Pedal Review: SUF Hellephant (with pics!)

[wundergussy]

I’ll be honest: I am normally disappointed by my pedals. I will spend weeks reading about one, get all psyched, scrounge up some dough or trade off another pedal I’ve convinced myself I no longer like, all to find myself underwhelmed. The problem is I expect a certain sound/tone/feeling from my head to be conveyed through someone else’s work and ideas of tone/sound/etc. When I do find a pedal that lives up to my own mental hype, it’s something to celebrate. The Stomp Under Foot Hellephant is such a pedal.

I’ve probably been through more dirt pedals than any other type, especially fuzz. It’s a tricky thing, since I think every guitar player has his own idea about what a fuzz “should” sound like. A lot of it is feeling. And the Hellephant is all about feeling. It rewards emotional playing, because it is such a natural effect. Play lightly with your volume down a bit, and your sound is overdriven with a hair of crackling around the edges. Dig in with your volume up on a bridge pickup and you’ll find yourself unconsciously smiling at the sound coming out of your amp. FUZZ, but again, very organic. This is not the fuzz of a Big Muff, or a Devi Ever-type oscillating noise-machine. This is the kind of fuzz Duane Allman made on Fillmore East just by cranking the living hell out of a Marshall bass amp, or Hound Dog Taylor got by cranking cheap low-wattage tube amps and playing the shit out of them. It’s a joy.

This is supposedly based on a Fuzz Face circuit, but Matt decided that the gain control on a FF was useless, so he’s tuned the gain to what he considers the sweet spot and has added a “contour” knob. That and volume is all you get. And it’s all you need. The sweet spot selected is perfect, and again, you’re not stuck with one level of fuzz. This pedal responds very well to your volume knob, pickup selection, and dynamics. Also, the contour knob is great. It’s useable anywhere on the dial, and essentially adds or takes away smoothness and sustain. All the way to the left makes the fuzz more crunchy and overdrive-like. All the way to the right and it is a very musical sustain; again, not quite a muff, but getting to that end of things. I like to leave the contour around 11-1, which allows me more freedom to go from one end to the other with my playing. But truth be told, I’ve been playing barefoot lately just so I can twist this knob with my toe! You wouldn’t expect a two-knob pedal to invite such twiddling, but since every sound in this sparkly-red box is awesome, it’s hard not to want it all.

At first I was stacking other overdrives in front of it, and this pedal does play well with others, but for the past two days I’ve been playing with it exclusively and just loving my tone. I’ll maybe kick another OD on just for a bit of lead boost, but again, you can achieve the same thing with your volume knob. This is a very well-designed pedal that has really just been inspiring me to play. I’m sure all the pedals around it will switch in and out as I get finicky and restless, but the Hellephant is here to stay.

If your interested, I play a PAF-equipped Les Paul into a Bassman 50 head (with 6V6s) and an over-sized 2x12 cab. Unlike a lot of FF-type pedals, the Hellephant sounds good at high AND low volumes. I should also mention that Matt is probably the most customer-oriented builder I’ve ever dealt with (I’ve bought two pedals from him so far, and he responds to each and every e-mail quickly and in detail).

[skunx]

Great review. I think the less knobs the better. I might actually like this fuzz face.

[roknfnrol]

I'm pretty sure I am going to buy one of these.

[Bobby D]

SUF seems to be builder to watch!

been interested in trying one of those big muff style fuzzes he makes...

[Whiskey N Beans]

Great review. Thanks (well not for the G.A.S.). I've been eyeing SUF's Hellephant and Halo Bender with great interest. What's worse is they appear to sound GREAT together.

[SUPROficial]

I have Hellephant #10. Freakin' awesome sounding fuzz.

[wundergussy]

I should also mention I have an SUF Op-Amp muff and am receiving a Violet Ram's Head this week. I LOVE SUF pedals! My goal is to track down a Mean Green Machine and have all of my dirt pedals be SUF. I can't recommend enough.

[Lucidology]

Interesting pedal ...