Crowther Audio Hotcake

The unit has two knobs and one switch....not rocket science. I just hooked it up and kicked it on with both knobs at 12:00 and it sounded wonderful. It is very easy to use. I have the newer model with the a/c jack on the side.

My rig consists of a Tele>>>>Z Vex Super-Hard-On>>>>Hotcake>>>>Klon Centaur>>>>custom loop box (with Fender Blender or Roland Beebaa)>>>>Z Vex Seek Wah>>>>custom loop box (with Boss DD-5 or MXR Analog Delay)>>>>into either a Blackface Fender Vibroverb w/15 or Matchless DC-30. With this setup I have many degrees of drive from using the overdrives either on their own or in combination with others. Some of the more insane sounds come from compounding gain on top of more gain or even gain on top of fuzz. I use the Klon to give me a very pristine boost while the Hotcake gives a very nice low end girth to the overall tone. The Hotcake is really a no-brainer and I usually run it with the volume at about 1:00, drive at about 2:30-3:00, and with the switch set to the "normal" setting. The Hotcake does not need other overdrives pedals to accompany it, however. It has a huge, warm sound that falls somewhere between a Big Muff and a Tube Screamer while at the same time retaining a good sense of clarity and never flabbing out. Also if you turn the Volume knob all the way up you can tweak the drive knob to the desired amount of clean boost. It has a very, very nice clean boost. You can get some very nice mushy tones by turning the drive all the way up. At this point it gets pretty fuzzy, but is still a very thick and usable sound. The Hotcake reacts very nicely with all of the other effects in my chain and my amps seem to love the frequencies that this pedal pushes out.

I haven't really had it very long, so I'm not totally sure how reliable it is. I figure innocent until proven guilty.

Haven't had to support the product yet, but have heard only wonderful things about "The Crow".

I play in a primarily rock band with some country-esqe trimmings and this pedal is a perfect match for this type of music. Like I said, this pedal is really a no-brainer. Plug it in and go. It is a wonderfully made pedal that sounds great and is easy to set. What more could a musician ask for. If I lost mine or if it were stolen, I would surely get another one.

This stompbox is extremely easy to operate. Two knobs and one small mid frequency lift switch encased in a light beige MXR style box. Level and Drive are the two main parameters which are fairly self explanatory. The most interesting thing about this box is the different ways to combine these parameters to get different types of distortion and overdrive.
It will run on either a 9 volt battery or if it is recent, a 9 volt power supply.

I am using the Hotcake in conjunction with an Ibanez TS9, Crowther Audio Prunes And Custard, Ibanez FL9 Flanger, MXR Dyna Comp, Electro Harmonix Small Stone, Digitech Whammy and a Boss Delay, through a Fender 1965 reissue Twin Reverb. A customised Telecaster is my main guitar. One of the great things about the Hotcake is that it sounds good on pretty much any guitar (and many other instruments for that matter), and that it responds well with other units. For example, I use my TS9 as my distortion and the Hotcake as a booster for solos. This adds a richer sound with the mid switch on too.
Of all my effects pedals (which are mostly analogue) this would have to be one of the quietest. You dont even hear the switching, and the tone of the guitar is intact as it has true bypass.
This pedal has an extermely wide range of tones, from British crunch (a la Radiohead, Blur, and Oasis) to American rock (Aerosmith et al).

The only repairs I have had done on my Hotcake has been a replaced switch. If I had enough money, I would not hesitate to buy a backup.

I rang Paul here in New Zealand to get the switch fixed and he did the repair free of charge. He was helpful with my mundane enquiries and his service was quick and efficient.

I play melodic pop-rock and it is perfectly suited to this style of music. As I play quite aggressively (I am NOT a shredder) the Hotcake responds well to how you attack it, whilst still retaining your original guitar tone. At NZ$250 this may seem expensive but price is paid for in tone and simplicity. Just ask Blur, Oasis, Pavement, Sonic Youth and Neil Finn!

this box has 2 knobs, level and drive + a switch for normal and mid-lift.it took me a little while to get the sound i wanted, and there seems to be no difference between normal and midlift unless the box is first in the effects loop. it is just a high gain fuzzbox/overdrive, not complicated!

i think this fuzz box has a cool sound to it. it is not a normal fuzz though, more like an overdrive with a lot of fuzziness to it. i compare its sound to a rat, and not a big muff. it does not have the sonic impact of the great big muff and is not as harsh. with chords, the sound is very thick and fuzzy. it sounds like someone overdived an amp to the max, then put its output very low on a pre-amp. this sound is chewy, not pure crunch, because it has that amount of fuzz.this characteristic makes it very similar to an original big box rat. when used for lead i compare the sound to a tubescreamer. it is very smooth, and very loud. it has lots of clarity, yet lots of gain. i think it sounds even better than my modified tubescreamer. the midlift makes leads sound better. i used to use an ada mp-1 preamp for all my lead sounds untill i bought this box. when it is in normal mode, it has that great raunchy chewy rythym sound. and it is not as loud. pavement uses this box, and sonic youth, becuase of its cool snarl. the cool thing about this pedal is it can be used as a fuzz box, a rythym distortion, and a smooth solo enhancer without adjusting the knobs. i get all these sounds by putting it on midlift, turning the level knob all most all the way to the right, and the drive around 3 o clock. you dont have to make any adjustments to the box, just play, and the box will fit your sound. i believe this pedal is great for hendix style stuff, blues, alternative, and classic cock.

the pedal must be very reliable, it is in a mxr style box. the components look good and safe, i am pleased. but who knows.

dont know

i really enjoy playing with this pedal. usually i like to play foxey lady with it and other songs with that vibe. i reall thing its a great pedal.

Can't get much easier. The 2 way tone switch is great for getting different tones. The volume boost is great and the drive can go from subtle to full out metal mania.

This pedal rocks! I hardly use my Fulldrive II. The Hot Cake can get many different tones, all useable. Its pretty quiet, as far as distortion units go.

So far so good. I've emailed Paul a lot, I think he is a gentleman who would stand behind his product.

Paul is very prompt with his emails if you have a question.

This pedal is what I have been looking for! I play all styles but I am fairly aggressive, although I am not a shredder. This thing sound great through my Grosh strat w/Fralins or my JB strat w/Duncan Classic Stacks. I run it through a Matchless and a Victoria. This pedal really stands out well in a loud band context, which is my criteria. It can get a great Landua/Lukather tone. What a great product! I want to get another so I can use 2 different tones. Go buy one now, you won't be disappointed.

Like most distortion pedals, this is very easy to use. It has two knobs, a level and drive, and it has a mid boost switch wich boosts the upper mids, allowing the pedal to cut through the band.
It came with a short letter describing the pedals functions. Hardly necessary as it really is a simple wee pedal.
It is impossible to get a bad sound out of this as ALL knob settings are very useable.

I play a Fender Tele through a Boss CS3 sustain, into a Fulltone Fulldrive, into the Hotcake and into a Fender Blues Deville amp. In the loop I'm running a Boss DD3 delay.
The Hotcake by itself is very very quiet. If you have the Fulldrive on boost mode before the hotcake then it gets too noisy, but you can back off the hotcakes distortion a little and the noise dissapears.
The hotcake seems to be very transparent. If you have the drive down and the volume up with the mid boost switch to normal, there is nochange in the tone of the guitar, just a good clean volume boost.
This pedal does have a lot of bass response with the drive turned up, I guess this is similar to a Big Muff, I don't know, I've never played one of them.

Haven't had it for long, but it looks solid. I won't give a rating for this as I haven't had it long enough to know.

Paul Crowther seems like a nice guy. All of my emails were answered promptly and I was offered a money back garauntee if I decided the pedal wasn't what I was looking for.

I have recently bought a Fulltone Fuldrive, and I'm beginning to wonder whether I shouldn't have just bought two of these hotcake things. The hotcake has more gain when turned up but when it's turned down it is cleaner than the Fulldrive, I think it's more versatile. I would definitely buy another if it was stolen, I think I may buy another any way.

Manufacturer's Response to review submitted on 27 Feb '98. With regard to the abovmentioned review which has been drawn to my attention, I feel compelled to advise that some comments made are simply erroneous. Assuming that the pedal is correctly connected between the guitar and the amplifier, and not into a high-level effects loop, there should be plenty of volume boost available, like +10dB (double volume)with the drive at MINIMUM and the level full. The reviewer also mentions the lack of any tone control. Every Hotcake made in the last 20 years has a tone boost switch. I can only assume from some of the comments included in the review that the second-hand Hotcake reviewed has a low battery, is faulty, is over 20 years old, or all three! The review was made anonymously, but if the submitter should see this response, I would be most grateful if they could contact me at my Email address so I can get any problems sorted out, or write to me at: PO Box 96-104, Balmoral, Auckland 1030, New Zealand.

I thought I'd pass on my first impressions of the Crowther Audio 'Hotcake' distortion pedal I picked up last week. I've tried both it at home at low volume and at rehearsal at band volume and have a fairly good feel for the pedal now. The final verdict isn't in yet but I wanted to let everyone know what the first pass sounded like.

First some background. This pedal is only available direct from the manufacturer, Crowther Audio in New Zealand at a cost of $125 US. Duty and tax, of course, are on top of that. I got mine used so I saved a little.

The box itself is a slightly smaller version of an MXR Compressor. One switch and two controls, level and gain. No tone control.

When I first got it, the gain control seemed to be working intermittently. If I put some pressure on the top of the gain knob though, it worked just fine. Must be some sort of loose connection. I opened up the case and had a peek at the guts. No visible problem. Everything inside looked well assembled and well designed to my untrained eye. A little crowded, but not too bad. A large blob of epoxy encased a penny matchbook sized board of components which I assumed was to keep the secret ingredient a secret from copy artists and home electronics hobbyists. I've seen this in the Klon Centaur too, and if thatUs what it takes to keep from getting ripped off, so be it. The electronics claw (g). I reassembled it and tried backing off the retainer nut on the gain pot. Bingo! It had been over tightened and was causing a short in the pot. Problem solved.

I tried it out at home first. I used a Strat through the Hotcake into my Matchless Lightning 2x10. It sounded great. I set the Matchless for a clean sound, master up full and the volume at 10 o'clock, bass up full and treble around 12 o'clock. At low gain on the Hotcake I got an nice blues growl. I jammed along with Duane Allman playing on Boz Skaggs' 'Somebody Loan Me a Dime' and copped that sound nearly perfectly. I dimed the gain and played along with Govt. Mule doing 'Gonna Send You Back to Georgia' from the Hound Dog Taylor tribute album. I used my slide guitar of course, a Strings and Things Strat copy loaded with EMG SA's. The pedal nailed Warren Haynes massively overdriven sound. I felt like I just hit two out of the park. If it worked this well at band volume I was going to order another as a spare.

Well, now the bad news. At high volume with an already overdriven amp (my 58 Bassman) the high gain settings on the Hotcake get mushy and soft. There's just too much treble cut at high gain. If the pedal had a tone control you might be able to compensate. Next I tried cutting the gain and turning up the level to get a volume boost only. This is the kind of thing my Klon does better than any pedal made. But with the gain cut on the Hotcake and the level turned up full the volume boost wasn't quite enough to jump my solos out of the mix. The tone of the pedal was great but it just wasn't loud enough. Some where between these two extremes there's bound to be a sweet spot but I didn't take the time to find it last night. I pulled out my Bixonic to re-calibrate my ears and never got around to bringing back the Hotcake. The one great thing I noticed at high volumes is that the switch they used on the Hotcake is the quietest I've ever heard. Absolutely silent - even with your amp dimed. Not even a mechanical clunk!

So, the sound of the pedal is great. It may even be the best I've tried. You can go from a warm T-Bone Walker growl to a Duane Allman bite on to a Warren Haynes scream with the gain knob. The downside is that with an already distorted amp the high gain settings get too bassy for my ears. And the clean boost doesn't have enough oomph to jump your solos out of a band mix. In terms of tone alone, the Hotcake easily matches my Klon and Bixonic and maybe even surpasses them (!) but in terms of usability it falls far short. If Crowther was to add a tone knob and increase the amount of volume boost heUd

I've never heard of a single-function pedal that's hard to use, is there one? Pretty much any setting will sound fine with this thing, as it is damn near impossible to get a bad sound out of it.

This pedal can achieve incredible gain, yet it is not noisy in the sense that you can hear every single note, even at the maximum drive setting. Very versatile in that you can make your sound as fucked-up as you want or as understated and beautiful as you want. I would recommend it for most styles of rock, except for heavy-metal (as you would probably opt for the BOSS Heavy Metal pedal for the extremely rad Slayer sound). I use the Hot Cake through my fender twin reverb and it is just pure Hendrix/Stones magic! I read an article where S.MALKAMUS from Pavement stated this pedal is like a BIG MUFF that clips. I agree.

I have always used "old, unreliable, noisy" pedals, so for some reason, the Hot Cake is probably the least of my worries in the reliability department. Though this pedal doesn't look as durable as a BOSS, I would still depend on this thing.

I don't forsee this as being a problem, as P.CROWTHER seems very friendly and helpful.

I COMMAND YOU TO BUY THIS PEDAL!!! NOW!!!

The Hotcake is extremely easy to use, with just "Drive" and "Level" controls and an on/off button with a true bypass feature so not to muck up your sound when bypassed.

I got a nice Stevie Ray tone out of it with the dials set at the 11:00 and 12:00 positions. The unit is very quiet in operation. I am currently using it with a Victoria Amp Company 4-10. Think mild to wild, and everything in between.

I did have a problem with it not working properly at first, so I sent it back to Paul in New Zealand. Not to worry, his customer service is beyond excellent. I had a new unit back in my hands in about one week. Since then, it has been extremely trouble-free. I would not hesitate to use it on any gig without a backup.

Customer support is as good as it gets! As I mentioned above, I got to test this out personally. Paul "passed the test" in a big way. As mentioned above, I did have a problem with it when I first got it. I sent it back for repairs and received it back in about one week. Paul charged me nothing for the repair, and even sent it back to me "expensive" express so I'd have it faster.

I mainly play blues and rock. This pedal is indispensable. I own a custom made Gmp Guitar with Tom Holmes pickups that is absolutely gorgeous. I also have a 1967 Epiphone Regent Stereo. My amp, as stated above, is a beautiful Victoria Amp Company 4-10 with about 35 watts. (Buddy Guy uses the same one!) If my Hotcake were lost or stolen, I would immediately purchase another one. I've tried many distortion pedals, and nothing comes close for naturalness. I love the sound. I don't much care for the bland (dirty cream) color. I did compre the Hotcake to a DOD distortion pedal. The Hotcake is the clear winner, it provides nice overtones and a richness that the DOD lacked. It helps me make music, and gets out of the way. Lastly, my best advice to any guitarist seeking a great distortion pedal is to buy one without delay.