Awesome, thanks for this. EHX always gives me gas because their pedals often work on a variety of instruments, which I need. They almost always have a "cool factor", as well.
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EHX Hot wax review
- Thread starter Crystalman85
- Start date
Sure thing, dude. ehx makes some awesome pedals. and indeed they work well on a variety of instruments. it goes to show how versatile ehx pedals can be.
Why do I even TalkBass? It just pummels my finaces. Used Hot Wax ordered. 
I tried mine out tonight and I really like it. Nice mild crunch from the crayon. I love the blend obviously. Is it not possible to run the hot tubes only? Or is it just added to the crayon side for full on distortion?
If you only use the hot tubes side only, then yes you can get a nice mild crunch at a certain setting. if you use both the hot tubes side and the crayon side, you get a stacked distortion sound. I personally prefer using the crayon side because I like how warm and heavy it sounds. the hot tubes side in my opinion is a little bright sounding for my taste, but at a low gain setting, it can get a nice modern tube sound. other than that, the hot wax is an awesome overdrive pedal to own. and I too like the blend feature.
You could do that, but some actually like how the hot wax sounded. especially since it contains a blend control. rather if you choose the crayon, the hot tubes, or the hot wax, that's entirely up to you. personally, I'm satisfied with the hot wax for it's overdrive options.
Hey Hot Wax fans, I am selling mine if any of you are interested. I'd do $90 shipped to the US and it is virtually mint with the exception of velcro.
I got mine over the weekend and I am really liking the sound of the Hot Tubes with gain at around 1 o'clock and the crayon at 9 with the blend at 11. I added my OD Glove pedal in front and hit the contour setting on my Rumble 500 head.....soooo nice!
I like the Hot Tubes on its own with a mild gain and 40% blend for some tube goodness.
There's alot of good tones on this pedal with just a few knob tweaks.
I using my Gretsch G2202 Electromatic into a Peavy 215 cab.
I like the Hot Tubes on its own with a mild gain and 40% blend for some tube goodness.
There's alot of good tones on this pedal with just a few knob tweaks.
I using my Gretsch G2202 Electromatic into a Peavy 215 cab.
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Just pulled out my Hot Wax in honor of this thread and man it is awesome. I think a lot of people try to make the pedal do too much, and get dissapointed in the process. It's really shines as three individual pedals, not an integrated one.
Awesome...I still think it's an awesome overdrive pedal for bass. \m/
I received a used EHX Hot Wax yesterday and had a chance to play with it for a couple hours last night; running its output through a simulated band mix in various genres. I'm not much of a distortion guy, having previously only played with distortion models in my Line6 Pod equipment and my Sans-Amp (which I think has a horrible overdrive sound). I don't have a good background for comparing it to other distortion pedals, so take my comments as someone with a decent ear for mixing but not a distortion junkie. I bought the Hot-Wax primarily to feed the output of my Mono Synth through.
The Crayon and Hot Tubes sound like totally different pedals, and when stacked a different pedal entirely, so for the money, 3 pedals in one seems like a cool deal, but getting to #3 isn't so simple.
As others have stated, the Crayon is darker "sounding" but actually has more bass cut than the Hot Tubes side, creating what seems at first to be a bit of mid boost. From my experimenting, retaining low-end required the blend to be set nearly counter-clockwise and then much of the benefits of the Crayon were lost.
If I can remember to input it to a scope this weekend I'll grab some actual readings but by ear (I mix live sound), I'd say the Crayon sounds like a 24dB high pass around 250Hz. The bass EQ on the pedal can be turned up, but IMO it just muddies up the sound beyond 1 o-clock. If you're willing to accept the loss of bass the Crayon offers nice thickening to the tone, very akin to a tube gain with the drive kept below 10 without sounding like distortion. IMO the blend knob for Crayon works best around 2 o-clock. I prefer the Crayon at low drive settings. While higher drive settings offered some sweet sounding distortion when soloed, I felt as though it was lost in a mix.
OTOH, the Hot Tubes has a really nice gain structure and sits nicely in a mix. I don't notice a loss of bass when using the Hot Tubes alone. It's certainly more aggressive than the Crayon and works nicely with the output of my Mono Synth.
As others have said, the stacked tone really has to be crafted on it's own. Simply finding a setting you like with the Crayon and Hot Tubes side independently doesn't give a good result when they are both engaged. Note that the output from Crayon is the input to the Hot Tubes. They are not "combined" indepently. The Crayon drives the Hot Tubes when engaged simultaneously. Thus, you'll really need to fiddle with the Crayon volume and drive and note the effect when stacking. Also remember, that when stacked, the volume of the Hot Tubes becomes the overall volume. Anyway, it's a completely different pedal stacked, so if your looking for a really aggressive distortion you'll need to dial in the stacked sound independent of the other two. If the pedal had a way to save the stacked settings independently that would be a great option.
I purchased the pedal at a heavy discount and plan to keep it simply for its versatility and nice effect on synth tones. It's also fun to just play with all the variations.
The Crayon and Hot Tubes sound like totally different pedals, and when stacked a different pedal entirely, so for the money, 3 pedals in one seems like a cool deal, but getting to #3 isn't so simple.
As others have stated, the Crayon is darker "sounding" but actually has more bass cut than the Hot Tubes side, creating what seems at first to be a bit of mid boost. From my experimenting, retaining low-end required the blend to be set nearly counter-clockwise and then much of the benefits of the Crayon were lost.
If I can remember to input it to a scope this weekend I'll grab some actual readings but by ear (I mix live sound), I'd say the Crayon sounds like a 24dB high pass around 250Hz. The bass EQ on the pedal can be turned up, but IMO it just muddies up the sound beyond 1 o-clock. If you're willing to accept the loss of bass the Crayon offers nice thickening to the tone, very akin to a tube gain with the drive kept below 10 without sounding like distortion. IMO the blend knob for Crayon works best around 2 o-clock. I prefer the Crayon at low drive settings. While higher drive settings offered some sweet sounding distortion when soloed, I felt as though it was lost in a mix.
OTOH, the Hot Tubes has a really nice gain structure and sits nicely in a mix. I don't notice a loss of bass when using the Hot Tubes alone. It's certainly more aggressive than the Crayon and works nicely with the output of my Mono Synth.
As others have said, the stacked tone really has to be crafted on it's own. Simply finding a setting you like with the Crayon and Hot Tubes side independently doesn't give a good result when they are both engaged. Note that the output from Crayon is the input to the Hot Tubes. They are not "combined" indepently. The Crayon drives the Hot Tubes when engaged simultaneously. Thus, you'll really need to fiddle with the Crayon volume and drive and note the effect when stacking. Also remember, that when stacked, the volume of the Hot Tubes becomes the overall volume. Anyway, it's a completely different pedal stacked, so if your looking for a really aggressive distortion you'll need to dial in the stacked sound independent of the other two. If the pedal had a way to save the stacked settings independently that would be a great option.
I purchased the pedal at a heavy discount and plan to keep it simply for its versatility and nice effect on synth tones. It's also fun to just play with all the variations.
A couple spectrographs. One with no-effects, the other with only the Crayon engaged.
I did my best to match input volumes. Both unaffected and effected tones have the peak frequencies right at -30dB.
Fender Mustang JMJ flat wound E string, no effects recorded into DI ~500ms after finger pluck over the pup.
With Crayon, Drive at 11am, Blend at 2pm
Note the low end of the spectrum shows the Crayon has cut the lowest frequency by about 12dB. It's leaving the frequencies above 100Hz intact. Also note that it is thickening the waveforms from 100Hz - 200Hz, by about 12dB. That explains why we hear loss of bass yet a warmer sound with the Crayon engaged. More drive would thicken it further but not restore the frequencies below 100Hz.
The mid boost effect from the Crayon can be seen in that 6dB boost around 400Hz. The mids would be more prominent with more drive.
I misjudged earlier saying there was a cut under 250Hz when I was judging by ear.
I did my best to match input volumes. Both unaffected and effected tones have the peak frequencies right at -30dB.
Fender Mustang JMJ flat wound E string, no effects recorded into DI ~500ms after finger pluck over the pup.
With Crayon, Drive at 11am, Blend at 2pm
Note the low end of the spectrum shows the Crayon has cut the lowest frequency by about 12dB. It's leaving the frequencies above 100Hz intact. Also note that it is thickening the waveforms from 100Hz - 200Hz, by about 12dB. That explains why we hear loss of bass yet a warmer sound with the Crayon engaged. More drive would thicken it further but not restore the frequencies below 100Hz.
The mid boost effect from the Crayon can be seen in that 6dB boost around 400Hz. The mids would be more prominent with more drive.
I misjudged earlier saying there was a cut under 250Hz when I was judging by ear.
I recently ordered an EHX Hot Wax and should be getting it the end of this week. I'm looking forward to getting into it finding some cool sounds. 
Late to the party, picked up one of these a few days ago.
After a short time of dabbling, I'm must say I'm enjoying it. Both hot tubes and the crayon individually, with eq, offer pleasing range of drive sounds around zones of breakup/mild OD.
The higher distortions offer interesting possibilities with decent higher frequency options.
Stacked is pretty extreme, but dialling down towards break up point is usable and pretty cool. 8
I've been pairing it up with octave subs from my C4 and different combinations of of sansamp and origin effects SV preamp. Loving some of these synthy vibes. The hotwax can be quite fuzz-like. Nice.
I'm not a technician re Overdrive /distortions. Go by my ear, what sounds musical. Too many OD pedals sound unpleasant /mechanical. This unit has some 'soul' imho.
So well done EHX. Packed a lot in a definitely a unique OD unit with its own vibes.
After a short time of dabbling, I'm must say I'm enjoying it. Both hot tubes and the crayon individually, with eq, offer pleasing range of drive sounds around zones of breakup/mild OD.
The higher distortions offer interesting possibilities with decent higher frequency options.
Stacked is pretty extreme, but dialling down towards break up point is usable and pretty cool. 8
I've been pairing it up with octave subs from my C4 and different combinations of of sansamp and origin effects SV preamp. Loving some of these synthy vibes. The hotwax can be quite fuzz-like. Nice.
I'm not a technician re Overdrive /distortions. Go by my ear, what sounds musical. Too many OD pedals sound unpleasant /mechanical. This unit has some 'soul' imho.
So well done EHX. Packed a lot in a definitely a unique OD unit with its own vibes.
