Electric Toad Engineering Bomber Boxx

I've been meaning to get here to review this fuzz. I believe this Bomber Boxx should be more well known, and I'm happy to help you out. I got one of the early green ones -- battery only. Sean offered to upgrade it for me with a barrel plug when I got it off eBay, but I told him not to bother. I've never needed the upgrade. Battery current draw is very low. And it's one less thing to have to power up from a daisy chain.

The BB is NOT your usual fuzztone. Soviet germanium transistors give it a flavor all its own. But it's the circuit that is the real winner here. LEVEL and GAIN, of course. Two tone controls: BRIGHT and SCOOP. Self-explanatory there. Add a 2-way tone switch between WARM and GRIND. Both positions totally usable. Both sound cool. You can dial in just about anything you want from there, depending on what your guitar and amp need to get totally nasty.

The "CHOKE" control is really nice. It's like a noise gate. At the upper reaches of the gain available here, especially with a single-coil guitar, it's a good thing to set and forget. Sure, you can get wacky with it, and choke your input signal with both hands around its neck until its coughing for mercy. But, all in all, it's a practical feature. The only other designer I know of that boasts such a feature is the amazing Zachery Vex. Yeah, that's how cool this guy really is.

Handwired. Well laid out. No muss, no fuss. No planar anomalies or inherent limitations. This baby just goes and goes. I've had it for about six months now, and it's been on my board the whole time. Never any whining or complaints out of this thing -- it just knuckles down and does its job.

I don't really emulate anybody's tone. I wouldn't know where to begin. This is a part of MY rig, used for getting MY tone. Not because I'm such a great player or anything, just because I always sound like me, whether I like it or not (and, usually, that's okay).

I wanted something that wasn't the Same-Old-Same-Old. And this is it. It's so cool that I suspect this puppy will move right up the ranks in popularity, if Sean decides to hang tough. I know I'm not easy to please, and I'm totally cool with this bad-ass Bomber Boxx.

Nothing gets a 10 this side of Rock and Roll Heaven. So this gets a 9.

Effects boxes got it rough. They get kicked around and stomped on as a part of their natural existence. And this thing can take it. I've dropped it a bunch of times. No knobs broke off. Nothing inside jarred loose. If it does need repair, what's easier than a hand-wired circuit? But, so far, it's been tough as nails.

I got a Fulltone '70 for backup, which is what the BB replaced. Don't think I'll ever need the backup, though. Nothing against Mike Fuller, who is a genius in his own right, the Bomber Boxx is more fun. Maybe just because you don't see them every day. Maybe because it has enough volume on tap to blow my Sovtek MIG 60 to bits. Or maybe it's just the totally wild tone of this thing and, at the same time, total control --- it's kinda like having a big mean Pit Bull that will heel on command. No leash. No stick. No raw liver. It just obeys cuz it's a good boy. Yeah...that's what the Bomber Boxx is like.

Sean is a great guy. Since he's still on the ground floor of the industry, and he's also a very nice person, he's more than willing to rectify any problem that might arise. Of course, he probably knows that nothing is going to hurt this thing, unless you run over it with the van or accidentally set your house on fire with the Bomber Boxx in it (neither of which are in my immediate plans).

If I did need service, no doubt Sean could fix this thing with his eyes closed. I had to ask and, yes, he's got prototypes all over the place. He did the work and got it right. And he knows every component inside this thing by heart.

I play mostly blues, but I will rock out when a situation calls for it. When it comes time to do the Jimi thing, I'm glad I got the Bomber Boxx to make things happen. It always delivers. And it loves its job. It never fails. It just gets the job done.

I've never changed the battery in six months. The tongue-test tells me the 9-volt is still strong. I can't figure it out. It's just a part of Sean's mojo-magic-mastery of circuitry that makes my guitar sing like a nasty-ass angel or rawk like its puking its guts out.

I've been playing forever. I'm older than your dad. When I started, Liverpool was something you had to clean out of your refrigerator. I was cutting my chops on Mike Bloomfield about the same time Clapton and everybody else was doing so. That's why we all had Les Pauls.

Well, we're mostly Strat guys now. And without a trusty germanium assassin on the payroll, you're just duking it out with a million other guys. This box is the new standard by which all others should be judged. And it's NOT two or three bills...yet...but, if you wait long enough before you pop for one of these babies, they will be. I've seen it happen before.

It's nastier and at the same time it's more easily tamed than the Fulltone '70 that got kicked off my board by this puppy. But I already said that.

All in all, it's got the goods. And I was around when Mike Matthews introduced the LPB-1 and we all scratched our heads. What? You plug it in where? Why? Oh...I see...

At the other end of that multi-decades-long curve, there is Sean and his Bomber Boxx. He knows what he's got. I know what I've got. If you ask me, you oughta find out for yourself. Yeah, it's that good.

Super easy. The only thing that might trip you up is the "choke", which is basically a gate. I love this feature! You can set it to a mid point where is only lets through some of the signal depending on how hard you play. So you get a chopped up, "choking" sound.

I use a Parker Nite Fly with DiMarzio pickups into a Fender SuperSonic 60 watt, single speaker Celestion Vintage 30. I was looking for a fuzz box that would have a total over the top fuzz sound. I searched for "fuzz box" on ebay and bid on this based on nothing other than its looks and various descriptions online. It was exactly what I was looking for. One of the sounds I wanted was like The Raconteurs song, "Salute Your Solution" at the breakdown with just guitar at 1:47. You need a filter effect as well, but I love that broken up, over the top fuzz sound that Jack White has. Keep in mind, this will make things noisy when you aren't playing if the choke is open. I crank the gain all or almost all the way up with the switch set to "Warm". The "Grind" setting will get you more of a distorion pedal sound that I haven't messed with much, so I won't comment on that. But you can definitely get some variety out of this box. Playing leads with this pedal are super sweet.

WARNING IF YOU HAVE ONE OF THE FIRST 20 MADE (a green pedal).

The first 20 of these pedals were green and now if you buy one they are black. The black ones have a 9 volt connection so you don't have to use a battery, the green ones do not. I made the mistake of buying one of those 9 volt battery to barrel cables and when I plugged it into my pedal board, I shorted out something...serious bummer. I wasn't paying attention to the fact that the positive/negative of the pedal's power was reversed from what boss pedals (most pedals are). But I emailed the creator of this fuzz masterpiece and was given some serious customer support. See below...

So after I shorted out the pedal, I emailed Electric Toad to see about getting it fixed. Sean was extremely helpful and took care of me by fixing the pedal and installing a 9 volt connector on my pedal so I don't have to put a battery in it. He took care of me for a very fair price and now I have my sweet fuzz pedal back in action. During this down time I started looking for similar pedals with similar hand built components and features like the choke and the Warm/Grind switch. The cheapest thing out there was going to run me at least $150. You can get this pedal brand new for $100! Probably because its just this one guy doing everything. Its a great deal.

I play rock/funk/alt rock and I love using this pedal with an envelope filter or wah pedal in front of it. I would definitely buy another if I lost it. I almost did when I broke it.

When I think of "ease of use", it's not a matter of how quickly I can dial in a tone, it's more about how easy it is to establish it's capabilities. I prefer pedals to be more difficult to work with, as in have more functions hidden beneath the ideal timbre it's meant to create. The Bomber Boxx is definitely one of those.

I don't just throw 10s out there, out of my fuzz collection, only a few I would give tens, one being the Diceworks Finale, which is about a 1/3 of the price higher retail. The quality shows, this pedal has an incredible amount of versatility in it, along with some innovative features. This is my first germanium diode, all others have been silicon, which I had been led to believe were heavier. The Bomber Boxx takes them all down, you can scoop the mids, brighten it up for clarity, and bring the choke up (BEST IDEA EVER) to allow for more definition, bringing some hands down serious industrial tone of thick proportions. But it can also be tailored back, the grind/warm switch is very useful, allowing it to still be heavy in warm mode, but with more clarity still. Notably, this fuzz is the only one that I have found with a mid scoop, brighten knob, and as said, the choke, which is brilliant, going all the way leads to more synth like tones, which sounds very good with other effects. Working with the bright and scoop knobs leads to a variety of other different combinations along with the grind/warm switch. Excellent, excellent work.

Feels solid, knobs feel tight, looks like a good build. Judging by the sound quality, doubt any frills were cut construction wise. Haven't gigged or had it that long, but I think it will hold fine.

I dealt directly on ebay with the maker, who was an immediate replier and very thorough, a sign of someone who knows how to operate a business and make his buyers feel welcome. Very nice guy.

Once again, not many tens thrown out there. Keep an eye out for Electric Toad Engineering, this guy knows what he's doing.

The functions on this pedal work very easily, and it comes with a manual that suggests some helpful user settings.

This is a versatile, smooth fuzz pedal that uses soviet era germanium transistors.

I am using a 70's Lawsuit Lori/Strat Copy with a Humbucker JB in the Bridge. I can get a really good fuzz/distortion out of this guy..think big muff meets fuzz face for dinner, and has a metalhead baby.

Here are the knobs:

Level, Choke, Gain, Bright, Scoop, and a Warm/Grind voicing option.

Level - The Level knob allows you the oppertunity to lower or noticeably boost the pedal over your dry signal.

Choke - A key feature with this pedal is the choke knob which acts as a gate. If you set him up to the middle, you can get rid of unwanted noise from heavy sustain. Cranking this guy delivers some unique Robot like effects that I hadn't heard in another pedal.

Gain - The gain will take you anywhere from a bluesy overdrive to thrashy metal. The higher the gain, the more the treble comes through.

Bright - The bright knob will help add highs and presence to your tone.

Scoop - This knob will scoop your mids if you're looking for that metal sound.

Warm/Grind - I find the Warm voicing to come over heavy and chunky in low end..like a big muff, while the grind voicing kind of reminds me of that Boss DS-1 tone.

I haven't had any problems with it.

I've talked to the owner of Electric Toad Engineering. He seems to take great pride in his work and cares about the quality of his pedals. If I ran into trouble, I'm sure I'd be in good hands.

I've been playing guitar for 15 years now and have played with dozens of Distortion pedals. This pedal seems to have the variety you need to capture the tone that you'll find in most of them. If you take your time with this baby you'll find out just what settings satisfies and compliments your playing.