Tubes which is a reissue/nano version of their original Hot Tubes CMOS FET pedal from the 70s. The right side is the EHX Crayon which some online have said is a similar circuit to the Xotic BB preamp pedal. Both sides have their own dedicated volume and drive knobs. They share a bass and treble control which are active boost/cut and flat at noon. There is plenty of oomph from both sides. Unity gain is at about 9:00 on the volume with the drive at noon when using my bass with active EMGs. The party piece is the blend knob that blends in your dry signal. At noon it's 50% dry and 50% wet. Not sure how much guitarists might use this, but it's almost a necessity for bassists so we aren't robbed of our sweet, sweet low end.

The Crayon side is pretty much what I would expect from an overdrive. Even at max drive, it's not in distortion territory. It is pretty transparent. There's no serious Tube Screamer-style midrange boost. Obviously the bass and treble controls will color things. This is what I was looking for in a pedal. It adds a nice rock grit. The drive, bass, treble, and blend knobs offer you almost limitless tonal variety.

But perhaps, you prefer something a bit . . . ruder. That's where the Hot Tubes side comes in. It's darker/warmer than the Crayon side and definitely more like a fuzz. People have described it as the sound of a small amph about to blow up. I think I agree. If you want the "Hey, Hey, My, My (Into the Black)" bass tone, you can get it here. Unlike the original pedal it doesn't have a switch to bypass the tone stack, but I think that the discreet bass and treble controls more than make up for the loss.

But, perhaps, you prefer something ruder still. Well, turn on both sides and fasten your safety belt. You will scare the children. If you thought it could get loud before, it's REALLY loud now. In this case the Crayon side is driving the Hot Tubes side. The Crayon volume controls how hard you're driving the Hot Tubes side. The Hot Tubes volume sets the overall effect level. The result is some kind of Frankendistortion the likes of which I've never heard before. With all the chaos, though, you lose a good amount of note definition although the blend knob can help fix that somewhat.

The pedal comes with an EHX wall wart, which is nice. The lead is kind of thin (much more so than my 1-Spot), so I'm not sure how much abuse it would take. Since it's going to sit in my office, it should be fine. It's a nice addition.

Initial thoughts: I'm very pleased. There's lots of flexibility in this little box. You can use it from everything from simple tone shaping, to clean boost, to overdrive, to fuzz, to leveling nearby homes. At US$111.70 it's a pretty screaming deal. I look forward to also trying it with my guitar.

One caveat for people who are concerned about such things: the pedal is not true-bypass. There's a buffer. It won't bother me, but it may bother some. If the tone was dulled at all by it, I did not notice.

[duhvoodooman***]

Demo video on the EHX site sounds great! Enjoy!

[marnold***]

Tried it quickly with my guitar this afternoon. The big differences I noted was that the Hot Tubes side doesn't sound as fuzzy with guitar so don't expect to use it as a replacement fuzz pedal. It is still a fuzzier version of overdrive than the Crayon side. I think I like the Crayon's OD better. It is significantly different from a Tube Screamer (no mid-range bump).

I tried both sides as clean boosts with the drive all the way off and the volume at 3:00. Much to my surprise, the Hot Tubes side sounded brighter. The Crayon was largely my dry signal, only louder. Putting them both together gives a massive boost that I thought sounded cool through my Jet City. So you could use it as a clean boost with three distinct levels of boost for all your boosting needs.

Back to the bass: the Crayon side really likes the EMG MM pickup. Normally I find it too loud and too dark, but with the Crayon side and a slight tweak to the treble it really becomes a grind monster. Between the bass and treble knobs on the pedal and my three-band EQ on my bass itself, the tweakability options are almost endless.

[marnold***]

I am enjoying this pedal with my bass soooo much. Now it makes me wish I had gotten an overdrive pedal for my bass years ago. Odd, in college I had an EQ pedal (in a desperate attempt to make my original bass not sound like crap), a wah, and a chorus, but I never thought of getting an OD. My old Peavey Basic 50 did have some built-in overdrive which sounded OK though. I would fake an OD by diming everything on the EQ pedal and diming the preamp on the amph. It was good for Neil Young stuff anyway

I think this pedal sounds great on guitar but it shines on bass. Quite a deal if you ask me.

The only "problem" is that I'm having some issues with my left hand which may be from suddenly playing a bunch

[duhvoodooman***]

The only "problem" is that I'm having some issues with my left hand which may be from suddenly playing a bunch

It's those big, thick strings that they put on them basses! EVIL!!

Seriously, I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying the pedal so much.

I would be remiss if I didn't point out that BYOC makes several kits specifically for use with basses. You might want to check them out some time:

https://buildyourownclone.com/collec...***-chorus-kit

https://buildyourownclone.com/collec.../bassoverdrive

https://buildyourownclone.com/collec...rcle-bass-fuzz

Not specifically for bass, but works well with one:

https://buildyourownclone.com/collec...roducts/paraeq

https://buildyourownclone.com/collec...and-compressor