my review: Chunk Brown Dog

got my chunk systems brown dog in the mail today, bought it used from the classifieds.

my first impression when it came out of the box, was "uh oh, somethings rattling inside there." turned out its just the battery clip, and it can rattle all day and night and wont cause a problem. since i mentioned the battery clip, their battery loading mechanism is so convienent it makes me want to go out and get batteries to use it with.

another thing i noticed was how easy it was to turn the knobs. not neccesarily good or bad, just an observation..they turn really smoothly, without any resistance.. might be bad for the guys (like me) tossing pedals into a bag.

then, i plugged it in. the sound is really warm, can go from pretty mild to (as chunk systems describes it) some form of a mutant bloodsucker from outerspace. on the bassfuzz.com review, he mentions the independant knobs for clean/dirty volume to be kind of a bad thing (that it takes tweaking to get it set "right.") i diddnt think that at all, i wish more fuzzes were set up like this. it was actually easier for me to set it the way i like it.. set the clean at unity (wich by the way, is when the knob is exactly pointing at 12:00) and then bring in as much fuzz signal as i want. the gate works as youd expect it too, and the gain knob, is a little bit more of a texture knob than it is gain, going from (as its labeled) fuzzy to synthy.the hard/soft clip switch changes the type of clipping in the circuit.. another texture-ish switch. the overall sound has a nice warm grittyness to it. even without clean signal theres no low end problems. i forsee this fuzz working MUCH better in a band situation than any muff-type of thing. the highs arent piercing, the lows arent too overbearing, but the highs/lows are both still apparent. i'll write a little bit of a follow up if i find this not to be true after gigging with it once or twice.

the only negative thing about it, is that its not 100% silent. i guess most fuzzes arent, but my messdrive is, and thats what ive gotten used too. its not any insane amount of noise (and the gate will get rid of it) but with the gate off theres definately a small amount of hum. for live use this isint a concern. it might even go away if i used a battery (i was using a 1spot.)

to rank it with a 1-10 system, 5 being a good score-

versatility- 8. any situation where fuzz can be used, this fuzz would be fine- funk, rock, metal? whatever.
construction- i wont give it a number for this, because i just got it, but you can kinda just tell that its a sturdy pedal. i have no problem tossing it in a backpack and carrying it to a gig.
overall sound-8. like i said before, very warm, nice hairy grittyness to it.
value- 8. $200 used, and i prefer it over all the other fuzzes ive got, some of wich were $350+.
overall score - 8.

and one last note, its active friendly, so we active 6 string players can all rest at ease with this fuzz.

if i change any of my oppinions after gigging it, ill post here- but as of now, i could not be happier.