EarthQuaker Devices Rancho de la Luna Dirt Transmitter review – heavy fuzz tones with a voltage-starving twist
$189/£189, earthquakerdevices.com
Ah, how nice it is to be able to talk about EarthQuaker Devices in the context of some pure bouncing-bunny-rabbits good news: the launch of a really tasty fuzz pedal.
It’s tempting to think the deathly skulls adorning the Rancho de la Luna Dirt Transmitter are a reference to the grim future of the American stompbox industry – the Ohio company’s CEO Julie Robbins has been one of the loudest voices warning about the potential impact of the Trump tariffs on EQD and other makers – but the artwork is actually a tie-in with the Rancho de la Luna recording studio in Joshua Tree, California. It’s cute anyway. Macabre, but cute.
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David Catching with the Rancho de la Luna Dirt Transmitter. Image: Dalton Blancho
EarthQuaker Devices Dirt Transmitter – what is it?
On the inside, this is not a new pedal: the Dirt Transmitter was one of the first fuzzes EQD ever made. It was brought back last year in a limited-edition Legacy Reissue, and now it’s been re-reborn.
Loosely based on the Fuzz Face circuit, it has something that’s been cropping up on a lot of dirt pedals recently: a bias knob, letting you lower the voltage to the two 2N1711 silicon transistors for sputtery gating effects. The other controls are the standard-issue level, tone and fuzz; it’s true bypass and has a soft-touch footswitch.
Image: Vice Cooler
EarthQuaker Devices Dirt Transmitter – sounds
Conventional wisdom says silicon fuzzes sound bright and raspy compared to their soft and fluffy germanium counterparts. Well get ready for some unconventional wisdom, because the Dirt Transmitter is about as dangerously abrasive as a duvet.
It’s not muffled, but the treble response is fundamentally moderate even with the tone knob maxed out. The bottom end, in contrast, is thoroughly well rounded, while the mids have the smooth, slightly scooped character of a classic Fuzz Face – albeit without the same looseness in playing feel. It sounds extremely pleasant with the fuzz around halfway, scuzzy but sweet with the guitar’s volume turned down a couple of notches, and sludgily colossal with everything at maximum.
Turn the bias down too far and things get spitty in a way that really isn’t musical, but the right half of the dial is well worth exploring for subtly tightened-up tones with an element of ripping texture and, on single low notes, good old-fashioned squelch. It’s this extra dimension, in the end, that might just leave you wondering why the Dirt Transmitter was discontinued in the first place.
Image: Vice Cooler
EarthQuaker Devices Dirt Transmitter – should I buy one?
You might be inclined to buy this pedal because you appreciate EarthQuaker’s efforts to raise awareness of the existential threat facing the US pedal-making industry. You might want to buy it just because you think EQD is a cool company… or because you’re a Day Of The Dead obsessive and it’s got skulls on it. But no, let’s get serious: you should probably buy the Dirt Transmitter because it’s excellent.
EarthQuaker Devices Dirt Transmitter – alternatives
Two of the pioneering voltage-starved fuzz pedals of the 90s are still around in one form or another: the ZVEX Effects Fuzz Factory Vexter ($199/£189.99) and, an evolution of the Lovetone Big Cheese, the ThorpyFX Field Marshal (£209.99). Or if you really are all about the skulls, your other option is the superb Flattley DG Fuzz (£259).
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
