Crowther Audio Prunes And Custard

Simple,3 Controls and 2 switches (Level,Mix,Drive knobs and Guitar/Bass & Lo Switches) , but alot of sounds depending on how they are set. Every sound is usable and great sounding.From overdrive/Distortion to Moog like Synth.

I am a Bass player and use this pedal as my primary effect(I use other stuff:EHX Micro Pog, Dunlop Bass Wah with the Prunes & Custard). I use Fender Presision Bass's with the P&C through a 1972 Ampeg V4-b most of the time. I have so far detected no backround noise. The effect Chain I use is as Follows: Boss Tuner, Korg Compressor, P&C, Micro Pog, Dunlop Bass Wah, Mxr Pre Amp into the Vintage Ampeg. I always have the Switches set on the Bass Setting and the Lo Setting. With the Mix off and the Drive between 3:00 to 5:00 you get great mild Over Drive too a gritty Distortion. With the Mix at 10:00 and the Drive at 1:00 You get a great Fuzzy Synth Tone, and With The Mix at 12:00 and the Drive at 3:00 you get a heavy Fuzzed out Synth with a mild Filter Sweep. This setting really cuts through the mix and in a Power Trio situation when you hit a single note progression ( Like the intro to Can't Get Enough of Your Love by Bad Co.) It sounds like a Guitar cord. This pedal can make it sound like there is a 2nd Guitarist in the band, but still keeps the Bass intact.

Built with high Quality parts very well made. Have had it for over a year, it's my primary effect at home, at practice, and at gigs. No Problems so far.

I've heard /Read that Mr. Crowther will stand by his products. I hope to never have to find this out but it's good to know.

Can't say enough good stuff about this pedal. I use it an all ddifferent types of bands and it fits in all of them because there are so many sound choices. Rock music, (any thing between 1955-1980).is what I do, but this pedal could be used with almost any type of music.

Three Knobs and two switches. Easy.

I use this on my keyboards and it sounds incredible. Putting my Rhodes '73 Stage through this thing is a beautiful thing indeed. So too my Nord Electro, Roland Sh3a and Juno 106. This pedal adds some odd harmonics inot my keyboard sounds. They sound bigger, dirtier and stranger with this genius of a pedal. The Rhodes especially sounds great through this.
This is like a Big Muff on the best drugs it's ever had in it's life.

I have battered and bruised this pedal. Thrown it around. Made it go on long bumpy rides in loosely packed gear cases on planes, trucks and vans. It is solidly built and takes the knocks. The knobs get a bit scratchy sometimes but ...a bit of CRC and things are fine again.

Paul Crowther is a gentleman. He has repaired both my Prunes and Custard and my Hotcake ( his other overdrive pedal ...which is incredible!) a couple of times. He is a one man show so sometimes things can take a wee while to get back to you but it's worth the wait.

I play a wide variety of styles: Soundtrack, electronic improvisation, pop, rock and dub. This pedal has always been with me over the last 4 years since I purchased it. If it was lost or stolen I would not hesitate to get a new one. I love the fact that it sounds like nothing else I have ever tried in the realm of distortion. It allows my synths and keyboards to sit better in the mix along side electric guitars. It is a simple, easy to use brilliant and unusual device. Genius. It's almost like having another synthesiser in a box.....almost that good.
In fact I wish it a stereo in/out option!

Very straight forward controls. level knob, mix knob, and drive knob as well as a bass/guitar switch and a mid cut switch. I use two different sounds from this pedal one is a nice fuzz and then i crank up the drive for a thick fuzz/distortion i always have it set for bass and the mid cut is the way to go i believe. Just make sure you match the pedal level to the volume you are playing at because it can give a serious kick.

Can get a very similar sound to the bass from muse but this pedal is very versatile, can give a gentle fuzz or an almost synth distortion when the mix is turned up to high. I use this pedal with a fender jazz going to a Gallien Krueger 1001RBII and GK SBX410 cab when pedal is switched on there is no pop (kudos) but when drive is pushed right up a little bit of bottom end is lost but nothing i would complain about i'm just going to mention it. overall i have found two sounds that i use on stage and constantly experiment with it more when writing a a truly unique sounding pedal

I have given this pedal a damn good thrashing i play in a hard rock/prog band and use this pedal to give my bass some real bite in songs, which means i JUMP on the thing with my whole weight and it has never failed. it has also passed the beer spill test on two occasions. Due to my excitedness i have managed to bend the two toggle switches but these dont look to hard to replace. all in all its TOUGH
dont ever think i would need a backup

Haven't needed it don't think i will need too.

Like i said i play hard rock/prog this pedal has become indispensable to me, it has a huge range of tones from gentle fuzz to weird f#@ked up distortion. If stolen i would hunt down the bastard and tape the pedal to him and then lay him on the stage as my pedal board and jump on him. the only thing i would note is to match the level to the volume you play and let your sound mixer hear it at sound check so they know whats coming. Due to its unique tones and thrashability i give it overall a 10/10

I posted a review earlier about this pedal. While it is AWESOME-sounding, mine broke after only three months on the board. I'm pretty light on my equipment, too. It's really a shame 'cause this pedal sounded hot through my bass rig.

I tried countless times to get in touch with Paul (who was very communicative with me in the past), but he never got back to me.

I guess if you don't need to worry about the switch, I would still recommend this pedal for use in the studio I suppose.

Turn knobs, work it out in your signal chain, check interactivity between this one vs. other pedals in the chain, interactivity between this and the amp.

Every pedal takes time, but yest, you can get a great sound right out of the box.

This is a very cool fuzz. Ultra gritty, Albini sound. Sounds great on guitar, even better on bass. Very great for thick rhythm parts, like a nice fat, gritty big muff. Go get some campbells soup cause this pedal is CHUNKY!
=)

Seems solid to me.

Why in the world would you write a review about a pedal you don't own????

That clip sounds like a guy who plugged the pedal directly into the console.

THIS PEDAL IS AWESOME AND I'M GLAD YOU DON'T LIKE IT BECAUSE THERE'S MORE FOR ME AND OTHER PEOPLE WHO ENJOY A THING CALLED 'TONE.'

The pedal is pretty straight-forward. You just have to futz with the knobs until you find your sweet spot(s).

I'm a fuzz and filter junkie when it comes to my bass sounds, and this pedal has become completely indispensable to me. I will not play a gig without it. My band's sound now depends on this pedal, it's that good IMO. Those guitar players who are trashing it are probably doing so because this pedal is designed primarily for use with bass and drum sounds. That is where it shines. This pedal has just the perfect amount of swoosh and grit for rhythmic applications.

The thing is built into a steel casing, which looks pretty durable. The only issue I've had is with the switch... it makes some pretty god-awful noise at times if you don't step on it hard enough. I would have put a Fulltone true bypass switch into it if I were the one making this pedal. As a matter of fact, that is my next step with this pedal.

Paul Crowther seems like a nice enough guy. He was happy to answer my myriad of questions before I eventually caved in and bought it from him.

10 out of 10, hands down. Again, I wouldn't play a gig without it. I keep a spare on hand at shows just in case it ever goes down on me.

my most simple pedal to operate so far three knobs, Level (self-explanitory), mix (dry to wet sounds, its the weird side of the pedal), gain (again self explanitory), no instructions included came in a white box with a battery. needs a screwdriver or other tool shaped like a screwdriver to open and replace battery. wont turn on without a lead in the input such a simple pedal

i use a epiphone dot with humbuckers i only use the bridge pickup and a fender hotrod duluxe with a celestion greenback speaker. this is such a stange pedal, with level at twelve and mix and gain at full this pedal is at its weirdest strange wet sounding distortion that can't really be explained at all. should be constantly experimented with sounds good over the top of blues distortion gives it that extra creamy sound this pedal sounds like its name it sounds like prunes and custard

this is one solid pedal definitly use it without a pedal of course its made in NZ so its rugged like most of the stuff that comes from our country.

mr crowther is excelent and will help you with any query or any repairs.

well i play a very specific type of music, if you dont live in auckland or if you've never been at a gig on k'road you wouldn't get it its a strange pedal for strange music, if it were stolen i would definitly maim the person who took it cause i like my pedal i dont want a new one. if you want a listen to the pedal listen to a song by NZ group the datsuns called harmonic-generator it has a solo in it using the pedal. this is one pedal i will always use and tresure it was my first pedal and it won't ever leave my side, if you are looking for that special boutique pedal to go in ur little collection with all you're other "boutique" stuff then this is the pedal for you mr fancy pants

3 knobs, couple of switches but it will take you some time to achieve the sound you want. This is not because it is dificult to use, it's because there is such a variation in sounds you can get from this beast.

I have only just begun buying pedals, so it's straight from my Hohner B-Bass, through the P&C and into the amp. Using the bass's preamp gives more extreme effects, so I would like to get some kind of volume/tone booster in the chain soon.

The sound is somewhere between a fuzz and a fat analog synth. I bought the pedal with a view to using it as an odd distortion for my post rock band, but I hardly use it. In my funk band however, I barely turn it off! It sounds like the crazy noise from the "rhubarb and custard" kids TV show if you remeber that (coincidence - I think not...), for tunes like Herbie Hancocks "cameleon" it sounds amazing. I play in a three piece (keys, bass and drums) and it fills out the sound beatifully.

I can't detect any noise from the pedal, I think it is just overpowered by the crazy sounds.

One thing I would say is DONT BUY THIS TO PLAY GUITAR WITH. Guitars just can't get the best out of this pedal as it sounds shit with chords, and single notes are just weak and warbly. Bassists only (although keyboards and drums would sound pretty cool too...)

Been playing it about 6 months now with no problems. Its pretty solid and is well (hand) built - Paul has signed the circuit board!
No problems gigging without backup, seems fairly light on batteries too.

Never dealt with the company - but I have never read a bad word about Paul or his pedals which speaks for itself.

I would say that for most styles of music you could find a use for this badboy, be it dirty fuzz or monster fat funk tones or anything in between. For the price you pay, you get a unique sound that really gets you noticed, not just some generic boring noise everyone has heard before. I couldn't be without it now, it's such an important part of my sound. I love it to death.

It takes a bit of juggling to find the proper setting, but once you have, you're home free.

At first, you wanna go, "god that's an ugly sound". But after a bit of juggling, you begin to realize that this is a pedal that no one has thought up before - pretty much everything that guitarists use is just a variation on stuff that has been available for the past 25 years. If you set it just right, you can get filter sweeps on single note picking and strange distortion effects that are dynamically dependent on your picking.

just got it

Paul C"rowther has been great with me via email and most of my pestering was done before I put the money down - I was able to buy direct from him at croth@clear.net.nz for $150. He also sell two versions of the Hotcakes.

I was looking for something to delve into bizarre effects with - this box can do that. But it is also capable of good tone. There are not many pedals that can tread water of both lakes simultaneously! I was pleasantly surprised when I was able to set it to not distort, but go into intermodulation when more than one note was played. Also at higher drive settings you can get it to do filter sweeps. This pedal is not for everybody, but it is very unique.

It is a little tricky to achieve the right blend of everything, although the flexibility means that you can have the knobs/switches in all manner of directions and still somehow end up with a good result.

I am undecided whether I like the guitar or bass setting. I am using some LF retention, running the mix at between 10-12 o'clock as per previous reviews. Any more than that and things become messy (a good messy by the way). I usually run the drive about 1-2 o'clock and match the level to my live sound.

I am using both fretted bass (modded Epiphone Ripper with twin Bartolinis) and a fretless (P/J tuned BEAD). The pedal sounds great with both, maybe more so with the fretless, as you can achieve some nice smooth synth sounds, it definitely likes the lower frequencies.

My friend tried it on his guitar and the effect was not as strong, although this was noted in some reviews. What I discovered on low mix/high drive settings was a wonderfully swirly CHUNKY distortion. My mate loved it so much he is considering a Hotcake, or one of these.

Another thing that baffled me was the difference in sound between guitar and bass for a given note. Playing the exact same notes (octaves and all) was very effective on bass, yet for the same pedal settings the guitar did little. An effort was made to match the sounds of guitar and bass at specific intervals, backing off the bass' output made no difference. Is there something here I don't understand about the difference in waveforms between bass and guitar?

The pedal can get slightly noisy on higher drive settings, but hey it is what it is, and the noise only adds to the vibe. I am using a 4x10 and 1x15 live with a Crown K2. My effects board is as follows:
Big Muff -> Bass Whammy -> MXR BlueBox -> MXR M-80 DI -> Prunes + Custard -> Morley Wah -> Chorus

I experimented with pedal placement, and this is about the best so far. Placing the wah before the P+C did little, whilst afterwards allowed another level of filtering. The MXR M-80 is my EQ in a box with distortion, which pumps the signal somewhat. Using the Whammy on octave down and harmonies is pleasant, as is the Big Muff: Phat and Wooly are two words.

I ordered the pedal unheard, I had a sound in my head I hoped it would produce. Funnily enough it isn't far off the mark! It actually exceeds my expectations mainly because it is so damn tactile and responsive to playing style. In some ways it is forcing me to be cleaner and more precise, that way I can get short staccato synth sounds.

I think I can depend on it. I am light on my gear (although the Epi takes a beating) so I can't imagine stomping too hard in bare feet. I will persist without a backup, I have been running cheaper pedals for longer with no failures, so I wouldn't expect a hand crafted work of art such as this to fail.

Paul is very helpful and geniune, a pleasure to deal with.

I play mostly covers at present, which encompasses a very wide range of songs and styles. This baby cops Dub tones through to wild buzzing sweeps, it is not hard to find it a place in quite a few songs.

I love it!