Static Egg

This is an update to my previous review.  I received an email reply from Jason at Holowon informing me that they were "phasing out the painting process from production".  Apparently, the price of parts has increased recently and it has become necessary to cut costs to keep prices low.  All I can say is that it would have been nice to have gotten some sort of advance notice about their decision to no longer paint pedals ... or to have seen an announcement on their website or in an email.  The Static Egg currently depicted on their website is painted ... and, therefore a misrepresentation of what customers should expect. Jason did offer to have someone paint my pedal if I was willing to ship it back to them ... but I am left wondering why it should be necessary to complete this extra step just to get a product that appears similar to the one advertised on the Holowon website.  I didn't pay for something that was supposed to look like a ratty prototype (with a scraped up chasis and a dented knob)... I paid for a production model. This will definitely be my one and only purchase from Holowon ... and I recommend that anyone who wishes to do busines with them ask them a number of basic quality control questions before proceeding.  I still believe that the Static Egg is still a great sounding Fuzz ... though I wish that the builders were a bit more professional and forthright in their business dealings ... this almost makes me wonder about the alleged "lifetime warranty" offered on their products.

it does seem to affect the guitar sound even when it is not on, so the bypass is not 100%  But it gets a nice 60's fuzz sound, kind of emulating those messed-up-is-that-thing-broken-or-what fuzz sounds you might hear on some old pebbles or nuggets recordings.  I use it on with a gibon SG and and old kapa teardrop copy, and my only complaint with it is sometimes it isn't very loud with the SG, so perhaps it doesn't work well with humbucking pickups.  But with the cheap-ass Kapa is sounds really great n disgusting, exactly what I was looking for.

seems solid, I'd gig w/o a back up.

it is fuzz, pretty nasty sounding

bill is very communicative

I use this with a Dean Avalanche Strat style guitar and a small Epiphone Galaxie 10 and Reissue Vox AC30TB.  It loves my akai intelliphase (great texture), boss ch-1 (trashy like garbage's first album), maxon ad900 and boss ge-7. It's never particularly noisy, although it doesn't have a noise suppressor or gate in it(i hate these things anyway).  With the static at max or nearly max, you can start to pick up radio or tv, although this isn't always the case.  Not too bothersome really. This has a number of great fuzz tones on tap.  With zero static it's a nice fuzz, not the same flavor as my Roger Mayer Spitfire, but quite nice.  With max static you get bee buzz, universe-hole opening fuzz.  Generally has good sustain.  Dynamics get lost as you increase the static, although it always seems to clean up reasonably well as you lower your guitars volume. Tone controls treble efficiently, but doesn't really boost bass or midrange on lower settings. A drive control would have given it more flexibility.  Bill could probably build one in if you asked. It's true bypass, that's always nice.

Seems solid, i would gig without a backup.

Very easy use.  Does anyone really find a fuzz pedal hard to use?  The tone knob works backwards; i don't know if every egg is like this.  Personally I don't care.

Bill was very friendly in the beginning but got a little pokey as things progressed.  When I first received the unit it did not pass any signal in bypass!  Come on, man.  I returned it to Bill and he fixed it (and shipped it back) for free, although he should have offered to pay my shipping.   Personally I think Bill is trustworthy, but you might end up waiting for longer than you'd like.  It's a shame to see potential customers (or real customers) lose interest in a quality product or lose trust in someone who i feel is ultimately honest.   

This thing is a great value.  The static dial gives it an edge over a standard fuzz.  There are a variety of nice tone colors and sounds on tap to inspire and inflame.  Plus it's true bypass and both versions, regular and econoline, are very affordable as pedals go.  Both prices seem to include shipping as well.  I'd get another if it were lost or stolen.