The EarthQuaker Devices Special Cranker is a discrete, all-analogue overdrive that adds extra grit to your signal without drastically altering your tone. In doing so, your guitar's natural nuances are kept in tact and your amp's characteristics can shine through. Picking up where EarthQuaker's Speaker Cranker left off, the Special Cranker has the same spongy, dynamic, and touch-sensitive character but with more gain. Think of it like an extra tube in your amp's preamp section!
The Special Cranker works equally well through a clean amp as it does an overdriven amp. Plug it into a clean channel and it can be used to push your amp into a satisfying edge-of-breakup sound for low-gain, bluesy tones. Alternatively, plug the Special Cranker into an already overdriven amp to push it further into overdrive, preserving your tone’s integrity without muddying up the low-end or smearing the midrange. Power chords will sound thicker and crunchier, single notes with ring out with singing sustain and complex chords will remain complex!
The Special Cranker features two distinct clipping modes, Germanium and Silicon. Germanium mode produces a softer, more rounded tone with a lower output and Silicon mode delivers a brighter, more modern sound with a higher output. Rich in harmonics, the Special Cranker adds character to both single coil and humbucker equipped guitars and features a flexible tone control for complete tone shaping. With true-bypass switching, the Special Cranker will not colour or degrade your tone when it is disengaged.
Key Features
- Gives your signal extra grit and boost without drastically altering your tone and retains all of the natural nuances and character of your amplifier.
- Two distinct clipping modes that are both exceptionally responsive to playing dynamics: Germanium and Silicon
- Germanium mode delivers a softer, more rounded response with tamed highs and lower output.
- Silicon mode delivers a brighter, more modern response with higher output.
- At maximum gain, the Special Cranker can achieve explosive overbiased tones depending on the output of your pickups.
- Flexible Tone control to give the user full command over the treble frequencies for excellent tone shaping and clarity.
- All-analogue signal path
- True bypass
- Silent relay-based switching with Flexi-Switch® Technology
- Powered by regular 9 V DC PSU (centre -, 2,1 mm, ~15 mA current draw)