EarthQuaker Devices Barrows review – a titchy fuzz pedal with a huge voice
$129/£139, earthquakerdevices.com
Somebody at EarthQuaker Devices really wants to confuse people. How else do you explain the decision to make an aggressive fuzz pedal, name it after a kind of burial mound and cover it in sinister skulls… then opt for the colour palette of raspberries and ice cream?
READ MORE: EarthQuaker Devices Rancho de la Luna Dirt Transmitter review – heavy fuzz tones with a voltage-starving twist
This is the Barrows Fuzz Attacker, a mini-pedal based on the Tone Bender MkII of 1966 – one of the absolute greats of the early days of guitar filth. It looks cute and dinky, but it should sound anything but.
Image: Press
EarthQuaker Devices Barrows – what is it?
There won’t be an ‘is it easy to use?’ section in this review, because it’s a two-knob fuzz and even my dog could handle that (on a good day). The Barrows is powered by three germanium transistors in classic MkII style, and the knobs are marked level and attack; that matches what you’ll see on any original pre-MkIII Tone Bender, letting you adjust the loudness of the output, the wildness of the fuzz, and nothing else. If you want to be able to tweak the EQ or the bias, look elsewhere.
Is that a drawback? Not necessarily: those old fuzz circuits were all about brutal simplicity, and that’s the spirit that EQD has tried to capture here. For my money the MkII is the best of all the Benders, taking the smoothness of the Fuzz Face sound but sharpening up the midrange, and some would argue that’s a recipe best left unembellished.
Image: Press
EarthQuaker Devices Barrows – what does it sound like?
Surely nobody needed this much gain in 1966? But it was there if they wanted it, and it’s here as well: the Barrows is as heavy as a five-tier wedding cake, and every bit as sweet.
This is about as thick as fuzz gets, with whumping bass and just enough headroom to avoid completely splatting out. Even with a Telecaster on the bridge pickup it’s not a natural choice for tight power chords – in fact ‘tight’ is not in its vocabulary – but what you do get instead is an ultra-creamy lead tone with just a hint of pinch when you dig in hard.
And there is a way to lighten things up a bit… but it doesn’t involve the attack control. While this is effective at making things more sensible, you’re still dealing with full-on fuzz even when it’s set to minimum – and it’s still on the bloomy side. Turn down your guitar’s volume knob a few notches, however, and the treble is no longer being squeezed out of the picture – resulting in a mid-gain crunch sound that’s much more fresh and tonally transparent. This is great, but it just makes me wish EQD had found room for a cheeky bass-cut switch so we could enjoy that more open tone at full blast.
Image: Press
EarthQuaker Devices Barrows – should I buy it?
The Barrows is a lovely little pedal, and if you’re after a high-gain fuzz that will sneak into the tiniest gap on your pedalboard then it’s definitely worth a look. Just bear in mind that this isn’t the last word in faithful MkII replicas: it prioritises phatness over clarity, which might suit you fine if you’re a sludgy doom-rock merchant – or indeed a bassist – but isn’t much good for disciplined riffing.
EarthQuaker Devices Barrows alternatives
For similarly thick and fluffy fuzz tones with a couple more knobs to play with, try EarthQuaker’s own Dirt Transmitter ($179/£189). The Electro-Harmonix Bender Royale ($149/£149) is another new TB type, this time based on the MkIII circuit; but for old-school handwired quality, you won’t find better than the Williams Vintage Tone MkII Professional (£155).
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
