Stomp Under Foot Hellephant

[Kit Rae]

I got to test drive the Stomp Under Foot Hellephant fuzz when the SUF tour box came my way a few days back. One of the better Fuzz Face type pedals I have played. The Hellephant is a simple two knob fuzz - volume and contour - but quite different from a standard Fuzz Face clone. Matt at SUF said he found the gain knob on a Fuzz useless so he settled on a sweet spot and then added contour pot to that. The contour colors the tone as well as adding gain, not just a gain control like a typical fuzz. It is not crazy with over the top crunched white noise fuzz, but more of a smooth, articulate and tamed fuzz. It still gets pretty intense with the contour maxed, but it has a nice, articulate bluesy feel to the tone, like some of the older Clapton tones. Fuzz with warmth is the best way to describe it.

With the contour at 50% or less it gets close to some vintage Fuzz Face, medium gain tones, but with it maxed it has a nice warmth to the high gain. It makes a bridge pickup on a strat almost sound like the neck pickup, but still keeps some of the attack you get from the neck. I found it really unique amongst the different fuzz pedals I have own and I did not find anywhere in the contour knob sweep that was not usable. If fact, I had a hard time settling on a tone to record some clips because I kept changing my mind about where I like it best.

I have several other fuzz pedals - the Analogman BC108 silicon Sunface, which is a straight vintage silicon Fuzz Face clone, a modern germanium Fuzz Face, and the Skreddy Lunar Module, which is a modified fuzz, tuned to somewhat Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon era fuzz tones. Each have their own different characteristics, but the Helle stood out uniquely amongst them. Fuzz Faces can be very noisy at full gain, but I found the Hellephant was quiet but still had some dirt. Much less noise than my Fuzz Face, Lunar and Sunface. The circuits in my Fuzz Face and Sunface fuzz pedals pick up radio stations if the volume and gain are not maxed. I did not find this with the Hellephant. Traditional fuzz face type pedals really need to go in the front of the signal chain to sound the best because of the way the circuit works with the guitar circuit as a complete unit, but it did not seem to matter where I put the Helle in in my signal chain. It sounded good up front, or in the middle of my Big Muffs and overdrives. I tested it with a battery and DC jack - sounded good with either, but I prefer the battery.

The enclosure is a standard size, about like a Boss. Paint job, circuit, solder, and wiring inside all look to be top notch, like the other two SUF pedals that I own, the VRH and CWM. Matt has these for $109 of his website. Far, far below what I paid for the Sunface or the Lunar.

Here are a few clips. I'm a Gilmour nut, so it's all Floyd stuff. Here's the Hellephant with some delay from an MXR Carbon Copy. Contour knob set about 60%. Strat bridge pickup into a Fender Twin.
http://www.kitrae.net/music/Hellipha...Copy_Delay.mp3

Here's the same with the contour at 100%. Still the bridge pickup. Beautiful tone!
http://www.kitrae.net/music/Hellepha...l_countour.mp3


I also tested out the SUF Halo Bender, which is a sort of a fuzzy distortion/overdrive type pedal. It had a nice , chunky feel to the tone. I'm sort of burned out on that type of pedal, so it is not fair for me to give it a worthy review, plus there is already a good review review on the SUF tour box thread. I thought I would try something different so I tested it as a booster for my Big Muffs and the Hellephant and discovered they work very well together. Here's a clip messing around with the Halo and Helle. The Helle contour is one max and the Halo gain is set about 40%. This was a much cooler sound than I get from a vintage fuzz face or Sunface on max gain. Puts the Helle into the over the top area like vintage fuzz, but articultae. The warm fuzz characteristics of the Helle really get amplified over the top, but not altered. Love it.
http://www.kitrae.net/music/Hellipha..._Boost%201.mp3

Kit

[j4j]

Clips sound great!

j4j

[Bazaboy33]

Kit, you're the man. So is Matt, but that kinda goes without saying. I am in the midst of my honeymoon period with my VRH, which rocks BTW, and am also contemplating purchasing the Hellephant. Although, I should be getting the call for a Timmy shortly...maybe... Neither here nor there, except where available funds may be concerned. Anyway...

At first I was lukewarm on the Hellephant (Oh man, another fuzz face copy...), but the more sound samples I hear and the more I compare it to other fuzz face clones, the more I seem to crave one. It seems like it could cover a lot of ground despite only having two knobs. Here is the question...How well does it clean up with the guitar's volume knob??? Can you coax those sparkly tones from the Hellephant? Nice clips, BTW.

[mattpas]

Kit,
Thanks for the great review and clips.
I appreciate you taking part in the tour box and the time reviewing them.

[Kit Rae]

Originally Posted by Bazaboy33

Here is the question...How well does it clean up with the guitar's volume knob??? Can you coax those sparkly tones from the Hellephant? Nice clips, BTW.

I thought the cleanup was pretty good. About the same as my Lunar Module, a bit better than my Sunface. I don't have a treble bleed mod on mys strat, so they are going to sound bit similar anyway to me. I really liked the neck pickup tone with the guitar volume cut and the Helle contour maxed.

[Bazaboy33]

Cool. That is what I needed to know...One by one the competition fall by the wayside...

[mattpas]

Kit, as with the other clips, I am stealing these!

[Kit Rae]

No problem. I had a better clip showing the full tone range, but I was having so much fun jamming with the pedal that I accidentally recorded over it with the Money solo clip!

[mattpas]

Originally Posted by Kit Rae

No problem. I had a better clip showing the full tone range, but I was having so much fun jamming with the pedal that I accidentally recorded over it with the Money solo clip!

That's happened to me many times. I really like the Hellephant with a Tele neck picup with full contour.
I put the Money clip on the site.

[SUPROficial]

Originally Posted by Bazaboy33

At first I was lukewarm on the Hellephant (Oh man, another fuzz face copy...), but the more sound samples I hear and the more I compare it to other fuzz face clones, the more I seem to crave one. It seems like it could cover a lot of ground despite only having two knobs. Here is the question...How well does it clean up with the guitar's volume knob??? Can you coax those sparkly tones from the Hellephant?

I just got mine today so all I've had the chance to do is play it at "home" volumes but I can tell you right away that to call it "a Fuzz Face copy" does NOT do it justice. You can get some very FF-like sounds out of it but it also ventures into thick/smooth realms that a stock FF won't get close to. My initial impression is that it won't clean up as much (or as quickly) as a silicon FF w/ its fuzz knob set most of the way up, but there is still a lot of subtle variation available with the guitar's volume knob and it will get "almost clean but still crispy"...also it doesn't pick up obscure staticy ethnic dance music and talk radio the way my FF does when I roll my volume down, nor does it get muffled and muddy. I just haven't found any "sparkly" tones yet.
This is my second SUF pedal and it just confirms my initial impression that Matt is a very cool guy who makes an excellent product. Can't wait to crank it up LOUD and really put it to the test!

[SUPROficial]

On second thought, after playing with it some more, I take back what I said about it not cleaning up as much as a silicon Fuzz Face. I just compared them (cranked the fuzz knob on the FF and then backed it off just enough to kill the hiss, various "contour" settings on the Hellephant) and my first impression was wrong, the only way the FF cleans up better is with the fuzz control at 3 o'clock or so, and by then the FF becomes much bassier and woolier. The Hellephant seems brighter and without the wooly bass (the difference becomes VERY noticeable when you crank the output volume and smack some life into your amp...I think I just gave the neighbors a heart attack), it comes across as more articulate when you crank the guitar volume and if anything it retains the guitar's natural qualities better when you roll the volume down. Because it is less tubby in the lows it works better with non-Fender pickups than the FF.
They both clean up better when you compare through an amp that is already overdriven enough to take the buzzy edge of the fuzz off when you roll the guitar volume down, but with the Hellephant it seems even more drastic, so I'd say my initial observation was wrong. My telecaster seems more "sparkly" with the Hellephant than the Fuzz Face when I roll the volume down, it just becomes much more apparent when the amp is turned up louder.

[Bazaboy33]

Much appreciated Supro...I may just have to pick one up post-Timmy purchase...What is your other SUF???

[SUPROficial]

Originally Posted by Bazaboy33

Much appreciated Supro...I may just have to pick one up post-Timmy purchase...What is your other SUF???

It is a "Green Russian" Muff which is just unbelievably good.
The soundclips on the website really don't do either pedal justice, I'm afraid.

[mattpas]

Originally Posted by SUPROficial

It is a "Green Russian" Muff which is just unbelievably good.
The soundclips on the website really don't do either pedal justice, I'm afraid.

Thanks for the great review on the Hellephant.
By the way, I would gladly accept any sound clips you would be willing to submit for the site.

[SUPROficial]

Originally Posted by mattpas

Thanks for the great review on the Hellephant.
By the way, I would gladly accept any sound clips you would be willing to submit for the site.

It may be a while before I get to do it, but you can bet that it'll be featured prominently on future recordings.
If you want to use any of the stuff on my myspace page, by all means feel free - the Green Muff is all over those tunes. I'm just not sure my sloppy-ass playing is a big selling point haha.
If you want the mp3s I can send them to you.