Okay, let's talk about the Pigpile. I've had this one the longest, so I'm more comfortable trying to put into words what it does. This is the Electrofoods ULTD. take on the harmonic percolator circuit. I didn't really know much about the history of it before, but there's plenty of info on Steve Albini and his use of the HP. There are quite a few clones and variations available. Most of them expand controllability in one way or another, I have NOT tried any of the other variants, so a comparison would be meaningless. The single biggest advantage I find in the Pigpile is the Clean Blend. Over time I've slowly eliminated every dirt pedal I've owned, except for one, that doesn't have a clean blend. I generally use dirt for mild overdrive purposes or various types of harmonic enhancement, THAT IS NOT THE CASE WITH THE PIGPILE. I use this for all out end of the world reality coming to an end splatty meaty take no prisoners Distortion mayhem. Sputtery is a good term to describe the HP circuit in general. The Pigpile takes it to a glorious extreme. I previously used the Fuzrocious Heliotropic to fill this role, but the lack of a blend (Fuzzrocious will gladly build you a custom version with a bend for a reasonable price) The Heliotropic and the Pigpile have nothing in common, I just had them in similar situations. The Pigpile is the one that remains.
To quote from the Electrofoods description: "huge, weird and gnarly when unleashed but tweakable enough to be house-trained." I can't put it any better than that
There is a nice instability in the extreme settings that give you the feeling that something might suddenly go horribly wrong. It's an exhilarating feeling. It gets glitchy and octavy but is just still profoundly musical.
