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16 November 2010

Gear Review: The Shoe Gazer Fuzz Pedal by Devi Ever.

Description/Specifications from the Devi Ever home page:


"The Shoe Gazer is a combination of the two most epic devi ever fuzz circuits ever invented; the Soda Meiser and the Torn's Peaker. With the Torn's Peaker you have epic crunch. With the Soda Meiser you have epic fuzz. Together you have epic gain and toanz for daze. Together, the Soda Meiser pushes the Torn's Peaker from crunch to the edge of fuzz and beyond. If you love fuzz, you will adore this pedal."


controls
- TPVOL : Torn's Peaker volume knob
- TPTXT : Torn's Pealer texture knob
- TP foot switch : engages Torn's Peaker
- SMVOL : Soda Meiser volume knob
- SMTXT : Soda Meiser texture knob
- SM foot switch : engages Soda Meiser

specifications
- true bypass
- enclosure size : 4.7" x 3.7" x 1.18"
- boutique quality components
- incredibly low mA draw
- silicon transistor based
- 9 volt, 2.1 mm, negative tip power jack
- 9 volt battery snap inside (unscrew the back plate)


Just for starters,look at some of the people who play Devi Ever: Kevin Shields, Depeche Mode, Smashing Pumpkins, NIN, Nels Cline, Flood, Josh Homme, MGMT and Silversun Pickups just to name a few! What does that tell you? Devi rules, that's what.

"Here to make you think about death and get sad and stuff" (as stated on the homepage) is the perfect axiom for Devi Ever.I think it perfectly sums up what they are all about;beauty,noise,creativity and a sense of humor!If you are looking for your mommies distortion pedal,this ain't it!If you want JAMC's fuzz, Kevin Shield's wall of beautiful noise and/or Sonic Youth's dreamy chaos, this is the "fuzz" pedal you have been dreaming of! I use the term "fuzz" loosely because it's much more than just another fuzz pedal, it's a monster sent to destroy! This pedal will keep you up at night saying "play me, play me!", not to mention the tinnitus you will develop from all the loud fun.

My mate (Chris G.) acquired his pedal directly from Devi. Chris somehow got Devi to put totally original artwork on his Shoe Gazer - there is no other Shoe Gazer on the planet (that we know of) with this art work! I think this is the coolest and all I could say to Chris was "You Fucker!!!!" (lol).Chris let me borrow his Devi to do this review,thank you Chris!You are the man!You might not get it back!

This pedal is MASSIVE! I will try and post photos as soon as I get them. It instantly took me to JAMC land. I was all Psychocandy and Synthstatic for a few days. The coolest part is the double switching on this thing. It is actually two Devi Ever pedals in one. On the left side is the Torn's Peaker (crunch) and the right side is the Soda Meiser (fuzz). This is not just a single pedal, but two that can both be engaged at the same time!

Amazing, amazing tones in this thing. These pedals are made with silicon chips and are produced by hand, one by one in Portland, Oregon. There aren't many pedals on the market that can say that these days. To be a true boutique pedal and hand made, the pricing is just right! Anyone can afford these. I get so sick of $400 dollar pedals that sound just like a Boss and actually not as good (I love Boss btw)! People will buy anything that is supposed to be cool, hoping to get "that" sound. Well, let me tell you, it can be achieved with Devi Ever's pedals. They are the real deal and not the pedal Du jour.

The Shoe Gazer is an extremely volatile distortion monster and it is LOUD! It can get all the noise rock, shoegaze, Stooges, Smashing Pumpkins-esque sounds you can imagine, and then some. I was surprised by how easy it is to tweak the Shoe Gazer into massive tones.If you can imagine it,this can do it! You can even get an octave clang-like sound (Can you say Hendrix?) when both sides are engaged and tweaked just so.

The left side (Torn's Peaker) gets a more traditional sound (believe it or not) especially when you roll your guitars volume knob back. It cleans up very, very well for such a high gain pedal. You can turn both knobs on the left of the pedal to "eleven"(wink,wink!) and get that torn speaker sound too. It really sounds like an old 60's amp with the speakers slashed up and tearing to pieces!

The right side (Soda Meiser) is way thicker and gets a hot, over-toned distortion sound with lots of bottom end.It can get all stoner rock/Sababbth and then some,but the real fun starts when you engage both sides! It gets crazy A Place To Bury Strangers noisiness/JAMC craziness/Sonic Youth chaos all in this little box. It even has some Zeppelin like tones in it. Especially noisy, early live Zeppelin.

The pedal is slightly larger than the standard Boss style casing, so you might have a problem fitting it on your board.With a little experimentation you should have no problem making it fit. Trust me,it's not a Big Muff! So like I said, it's not giant.

The standard Shoe Gazer comes in a painted black casing with white writing (unless you are Chris G. apparently! Ha!) It has two red LED lights and white old school knobs which will be easy to see on a dark stage. It is powered by a standard 9 volt power supply and it is true bypass, so it sucks no tone!

There are tons of new pedals out there that promise to do lots and lots, but this is one that actually delivers. It does all this and more at an affordable price! You will be doing tons of shoegazing with the Devi Ever Shoe Gazer . I promise, you cannot beat it. Good job Devi! 5 stars.

Review by Danny.