Electro Harmonix Flatiron Fuzz

Utilizo el Flatiron tanto para mis guitarras rítmicas como para mis líneas solistas en una banda de 3 integrantes (batería, bajo, guitarra). Estoy bastante satisfecho con el sonido que produce el pedal.

Imposible no establecer un punto de comparación con la distorsión original en la que está basado, que es el Rat. Las diferencias más notables son el nivel de salida, que en esta Re invención de EHX es bastante más alta, el control de tono, que no está invertido como en la Rata, y la mayor presencia de Bajos en su sonido, aún si es usado con poca ganancia. Es un pedal bastante bastante versátil.

Aunque su nombre dice Fuzz, puede cumplir la función tanto de un Booster casi limpio, si se usa la Ganancia casi en cero y el volumen más allá de las 12, como también la de un Overdrive, Distorsión, y Fuzz (este último con bastante ganancia y cortando agudos/medios con el control de tono). Con los ajustes necesarios es capaz de sonar como el pedal original que lo inspiró.

Por suerte tengo en mi poder un Rat original con el famoso chip Lm308, y si los comparo lado a lado, noto que en un contexto de banda, el Rat tiende a cortar un poco mejor en la mezcla. Pero la diferencia es casi mínima. Por su parte y como ya mencioné, el Flatiron me suena un poco más equilibrado en su ecualización (bajos a mí!), especialmente cuando se usa con una ganancia moderada. Estoy satisfecho con el producto y lo recomiendo a quienes gusten de este tipo de distorsión.

I visited the EHX booth at the 2019 Guitar Summit in Mannheim and was chatting with the representative about distortion pedals. I told him that I loved the sound of the ProCo Rat 2, but that it was just too noisy to be useful to me. He informed me that EHX would soon be rolling out a pedal that was "very similar" to the Rat 2, but with more modern circuitry. Unfortunately, he didn't have a sample on hand for me to try out, so I forgot about it until recently.

I ordered the Flatiron Fuzz from Thomann, hoping that it would fill the void left by my dearly departed Rat 2. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Flatiron offers pretty much the same range of tones as the Rat 2, but without the noisy 1980s circuitry.

It has some additional advantages:

1) The casing is of a modern style which, unlike the ProCo, mounts easily onto my pedalboard with hook-and-pile tape.

2) It is smaller than the Rat 2 and takes less room.

3) The input, output, and power connection are more suitable for a pedalboard.

It also has one of the main disadvantages of the ProCo model - namely a single "filter" (i.e. "tone") knob, which makes it difficult to dial in my tone as precisely as I would like.

The sound, though, is great. I can go from slightly overdriven to buzz-saw distortion to full-on fuzz just like the original, but without the unwanted noise. I also eliminates a pesky Buzzy-rattling sound that my original Rat 2 had.

This is not my only distortion pedal and it is not my MAIN distortion pedal, but it is a great addition to my board and I am very happy with it.

As always, Thomann's service and delivery were superb.

I highly recommend this pedal if you play rock, rad rock, or metal.

USE:
I'm using it in front of a 12ax7/EL34 tube amp on a cleanish setting (because the big muff next to the flatiron does not like the amp too dirty) to play mostly blues and a bit of folk.

PROS:
Easy to get a good sound: A lot of pedals have many bad settings and a few good settings. I was pleasantly surprised by how the flatiron fuzz yields usable tones in almost all the setting positions.

Versatile: This pedal has a wide range from almost clean to heavy distortion. I'd go as far to say that it's a good "first pedal" because it covers a lot of ground with good tones.

CONS:
I have no complaints about this pedal. I really like it. I thought about saying "Unity gain is fairly low on the volume knob", but unity gain is still achievable, and some people might like the available volume range on this pedal.