Earthquaker Speaker Cranker

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tune_link
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Earthquaker Speaker Cranker

Post by tune_link » Fri Feb 19, 2021 5:33 pm

Of course now that this pedal is discontinued I’m looking at it for the first time :fp:

I understand it’s a version of an Electra Distortion and a super easy circuit to build (and while I feel confident working on guitars and amps for some reason building pedals seems impossible to me).

Anyway, I kinda hate the way it looks anyway and I don’t wanna pay for one now that with shipping and tax used it would still be about $175+ for a pedal that used to be way less and has a single knob.

Point being, can any of you that have had it or used it recommend some other OD pedals that would be in the same gain range? It’s hard to get a feel for it in the demos (at least to me) whether it’s a low or med gain pedal (certainly doesn’t seem to be high gain at least). I’ve always been interested in the EQD drives but I had both the Dunes and Westwood and didn’t end up keeping either. But the whole description from EQD about it being a way to specifically make clean amps sound dirty seems both real appealing but also isn’t that like any/every overdrive ever?

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charmonder
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Re: Earthquaker Speaker Cranker

Post by charmonder » Fri Feb 19, 2021 6:16 pm

its really good! build it! It's like a parallel clean/fuzz... Cant recommend enough, you might want to breadboard it because its easy and you can sort through diodes

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Re: Earthquaker Speaker Cranker

Post by kingmedicine » Sat Feb 20, 2021 7:12 am

Great sounding overdrive for sure. Have you checked out the Southampton Fifth Gear? I think that is a speaker cranked circuit...but with more controls (and usually pretty cheap used). I used one on bass for awhile and remember it being very similar to the speaker cranked.

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Re: Earthquaker Speaker Cranker

Post by del » Tue Feb 23, 2021 7:04 am

My understanding is that the Electra is the basis for many of the Lovepdal distortion/overdrive/boost circuits including the Woodrow, Champ, and COT/Church of Tone.
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Re: Earthquaker Speaker Cranker

Post by tune_link » Tue Feb 23, 2021 8:59 am

Found a used Speaker Cranker for a very reasonable price and scooped it up. Won't arrive for a few days. I was looking at all the Lovepedal stuff too but even used most of it was more expensive than the SC with the exception of their JTM. I was curious about it but it looked like those were plentiful so I may have to try one of them out if the SC doesn't do what I'm looking for or is close but maybe the JTM would be closer. The Tchula was interesting for that same reason but those seemed more expensive than the other Lovepedals but I guess it has a boost switch as well so kinda a two in one pedal.

Appreciate all the input everyone! Will report back once I get this thing in hand and have a go with it.

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Re: Earthquaker Speaker Cranker

Post by tune_link » Mon Mar 08, 2021 3:20 pm

Okay got this in the mail today and spent a good chunk of time with it this afternoon. It is definitely in the ballpark of something like a Red Llama or EHX Hot Tubes. I A/B’d it with my nano Hot Tubes in fact just to see how they stacked up to each other. The EQD is definitely more clear and tops out at a higher gain. The Hot Tubes can be tweaked to get in the same ball park but is just a hair darker. I don’t have a preference other than to say that if I was at the full overdrive end of the Speaker Cranker’s knob I def prefer it there to the Hot Tubes. But...the Hot Tubes sounds better to me at lower gain because the darker quality of it seems to roll off some highs and those are there in the Speaker Cranker at every point on its knob.

I will also add that I think the Hot Tubes stacks better. My fuzz pedals after it in my chain sounded throaty when I kicked it on in comparison to the way the Speaker Cranker tended to sound kind of brittle and too piercing in the highs like it was pushing the higher fuzz frequencies into unwanted ice pick territory. That said I played it through my Orange RV100 and used my main AO Jazzmaster with the stock AV65 Pickups in it of those things are of interest to anyone. May keep it, may not, totally not sure now but at least my curiosity has been satisfied!

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Re: Earthquaker Speaker Cranker

Post by ElephantDNA » Mon Mar 08, 2021 4:47 pm

tune_link wrote:
Mon Mar 08, 2021 3:20 pm
Okay got this in the mail today and spent a good chunk of time with it this afternoon. It is definitely in the ballpark of something like a Red Llama or EHX Hot Tubes. I A/B’d it with my nano Hot Tubes in fact just to see how they stacked up to each other. The EQD is definitely more clear and tops out at a higher gain. The Hot Tubes can be tweaked to get in the same ball park but is just a hair darker. I don’t have a preference other than to say that if I was at the full overdrive end of the Speaker Cranker’s knob I def prefer it there to the Hot Tubes. But...the Hot Tubes sounds better to me at lower gain because the darker quality of it seems to roll off some highs and those are there in the Speaker Cranker at every point on its knob.

I will also add that I think the Hot Tubes stacks better. My fuzz pedals after it in my chain sounded throaty when I kicked it on in comparison to the way the Speaker Cranker tended to sound kind of brittle and too piercing in the highs like it was pushing the higher fuzz frequencies into unwanted ice pick territory. That said I played it through my Orange RV100 and used my main AO Jazzmaster with the stock AV65 Pickups in it of those things are of interest to anyone. May keep it, may not, totally not sure now but at least my curiosity has been satisfied!
The llama remains undefeated on this forum!

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