Fuzz Review: smallsound/bigsound 4545

By grygrx, on April 23rd, 2011

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Who: smallsound/bigsound
What: Year 4545
Price (MSRP/PAID): $150 – (On Loan)
Battery: No
Power Supply: Yes 9V Center Neg (Boss Style)
Size: 4.7″ x 2.5.” x 2.5″ (Approx: including jacks and knobs)
Available from: Direct/Dealers
Bypass: True
Review Date: 4/15/2011

Marketing:

inspired by zager & evans’ 1969 smash hit, “in the year 2525″which suggests that future humans will have little use for their 5 senses, the year 4545 throws caution to the wind and indulges in some celebratory aural abuse.
a transistor amplifier stage boosts and fuzzes up your signal, which then gets sent through a pair of unstable oscillators bent on massaging your tone into oblivion.
simple, yet highly interactive controls create a mess of different sounds, including: fuzz, filter, octaves, ring modulation, 8-bit effects, random pitch shifting/jumping, triggered envelope-type effects, harmonic resonances , hisses, crackles, squeals and general cacophony…
some important notes:
_we tune each year4545 by ear so that they are as consistent as possible, but due to the experimental nature of the circuit, each pedal will be unique.
__the stock year4545 cuts some bass from the signal; for use with bass/baritone guitars and keyboards, the clean blend mod is recommended.
___the year4545 has a great deal of high end treble content; for use with a particularly bright amp, the hi-cut mod is recommended.

Comments:

A friendly Talkbass member was kind enough to loan me this pedal for an extended period of time. It’s always great to have a little more time with a pedal to let the new glow wear off a bit before really digging into a review.

I will say the first second with the 4545 wasn’t a super moment as it came out of the box with settings cranked and for some reason I didn’t think to check before digging in. OUCH. If there is one thing I can say about smallsound/bigsound is neither of the two pedals I’ve had a chance to play are volume shy.

One of the problems I have with wild pedals featuring tons of knows and switches is that controlling volume between settings is a bear, and that basically means that in a live situation you are stuck with only using one setting or struggling with it all night. What’s the point of having a wildly variable pedal when you can only capture one sound at a time?

As a studio or noise tool, it shrieks and wails with the best of them.. the oscillation portion can be finely tuned between ear bleeding and synth-like drones. While fooling around I actually found myself playing the pedal as an instrument, just manipulating the sounds coming out of it in real time.

In the end, this isn’t the type of pedal I’m prone to fall in love with, its just too damn out of control for me. I understand thats what some people are looking for, but personally in a noise pedal, I want a way control the chaos rather than just let it rip wildly.