Pedal Review- Getting Evil with the Fuzzrocious Demon
If someone asks you what your goal for Your Tone, the tone that will define you across practice spaces, backyards, bars, sheds, and arenas, is and you answer, “I want it to sound mean,” do I have the pedal for you.
The Demon by Fuzzrocious Pedals is the drive to drive lesser pedals into the horizon with their tone knobs between their input jacks. Even before you click The Big Red Button that engages the gate/boost, the base tone is so fat* and warm that you’ll want to wrap everything you play up in it. When I was taking the pedal for a test drive I spent a long time just playing with the Drive knob with the gate/boost off, I liked it so much. I was curious how much better the pedal could sound if this was what I got from clicking just one footswitch on. It gave my basses, a Fender Geddy Lee Jazz in standard tuning and an Ephiphone Thunderbird strung BEAD, the exact kind of drive that I love. There was muscle, but the heart of the instrument shone through. One pet peeve of mine that I’ve run into a few times, mostly when reviewing fuzz pedals, is I love the natural sound of the bass, so when that tone gets too obscured by a pedal looking to be The Most Sought After By Bands With a Pot Joke In Their Name I fall out with the pedal toot sweet.
The Demon in its, let’s call it “resting” state does just that. So how would I feel about the Demon unleashed, jumping into the “gated fuzz range”, as the product website proclaims. I lit some candles in a familiar star shape, grabbed a pre-sacrificed small woodland creature from the freezer, ran a knife along the inside of my forearm, and called The Demon.
Oh my Morningstar, what a sound. I don’t like fuzz pedals. I do like pedals that do everything it does in its resting state, but moreso and with a growl that reminded me I might wake the kids. It does no good to test these pedals through headphones, you’ve got to hear them breathe through an amp to get the right feel, and The Demon feels fantastic. Perfectly at home in any band pumping out any kind of heavy music, the Demon with the gate wide open retains the heart of the bass tone while lighting its soul on fire. It rides right on that dangerous edge between “I can hear all the notes” and “Oh god, oh god, we’re all gonna die.” Put those guitar players in their place and take your space in the sonic landscape with pride with The Fuzzrocious Demon.
Now, we all know that, to paraphrase Father Frank, “writing about bass pedals is like dancing about architecture”. So keep a weather eye on The Bass Channel because I will be packing The Demon up and, with a regretful wave of the raised horns, sending it to Vegas where Chris can make a video review and you can hear what I’m on about. There might be a giveaway on that video for this very pedal as well, so you don’t want to miss that. (I want you to miss it, because then maybe I can have it back.)
With that in mind, Fuzzrocious wanted us to let you know to use the code ‘thebasschannel’ to save 10% off your order at fuzzrociouspedals.com through April 30.
*GIVEAWAY*
As part of the deal with Fuzzrocious, we are giving away the Demon pedal featured in this review and the video below. To enter follow this link. Entries are open June 23 and close June 30. May the odds be ever in your favor.
*I am constantly trying to find words that describe the way something sounds and for whatever reason, the first thing I thought when I got the Demon rolling on it’s basic drive was, “Damn, this sounds fat.” It is, as the kids say, a THICC tone.
Doug Robertson is the editor of The Bass Blog, the blog component of The Bass Channel, your one stop YouTube channel for all things bass. His number one is a Mexican Geddy Lee Signature Jazz and his boomer is a BEAD tuned T-Bird. Find books by Doug here. If you’re interested in contributing to The Bass Blog please reach out to Doug at doug@thebasschannel.net. We would love to hear from you. Ave Satanas.
