So, I have an HX Stomp for the guitar side of my rig. It's a dual channel rig with bass on one side and guitar on the other. Gives me a ton of flexibility, even going so far as to do a Royal Blood type thing. Anyways...
After trying a bunch of different fuzzes, I picked up a Ripped Speaker on a whim. Have to say, I really like it. More on that in a sec.
With my HX Stomp, I run a Maxon Real Tube Overdrive/Distortion through one of the effects loops. While the tube drives in the Stomp are great, I just wanted something a bit more organic sounding. Same applies to a fuzz pedal. Most of the fuzz distortions in the Stomp are actually quite good. I've tried the EarthQuaker Hoof v2, Way Huge Swollen Pickle, and a few other similar ones. All of them have that basic silicon and/or germanium based sound that can be replicated with a Helix fuzz within a good 90-95%.
What I wanted something a bit off the beaten path. What I'm after is something that provides a bit of a gating effect. I tried a JHS Mini Foot Fuzz v2, a ZVEX Fuzzolo, and even the ZVEX Fuzz Factory. The problem with these is that they're super sensitive to changes in dynamics. If you don't put them near the front of your chain then you won't likely be able to get anything useable out of them. That puts a damper on the ability to stack them with anything. Plus, as I found with my HX Stomp, getting them to play nice with a digital guitar processor can be frustrating.
That's where the Ripped Speaker has its strength. It does what other gated pedals just can't seem to do. Now, it's not really unique in terms of tone though. Pretty generic actually. Bit Muff-ish. Nothing that I can't replicate in the HX Stomp. But the tone is only part of the story. The real draw is that Rip setting, which is what gives it that quirky gated effect...and does so in a way that makes it work well in just about anywhere in your pedal chain. It's quite magical really.
I instantly threw it just after my Maxon tube drive and it worked great! By itself, it sounds pretty good. But stack it with an overdrive or some other light or mid-gain distortion and it just comes alive. It does require a little finesse though. I got a bit of feedback off it with my Maxon and had to roll back the treble EQ on the Maxon and roll the Rip setting a bit. The Rip setting does indeed act as a gate and really helps curb off any unwanted side effects when stacking it against other pedals.
Definitely getting a pretty monster sound out of it. The Rip gated quirkiness adds a fun bit of character to the sound that I simply can't get with anything in the Stomp. So it's a bit of a win really.
I do have another pedal I'm trying out though, which is the Matthews Effects Whaler v2. Not sure if it can replicate a similar gated effect. It has a bias control which is said to apply a gated effect. We'll see I guess. If the Whaler is too subtle with the tone being too close what I already have in the Helix then I'll just stick with the Ripped Speaker. We'll see.
