Children of Cthulhu

A fuzz box that looks like H.P Lovecraft’s remote control.

Moderator: The Captain

Post Reply
User avatar
jimi_dylan
Posts: 1215
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2008 8:18 pm
Location: Olympus Mons, Mars

Post by jimi_dylan »

Hopefully, mine is swimming across the Atlantic.
User avatar
happiass
Posts: 511
Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2008 8:28 am

Re: Children of Cthulhu

Post by happiass »

Mine showed up today :party: , but I'll be out the whole evening :bangs head: . Full report tomorrow.
jac37656
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Dec 29, 2009 1:09 am

Re: Children of Cthulhu

Post by jac37656 »

Mine came today (#006 OC71). I cut my thumb opening the package...I should have known it wanted blood. But that's not important - you want to know about the sound. This thing is a fuckin' beast. Do not use this pedal if you live in an apartment unless you are trying to get evicted, because it has enough gain and volume on tap to knock down walls. I A/B'd it with my other germanium fuzz, a DAM 1966. They are difficult to compare - kind of like trying to compare your sweet little 4 yr old niece to a methamphetamine-addled nymphomaniac porn star - about all they have in common is that genetically they are both female. Similarly, the comparison here ends at "they are both germanium fuzz pedals."

I plugged my Les Paul (standard tuning / bridge pickup) into a small amp head (12ax7/6550/5R4) running into a 1x10 and 1x15 in series. (This setup may not be what the pedal was intended for - but I sure as hell liked the results!) With both knobs set to 12:00 I turned it on and...whoa! This thing will blow your wig back. I started turning the knobs clockwise....and, um, IT MIGHT GET LOUD. The tone is more than gritty or grainy or buzzy or raspy or fuzzy - words you often hear in conjunction with germanium transistors - it's all of those things to varying degrees (depending on the volume and tone shaping you get into), but in a way that is just so much more raw, open, exposed, and intense. The Flesh Head's tone-shaping ability is what really blew me away. It was easy to get too dark (for my tastes, anyway) on the neck pickup, although there were plenty of great tones to be found there....but where this thing really came alive was on the bridge pickup - a meaty, gristly, raw crunch that just put huge smile on my face as I dialed in different levels of punishment. It's a hell of a lot of fun.

I'll be honest - I was worried that this pedal was going to be fit for nothing but detuned death metal type tones (a style of music I will never find myself playing) and that the tone control wouldn't be very functional with such fuzzed out distortion. I couldn't have been more wrong. The tone shaping allows you to access sounds that are much more broadly applicable. I ripped into some Queens of The Stone Age and was just flat out loving it. ...But if you hear someone say that their Flesh Head "is the perfect pedal for blues!" you'll know they don't own one.

Finally, let me say something about the price. Reasonable people may well disagree as to whether a grand (USD) is too much to drop on a fuzz box. That’s fine. The fact that I didn’t enjoy the price tag does not mean that I’m not REALLY enjoying the pedal. I recognize it for what it is – a supply and demand thing. I’m OK with that or I would never have bid…and since my limit was a little higher than what I paid I can maybe even get drunk and pretend that I actually got a good deal. :smashed: OK, maybe not. But still, this was a market transaction where both participants walked away happy. It’s only money, after all. And if you could see the grin on my face when I play through the Flesh Head, you’ll know I think it’s worth it.
Last edited by jac37656 on Tue Feb 02, 2010 3:33 am, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
tigerdriver
Posts: 1457
Joined: Mon Aug 24, 2009 2:37 am
Location: MARS

Re: Children of Cthulhu

Post by tigerdriver »

Well shit, I hope Behringer rolls out a clone soon.
User avatar
professor plum
Posts: 889
Joined: Mon Jul 13, 2009 7:34 am
Location: behind my computer screen. in dirty jersey.

Re:

Post by professor plum »

Sickle wrote:jac37656, that's great stuff, man. Thanks very much!
D when you get a chance, can you give us your impressions on how the dark flesh compares to its dark brother meathead? im on the list for a dark meat and likely wont get to play a fleshie anytime soon and was just curious as to how the two were different soundwise. i know its fuzz face vs. mkII it the core of things but they seem to come from the same evil place... :crackjam:
analog love <3/
User avatar
Hiwatt Bob
Posts: 173
Joined: Wed Nov 18, 2009 4:58 am

Re: Children of Cthulhu

Post by Hiwatt Bob »

:cthulhu2:

thanks for the reviews guys--fortunately--i arrived home in time to get to the post office to pick mine up. :dance:
i have #10 (OC71 7of7).

my initial impressions--it fucking PWNS. period. i am not kidding when i say this might be my be-all-end-all fuzz.

while i wipe off the jizz--take a moment to read my review, because i've got a slightly different take. let me be clear, i think David and Donovan did an amazing job on this pedal. But to be completely honest, i think the marketing/mythologizing really did not represent this pedal very well...but don't misunderstand me--i couldn't be happier about that. but the myth of the pedal was that it was this satanic malevolent WMD that would be most suitable with drop-tuned, doomy shit. i was anticipating something more extreme sounding, more of a one-trick pony, albeit a great one--but i actually found this to be one of the most versatile, well rounded fuzz's i've ever played.

for reference, i played it through a Hiwatt DR504 w 2x12 (reeve's VP's) and through my silverface deluxe reverb. i obviously like just about everything better through a hiwatt--but again, i think the marketing of this pedal really sold it short. it fucking pwns through my deluxe reverb 1x12. still need to try it with my clark lil bit LTD (tweed deluxe w/ single 6v6)--but with the deluxe reverb, i think this pedal actually showed-up ALL of my other fuzzes i a/b'd it against: nkt275 FF, hudson stroll on oc75 mkii, hudson mr.soul oc75/76 mk i.5, and a standard meathead. it outperformed imho, because it maintained a rich buzzy mid & top end but also had a huge bottom--that didn't fart out. basically, it stayed HUGE sounding, but still kept most of it's clarity. with my other fuzzes (through the deluxe reverb), usually something will get sacrificed (low-end or clarity). again, i think the marketing REALLY sold this pedal short in this regard.

Guitar-wise, I tried these: ’68 SG special (p90), ’65 jazzmaster, ’62 RI jazzmaster (MIA), ’73 les paul deluxe (mini HB’s), ‘60’s RI MIJ strat. It sounded excellent through all of them. It sounded the best through the SG p90’s—but that guitar pwns with pretty much any fuzz—and with my vintage jazzmaster. Generally speaking, like David said, it seems to do better with lower output pickups. As you can tell, my guitar collection lacks in HB guitars—so I really can’t comment much on SC vs HB, although it did sound excellent through the LP deluxe mini HB’s.

ok--toanz: imho, the fleshhead takes everything that's good about an NKT275 fuzz face and a MKII tonebender and combines them. It’s got all the big low-end and top-end sweetness of a germ fuzz face and marries it with the beefier, buzzy midrange of a tonebender. I still need to jam with it, but I can tell already that it seems like a pedal that would cut through the mix without sacrificing any low end juicyness. Overall, I would describe it as a ‘warm’ sounding fuzz, whereas the standard meathead I would classify as a more aggressive, harder character.

The part that gave me the biggest (and most unexpected) boner was how it cleans up when you roll off the guit vol. [aside: Part of why I love my fuzz face so much is that it cleans up but doesn’t lose any of it’s low-end, it’s retains a pretty full EQ spectrum. I love the sound of tonebenders, but they all seem to thin out a bit when you clean up. The mk1.5 seems to be best of the tonebender versions I’ve played in this regard (1966, mkii, mk1.5)—but it still gets a little more brittle sounding than my fuzz face.] the Fleshhead cleans up just as well as my fuzz face—so this is what totally put a smile on my face. The mild, overdrive sounds gotten here were phenomenal—I think I actually like it better than my fuzz face (something I NEVER thought I’d say).

I need to explore the “viscus”/tone knob a little more. My initial impressions were that I liked it dimed—just because that had the biggest low end, and I love me some low-end. But there does seem to be some interesting toanz in there (basically between 12:00—dimed). I don’t think I’ll ever be running it less than 12:00, fuzz takes on a different character, but is far too thin/trebly for my taste.

Standard meathead comparison: just from all the mythologizing, I was kind of expecting the fleshhead to be higher gain/more aggressive for some reason—but re-reading the stuff Dave/Donovan have posted about the origins of the meathead, I realize I was mistaken. Anyhow—the standard meathead is higher gain and seems to have a bit more output than the fleshhead (although both have a TON of output, boost—more than most fuzzes). Toanz-wise, I love the fatness of the fleshhead—the meathead is more mid-focused. I’d also be very interested to hear if anyone has a/b’d a fleshie with a meathead dark. Anyhow—I’m going to hang onto my meathead for now, because it can do some higher gain stuff that the fleshie just doesn’t quite reach.

Sorry to be SO verbose—but I am that stoked about this pedal. My buyer’s remorse has completely evaporated. Was it worth the $$? I don’t know—if this ends up being my mainstay be-all-end-all fuzz the way it looks like…I can’t really put a price on that. I mean, I bought my Dunlop fuzz face (mod’d with good nkt275’s) for like $100—but I don’t think I’d sell that pedal even for $500. so I guess the “worth” part of it is pretty subjective. I can guarantee you this—I’m NOT just raving about this pedal because I spent a ton of money on it. If I didn’t like it or was disappointed—I would’ve quietly posted this for sale. This will not be happening, she’s one of those pedals you know immediately is a keeper.

Talk is cheap, I know—I promise to post some clips soon. In addition to doing a demo of the fleshie, I’m thinking of A/B’ing it against some other fuzzes—like the fuzz face, mkii, mk1.5, standard meathead—just to show the differences. I’ll maybe do a separate demo through my deluxe reverb—just to show that it actually can pwn shit through a smaller combo. :coffee:


PS—I actually do think the fleshie can do teh bloooze. Srsly.
PPS--thanks to DAM for this most amazing of pedulz. :badlove:
User avatar
Hiwatt Bob
Posts: 173
Joined: Wed Nov 18, 2009 4:58 am

Post by Hiwatt Bob »

PPPS--i know this was a limited run but honestly--DAM should consider making this a regular pedal. it's THAT good imho--and to me it'd be a pedal that would be widely appreciated, not just by drop tuned guyz.
User avatar
Brazilian
Posts: 18
Joined: Thu Jan 07, 2010 1:43 pm
Location: Norn Arland

Re: Children of Cthulhu

Post by Brazilian »

[quote="jac3 ...But if you hear someone say that their Flesh Head "is the perfect pedal for blues!" you'll know they don't own one..[/quote]
I gigged mine on Friday last,and with the guitar's( Strat) vol. down at 2 or 3, you can get a really hollow 335esk type of tone great for blues.full up you have got Gary Moore blistering shred.There is also some modern Glimour tones there.
:wink2:
"The FZ- 673 possibly the best fuzzbox ever made"
User avatar
Hiwatt Bob
Posts: 173
Joined: Wed Nov 18, 2009 4:58 am

Post by Hiwatt Bob »

not relevant to teh toanz--but what name was your fleshie?

mine was Zvilpogghua.
jac37656
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Dec 29, 2009 1:09 am

Re: Children of Cthulhu

Post by jac37656 »

Brazilian wrote:[quote="jac3 ...But if you hear someone say that their Flesh Head "is the perfect pedal for blues!" you'll know they don't own one..
I gigged mine on Friday last,and with the guitar's( Strat) vol. down at 2 or 3, you can get a really hollow 335esk type of tone great for blues.full up you have got Gary Moore blistering shred.There is also some modern Glimour tones there.
:wink2:[/quote]


Perhaps I spopke too soon? I kept the guitar volume in a range between 7 and 10 practically the entire time...and that probably explains the difference. I'll continue to play round with it and see what else I reach - blues included!
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests