Guitar World Verdict
While a lot of pedals utilize the Marshall Bluesbreaker as a basis and develop the style with additional centers, the Spruce Goose's specific slant on that uses genuine versatility at a workable cost point.
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Selectable Lift alternatives.
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Strong EQ.
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Short-lived footswitch operation.
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Absolutely nothing, unless you do not like the idea of getting rid of 4 screws to alter the battery …
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The current addition to EHX's comprehensive variety of overdrive pedals, the Spruce Goose, is based upon the pedal circuitry of Marshall's Bluesbreaker. Here, nevertheless, it extends the function set beyond the just recently reissued initial to consist of an option of 3 input gain settings, extra output and broadened EQ.
The pedal's input gain alternatives are accessed by means of a Lift toggle switch that has low, medium and high settings that gradually struck the input to its drive circuitry harder.
At its low setting, you can begin with a perfectly transparent tidy increase with the Volume knob set to the high and lower settings of the Gain knob. Advancing the Gain knob will take you through some early split noises and natural low-level drive.
The Bass and Treble knobs are large range and can put in rather an impact on the total tone, dialling in what you require to finest fit your pickups and amp. The Bass is proficient at including a little girth to single coils, while the Treble knob requires to be set properly to match the Gain setting.
Lower positions of the Gain knob gain from upping the Treble knob, while advancing the Gain knob not just shows up the gain however increases top-end existence– something that you might want to tone down.
(Image credit: Future/ Phil Barker)
The low Lift setting might be factor enough to purchase the pedal, however you likewise get medium and high positions that include 9dB and 21dB respectively, and the resultant additional gain and compression can introduce a series of driven amp tones for continual singing leads.
The Spruce Goose stacks well with other pedals, too, with lots of choices in how you press things up a level, and there's a great touch in the pedal's footswitch enabling short-lived engagement of the result in addition to basic locking operation.
While locking operation is performed with a push-and-release till the switch clicks, you can simply push it down to make the impact active for as long as you have your foot on it. When you've got the controls correct, it can be helpful for stressing a passage or tipping things over the edge to produce harmonics/feedback.
