Crowther Audio Hotcake

The unit is a 2009 with internal switches for Bass/Guitar and Hotcake/Bluesberry options. Easy to use but you must remove the four screws from the base to access the battery, this is only a big deal if you forgot to pack a phillips head screwdriver.

I have tried this pedal with Humbuckers, Single coils, Soapbars, EMG's and an active Ibanez bass into a Boogie Mk2 C+, Carvin Legacy head into sealed 2x12 and a Blonde Bassman head into a quad.

All these combinations left me downhearted and deflated with a searing case of buyer's remorse.
The basic tone of the pedal is quite nice, it has a snappy attack up to medium gain after which it gets a bit wooly and loses definition.

My first gripe is the fizzy/spitty overtone which is present even at minimum gain and turns your smile to a frown as you trail off with a little fart. Sansamp gear does this too but to a lesser degree.

Second gripe is the strange sustain characteristic which sounds great then suddenly dies as if you've rolled back the volume pot.

Third gripe is the bypass is very noticeably a tone sucker, leaving the signal brighter than the original.

Considering that it's been around since the early 70's I can't help thinking that this pedal has survived on sheer hype, which is incredible as Mr Crowther seems to do no marketing whatsoever.

So if you are a famous drummer you should probably consider making overdrives.

I compared it to TS, Rat, Std DS1, Std SD1, Sansamp, V-twin, Bad Monkey, GSP1101, Tube Driver, Purple Plexi, everything in the box but if you want to know which one really kicked it's arse out of the park then read on.

A short while ago I was lucky enough to meet the guy who does (amongst other things) the "Purple Dot" mods to the ubiquitous Boss DS-1 pedal. I say lucky because he rarely leaves his house up in the Adelaide Hills. Only a handful of these pedals exist and I managed to borrow one from him for a week. I have owned Keeley and Allums versions of this pedal and they are very good but they are still very much DS1's so I was doubtful to say the least. This version is very different - It made my eyes grow wide. No toggle switches or flashing lights. It was smooth, dynamic and clear even at maximum gain, no fizz or fartyness; even at gig volume. I couldn't fault it at all, it cleaned up with the guitar's volume backed off and responded beautifully to light and heavy picking. True bypass with a 3P3T stomp switch and of course a purple dot LED which seemed to have an unusual calming effect when I looked at it.

The kicker is he wouldn't sell me one. His eyesight is dwindling and he makes most of his money building amplifiers and something to do with the military which he wouldn't talk about.

If you ever get your hands on one these grab it and run like hell.

N/A

I believe Mr Crowther is a great guy and will answer emails and do repairs no problems.

Lately I've been moving away from hard rock and getting a bit subtle, playing jazz, blues and fingerstyle.
Got my first Strat in 1977 and my first Boogie in 1986. The Boogie is the nicest amp I've played and is still going strong.

Like most guitarists I'm always trying different gear, particularly overdrives, and I shudder to think how much money I've wasted over my lifetime but this purchase really made me feel like an idiot. The last time I felt this way was just after I bought a V-Twin.

This is the greatest drive pedal in existence, easy to use, easy to get a great sound out of and tonally superior to anything else out there in the OD stomp box range. It is everything people say it is. My faith is restored.

This pedal will not save your crappy solid state mmm kay. This pedal is built for tube amps. With a good clean tone, something my Hot Rod Deluxe is capable of, this pedal can do anything from pure clean volume boost, to shred box. With the drive pointing north this beast will give a smooth, creamy, dreamy blues tone that makes you want to swoon, particularily with a neck pickup. For gain, this pedal can produce your typical rocky Marshall stack distortion. With my US Strat this gets fantastic Blackmore, Page or Clapton sounds with drive at 8-9, even through my pretty averidge Hot Rod Deluxe. With my Korean Epi LP Std this pedal gives balls out hard rock tone with elements of Angus through to your Nicklebacks and Creeds. If you add a Boss GE7 like I do you can further shape your drive tones to generate everything but searing metal. This pedal is my rythem distortion, and my lead drive with the help of the Boss GE7 boost and eq. Since i don't like messing with pedal settings while on stage, a TS808 reissue does the lighter OD tone and blues, but in the near future this will be removed to make room for another Hot Cake. They really are that good.

This pedal will do ANY overdrive tones you want, unless Megadeath covers are your staple. Metal searing metal sounds are not here, this pedal is built for tone. If you want blunt force trauma, buy your Metal Zone and forget about tone.

The very minor weaknesses with this pedal are...

This pedal is best used in front of an amp, and will thus tinker with your tone when not on. It is not anything drastic, but without it in line, you can notice a slight difference in your clean tone, compared to having it in line. It's minor, so it doesn't bother me, i very rarely use a purely clean tone. Any pedal in front of an amp will do this.

Secondly... No quick access battery compartment, means changing batterys requires a screw driver and about 5 minutes. Not an issue if you use a power adapter like you should.

Lastly... The power supply jack is in a stupid spot, below the input jack. It will make you retink how you get power to it on a board if you run adapters and dolly chains. But again this is a minor fault. If you really want a beautiful drive tones, or indeed just an un-touched clean boost, this pedal is a must.

Built like a tank. Solid as a rock. Will not break unless your a tool and abuse it. Ultra reliable so far, but i never gig without a back up for anything. Have the TS808 reissue or the woeful Hot Rod Deluxe OD channel should this break down. Hopefully will get another Cake in the near future so they will back each other up.

Never needed it personally so i wont rate it with a number, but Crowther audio's reputation in this area is unmatched by anyone. This little companies reputation for customer service and repairs is first class.

I have searched far and wide to find a good overdrive stomp box. I had bought a heap of pedals but been unimpressed, tried everything my friends had, from the cheap to the expensive and the multi fx units. I had given up hope of finding a good drive box. But since my Hot Rod Deluxe has a crap od channel, i decieded to try just one more OD pedal before giving up completely and saving for an expensive Vox, Orange or Marshall. Lucky for me i bought this.

For awsome OD tones this pedal is the top of the class, it renewed my faith in stomp boxes. Don't bother with other OD pedals, i bought heaps of em, got crap sounds and wasted heaps of cash. I tried everything, and this was the only drive pedal worth its salt. You need to use it with a tube amp, solid states will not work with this pedal, but hey if you love tone you'll have a tube amp already. This pedal does everything you want it to, everything we've all dreamed about from a stomp box. It craps all over the Boss stuff, the Tube Screamers and the rest of the fuzz boxes out there.

They are hard to find, and quite pricey, i had to pay $300 Australian to get a hold of one. They are worth the effort and the cost. I'm currently saving for a second one to replace the TS808 on my board. They really are that good. If you really love your tone and like a bit of drive you owe it to yourself to get hold of one of these things are try it. Brilliant stuff Crowther Audio.

Very easy. Three controls for level, presence and drive.

This is an excellent sounding pedal that for me works best with EL84 and EL34 tube type amps. Mark Knopfler uses a hotcake and it was a favorite of Ken Fischer who designed the Trainwreck amplifier. At low drive levels it maintains the original tone of the amp extremely well. The slight color it does impart is musical and full of character. Pushing the drive to 12-2 O' Clock produces some great overdriven tones with a bit of compression and good harmonics. Beyond that it gets a bit fizzy for me. I prefer the presence between 12-1 O' Clock usually. It won't really do high gain very well, but stacks well with many pedals for gainier sounds.

My older hotcake developed a scratchy drive pot after many years of use. I emailed Paul Crowther and he immediately sent me a new pot for free.

Excellent. I received a reply straight away when I emailed Crowther Audio and he took care of the problem. He obviously stands behind his products one hundred percent.

This pedal is a classic and the only pedal I have two of. Highly recommended for low to medium gain overdrive. I have a lot of other overdrive and distortion pedals that I like: Fulltone, Cornish, Keeley etc. This pedal more than hangs with the best of them. Furthermore, Paul Crowther provides exceptional customer support.

As Straight forward as possible

Ive had my Hotcake for 3 years, and found it hugely versatile for a variety of tones. It works well for adding subtle boost and a little distortion through to hi gain dirty tones.
I play funk with a tele (Dirtys up my sound without affecting the tone at all) and also Jazz (subtle gain boost for solos with a tiny bit of breakup on the higher louder notes)

Very usable distortion

3 years no issues at all. Im in New Zealand so could easily get Paul Crowther to sort it out if anything broke im sure. ive seen old Hotcakes around with no paint left at all, just a silver case but still working perfectly!

perfect for my uses, Adding dirt to my guitar sounds without losing any tone at all.

Im sure they're great for a whole range of genres, definitely great for funk and jazz

Easy.

I can honestly say that at first- I was turned off by the compressed sound of the drive- but I love it now. This pedal is what everybody else has said.

Dependable

I'm almost embarrassed to write this- but, I really wanted one of these because Steve Malkmus swears by it. I have never bought a piece of equipment because someone whose work I admire had it- I'm just not that guy; however, I really enjoy SM's tone and this is definitely part of what he's got going on...

The sound is Amazing- I found one on ebay for a very reasonable price. I'm glad I took the leap for this. It has paid off.

Real simple, 3 knobs. The only thing is that if you're into using batteries you will need to unscrew it to get the batteries out.

Fantastic, perfect for led zeppelin type distortion. Great if you want to add a bit more to your already distorted sound. Not much noise either.
Theres nothing else like this sound!!

Nothing wrong at all. Good metal casing. would gig without backup.

Not dealt with, heard good things though!!

I play led zeppelin type rock and also heavy rock like van halen and guns and roses. Its great by it self for a zepplin tone. but add it to a distorted sound and it will make you sound like you have active pickups at the right setting!! I'm proud it was made in NEW ZEALAND

3 knobs, and one is for volume. pretty easy to use.

cool grindy low-medium gain OD. gets more throaty as you turn up gain, still fairly quiet all the gained out.

no worries so far.

Have not had the need to contact them.

very cool OD. sensitive to pick attack. clean low end, not muddy. tight highs along with warm breakup. great for rock and blues.

Very easy to use. Mine is the Mk II version. Has a drive control, presence control and output level.

Easy to dial up a clean volume boost (drive up to about 9o'clock) right up to a thick fuzzy distortion and everything in between - including a smooth overdrive which handles chords brilliantly. Add a bit more mid-range bite by increasing the presence control.

Sound quality is great. Basically completely silent whether run on battery or adapter up to about 2 o'clock on the drive. Gets a little noisy at extreme gain settings but show me a distortion pedal that doesn't.

I've read something about this pedal leaving the undistorted portion of the sound wave intact. I'm not quite sure how that works but basically, it sounds very transparent and there is almost no loss of low end.

I play a USA standard tele into a MXR supercomp, hotcake, hotcake, FuzzieBro Overdrive #4 (NZ made), MXR phase90 and Boss DD5 into a Jansen 645 combo (NZ made version of a Fender style amp).

The first Hotcake I use as a volume boost to drive the input of the Jansen (which has no gain control). The second I use as a high gain device for gobs of sustain and distortion. The hotcake will compress quite a lot at high gain settings.

The hotcake sounds great - I've not played better - and I'm proud to fly the NZ flag with a lot of my gear.

Exceptional reliability. Never had one break down. The first I bought new years ago and has been gigged constantly - never had a problem at all.

The second I bought second hand and it is actually older than the one I got first. Also a beige brick.

Indestructible.

I've never had to use it but I believe Paul Crowther will fix any problems should you have them. I believe he also actually answers emails!

I play rock music. Originals - sorta swaying between stoner math rock and loud folk rock with a bit of alt country thrown in - that's in one band. In another I play sorta guitar driven psychedelic pop in the "Dunedin sound" tradition.

This pedal rules for what I'm trying to do. I like the sound of overdriven tubes (who doesn't?) with the option to freak out my amp should the occasion arise (and it often does).

I believe these pedals are used by Oasis, Foo Fighters, Sonic Youth and also by pretty much every NZ band that has/had any taste or style.

The only negative thing I'd have to say is that these things are a little pricey - even here in lil' ol' NZ selling for NZ$269!! at The Rockshop (NZ's biggest music retailer). But, The Rockshop is generally a complete ripoff. You can get them cheaper online. I bought mine for (I think) NZ$160 a couple of years ago - after that the price jumped massively - maybe due to overseas demand.

They're often available secondhand and due to their reliability and sonic consistency second hand is a pretty decent option.

very very easy to use great sounds

great sounds from this pedal - i agree with sir_les on this 1.ive just git this pedal today & am aiming to use it in front pof a 59 bassman ltd, as of yet only had chance to try it in the front end of a 70's fender champ

seems dependable - the knobs are quite stiff - not a bad thing !as i say only got this today & generally never take a back up with me

not hade rise to as yet

i play in a soul blues band - have tried millions of pedals - most of them dont hit the mark. ab'd this with a voodoo labs sparkle drive - the hotcake has something ekse - not quite shure what that is as yet - it seems to sustain very well indeed & has more clout than the sparkle drive- cant wait to use this in earnest !

Very easy pedal to work with, level, presence, drive. Many tones available from this pedal. I think my best result was putting in front of a clean spanky tube amp.

This is a top piece of gear definately enhanced my playing style, I like the blues, with this pedal if i wanted to sound like BB King, Clapton's early tones, Mark Knopfler early stuff, this thing can help in getting very close
Gear that I use Stock Fender Stratocaster - Hotcake - Fender Dual Showman
No noise, this thing is sweet, even when driven hard

I respect my gear and look after it, if i dropped it I think that it could handle it.
Fresh battery every gig, rely on it, yep.

The fact of the matter is I followed a link from a stombox diy site and sent an email to Crowther Audio and asked them a few thing about the pedal, all good, very helpful took the time to help me, and I respect that about Crowther Audio.

Bluesy sooped up jazzy riffs is what i try, been playing about 26 years.
Amps - Fender, Marshall, Vox. Guitars - Fender, Epiphone.
I like using this pedal, inspiring tone to it, ie enjoy playing with a nice sound.