ELECTRO-HARMONIX RIPPED SPEAKER
TOTAL GUITAR APRIL 2022
94
G
uitar history is full of
instances where
recordings have been
made all the more
distinctive by either the
use of a piece of broken equipment
or perfectly serviceable gear being
pushed to extremes. The fi rst
recorded fuzz sound apparently
came about via a faulty studio
preamplifi er, while overloaded
desk channels were the key to the
incendiary guitar sound on the
Beatles’ Revolution. EHX’s Ripped
Speaker pays homage to those sort
of lo-fi distortion tones which
of course can also come from
a damaged speaker cone, perhaps
the most celebrated being the
sound of The Kinks’ You Really
GotMe, which came about after
Dave Davies sliced his speaker
with a razor blade.
Basically a fuzz pedal, the
Ripped Speaker has the expected
Fuzz and Volume knobs but also
has adjustable bias via the ‘Rip’
knob to alter the waveform
clipping. Conventional fuzz sound
resides in a small arc around its
central position. Here you’ll get
tasty mid-60s full-bodied fuzz
with a rough-edged rasp, aided by
a potent Tone knob that can really
shape the sound, pushing the top
end presence at the expense of
lower-mid girth when turned
clockwise. Turning the Rip knob to
the right increases a hard gating
eff ect that can be exploited with
dynamics, muting and guitar
volume. It works well for tightly
played chords and doublestops
and you can get a sitar-like buzz
for single note playing. The sound
gets more lo-fi , broken and
sputtery as you turn the knob
clockwise up to where it sounds
like your rig is on its last legs. To
the knob’s left the gating is less
harsh off ering a diff erent array
of musical options.
Its gnarly fuzz combined with
access to some spectacularly
broken tones makes this a great
buy as a lo-fi toolbox for your
pedalboard. Get ripped.
Trevor Curwen
TYPE: Fuzz pedal
FEATURES : True bypass
CONT ROLS: Volume, Rip, Tone,
Fuzz, Bypass footswitch
CONNECTIONS: Standard input,
standard output
POWER: 9V battery (included) or
9V DC adaptor (not supplied)
10mA
DIMENSIONS: 70 (w) x 111 (d) x
50 mm (h)
CONTACT: www.ehx.com
AT A GLANCE
GNARLY FUZZ COMBINED
WITH SPECTACULAR TONES
TH
E G
AS
S
T
A
T
I
O
N
OVERALL RATING
SUMMARY
VALUE FOR MONEY
BUILD QUALITY
FEATURES
SOUND QUALITY
USABILITY
dynamics, muting and guitar
volume. It works well for tightly
AT A GLANCE
ELECTRO-HARMONIX
RIPPED SPEAKER
A stompbox that celebrates lo-fi distortion
£89
TGR356.gear_quick.indd 94TGR356.gear_quick.indd 94 24/02/2022 13:2324/02/2022 13:23