Evil Eye FX Warg Fuzz review: more than just another boutique Big Muff variant?
$149, evileyefx.com
If I had a nickel for every time a mildly obscure Japanese Big Muff variant was revived into a doomy boutique pedal with a mythical animal on the enclosure, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice. Yes, today I’m looking at the Warg from Evil Eye FX, a modernised take on the Ace Tone FM-3. What lies underneath that toothy snarl?
READ MORE: Lerxst Snow Dog review – a wonderfully thick octave fuzz from Alex Lifeson
Evil Eye FX is a relatively new brand, based out of Philadelphia. It has only one other pedal under its belt – the Paladin overdrive. Its second release being a Big Muff-variant is a smart move, as the average pedal fan looking for something from a small builder will know roughly what they’re going to get – but there’s still enough variance within the circuit format to allow for some identity to be established.
On that point, the pedal’s D&D/Norse/Tolkien-derived name and artwork indicates a target market beyond folks who just want a neutral, retro-styled fuzz – there’s no vintage-accurate sloped enclosure here. When a pedal’s art features a snarling mythical wolf standing in a dark, spooky forest, that sends a message, and the message is tuned to C standard. But the pedal world as a whole is already awash with Big Muff variants in doomy grimdark garb – there’s every chance I’ll find the Warg a derivative drop in an ocean of fuzz. Can it break out of being ‘just another boutique Muff’?
The Warg Fuzz. Image: Evil Eye FX
Circuit Topology
The Ace Tone FM-3 that the Warg is based on is not to be confused with the similarly-named FM-2 – that’s more of a Univox Super Fuzz-style octave fuzz (also the basis for the Earthquaker Fuzz Master General). It’s instead a V1 Big Muff variant from 1971, with a boost mode that isolates the first gain stage. That’s absent here, but according to Evil Eye FX everything else is as accurate as possible when it comes to component values.
As for what changes to the “standard” Big Muff (if there is such a thing when talking about vintage Muffs) formula the Warg inherits, there’s a lot of tweaks, as you can see on Kit Rae’s brilliant Big Muff Page, but perhaps the most impactful are the smaller feedback capacitors on the first three transistors in the chain, allowing less bass through the initial gain stages of the pedal.
The Warg itself also adds a toggle switch to flatten out the midrange – a very common modification when it comes to Big Muffs, as the stock tonestack’s drastic mid-scoop can bury your sound in a band mix.
Build Quality
The Warg presents itself as a very well put-together object – the enclosure art is sharp and professionally done, and the jacks, knobs and switches are all solid-feeling premium components. Popping the back off for a look at the circuit board, and the soldering work with the through-hole components is exceptionally neat – not a capacitor out of place. This isn’t essential, but it’s good to see. A further confidence boost in the longevity of the thing is the momentary relay switching, which gives less of a clank when you turn the pedal on and is also much easier to repair if you ever get too enthusiastic with your stamping.
Close-up of the Warg Fuzz. Image: Evil Eye FX
Does the Warg sound good?
The Warg sounds more than good – it sounds excellent. There are a lot of little things that add up to make, in my view, a great Muff-derived pedal, and the Warg exemplifies a lot of them. Whatever those altered feedback capacitors are doing, the result is that this pedal sounds very different to a traditional Big Muff – the character of the distortion is raspier, more unpredictable, with less of that smooth, violin-like sustain the circuit is known for.
Fuzz, in this case, means fuzz – pure audio destruction. Power chords rumble onwards, unstoppably and destructively, like some George Miller-esque big rig. Pick attacks sound like God hitting a full bowl of cornflakes with a claw hammer. While Warg may be the name of a mythical Norse wolf, it’s also an onomatopoeic translation of hitting the strings with this thing engaged.
What helps, perhaps counterintuitively, is that the Warg has a slightly less bassy voicing than the standard BM circuit. It feels balanced – with less of a huge bump in the lower half of the frequency spectrum, the midrange scoop doesn’t have such a drastic effect, and the tone control is granted subtler operation in its anti-clockwise direction. That’s not to say it doesn’t have a significant amount of grunt, because it does – but it’s definitely not overloading my signal with inaudible flub.
Upon flicking the midrange switch upwards, there’s a notable jump in clarity and throatiness. It’s definitely switching to a flat profile rather than a mid-pushed one as you might hear from a Tube Screamer, but it still lends a vocal character to lead lines and a bit more of a snarl to chords.
So far so fuzzy – but let’s not forget that this pedal’s enclosure art is clearly asking me to tune down a good handful of semitones. Again, that focus on the lower-mid growl rather than sub-bass wub is a real benefit when doing so. Low tunings combined with a pedal that’s really heavy on the low-end can throw clarity out of the window – but the Warg’s throatier voicing keeps my guitar sounding like a guitar, not someone playing the didgeridoo under a blanket.
Who is the Warg for?
So with such a wide array of revived vintage fuzzes available right now, who should be considering the Warg? I think it still has a lot to offer the average fuzz fanatic who’s tried their share of Big Muff-based pedals – it’s different enough to the “standard” take on the circuit to clearly have its own identity.
Of course, the Big Muff circuit as a format has always been an exception to most vintage fuzz hallmarks – there’s no impedance-sensitivity, no raspy rectified octave, and no gated spittiness. While this makes the Warg a harder sell if all you need is a little fuzzy flair in the odd solo, it’s absolutely up to the task of being the beating, bloody heart of a pedalboard built for heavy riffs – and, in fact, perhaps more up to the task than most of the EHX reissues, thanks to that excellent midrange toggle.
And $150 for a handmade, through-hole boutique fuzz is a very appealing thing indeed – for the convenience of the midrange mod, for the cool factor and for the fact that this isn’t a Big Muff variant that’s within EHX’s remit to reissue, the relatively low price could swing it for you. Really, Evil Eye FX has proved itself as a brand to watch with the Warg, and I’m interested to see what they do next.
Warg Alternatives
The most obvious parallel to the Warg is the similarly-priced and similarly-pitched Hizumitas ($149/£155) from Earthquaker, that other animal-fronted doomy Japanese Big Muff-alike. It has its own sound, a little more slicing – but if you prefer Boris to Sleep, then it’s a good alternative.
If you’re in the market for a Big Muff with some more control over that midrange, Earthquaker also makes the Hoof ($179/£205), a unique germanium-silicon-hybrid take on the circuit with a sweepable mids control. There’s also the Keeley Moon ($149/£159) and JPTR FX Warlow (€179), which both add alternate tonal options to the Op-Amp Big Muff.
If you’re intrigued by the sounds described above but have a tight budget, EHX’s Green Russian reissue ($108/£85) is probably the place to start – with a little less biting distortion and a little more midrange, it has a reputation as the best low-and-slow Big Muff for a reason.
The post Evil Eye FX Warg Fuzz review: more than just another boutique Big Muff variant? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
