Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Pros: The Flanger Hoax is an amazingly cool delayed phaser/flanger effect that's really fun to play around with and has a plethora of awesome tones (I'm not going to try and describe all the weird, funky, spacy effects you can get out of here -- I'd recommend checking out a Youtube vid or two to get a better idea). With 9 knobs and 4 toggle switches, there is a LOT to play around with on this stompbox. There are enough different settings and sounds you can coax out of this pedal to keep you occupied for quite awhile, which really adds to its inherent value, in my opinion. However, it also means that this pedal does have a steeper learning curve than most one- to three-knobbers, so keep that in mind. If you've messed around with a modulation pedals, you'll find yourself in pretty familiar territory, but it is ill-advised to pick this pedal up the afternoon of a gig and expect to get it all squared away in an hour or two. You're going to have to pay your dues to play the blues on this pedal.
Cons: Unfortunately, your dues don't end there. Immediately after plugging this effect in and cranking up my amp, the FH starting hissing something fierce. I'm not talking sweep either, I mean a hiss. A loud, constant, obnoxious, un-changing hiss. I actually had to turn it off and put it down a couple hours after getting the pedal because it was giving me a headache listening to the constant hiss. I know EHX's mantra of "pedals are meant to be noisy," or whatever, and I can dig that an off-the-wall phaser will have a little noise, but when the hiss renders the pedal nigh unusable, that's not a mantra as much as a cop-out. I'd be interested to know if that hiss was the result of not wanting to limit the pedal's potential to rock or of just using cheap, crap parts to keep production costs down and profits high.
The documentation/instructions that come with the pedal are woefully insufficient and EHX must assume that you have a degree in electrical engineering, throwing around a lot of technical terms and even some schematics. On the other hand, consider how much time you've actually spent looking at directions of other pedals you've purchased vs. just plugging it in and twisting some knobs around. Most of us hardly look at the instructions, but on a pedal this complex with as many knobs and widgets, a little reference guide would've been appreciated.
Conclusion: The Flanger Hoax is great at what it was designed to do and it's an absolute tragedy that it's nearly prohibitively noisy. If not for the hiss, this little space-case would be a 5-star review. I'm going to keep experimenting with limiting the hiss and I'll try it on some different amps to see if it just doesn't get along with my Vox AC30. If I can't get it squared away, I'll be returning it... but I'll be sad while doing it.
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