EHX Hot Wax - Dripping With Tone

Combining the raucous overdrive of the Hot Tubes with the full-range drive of the Crayon. On their own, very useful and capable pedals. Put together, you get not just a third option, but a pairing that packs sizzle and grit which can be balanced with your clean signal, thanks to the blend knob. There’s a lot to unpack, let’s rock.
“Miss EL34” by Terry Border - bentobjects.blogspot.com/2010/
“Crayon” dialect map by Josh Katz from “Speaking American” - www.amazon.com/dp/0544703391
Chapters:
0:00 - Demo #1 - “Dollar Short”
0:57 - Combining Drives
1:30 - The Blend Knob
2:42 - The Hot Tubes side
3:48 - The Crayon side
4:35 - Both Sides Together
5:34 - Adjusting the Blend and Drives
6:32 - Demo #2 - “Loaner Laundry”
7:35 - Closing Thoughts

[@alexandrelunelli7402]

The asat and this pedal are a match made in heaven. You gotta love EHX. Really bold and innovative company

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Definitely, on both points.

[@randysutton2120]

For sound, affordability and aesthetics, EHX is tough to beat. Great pedal.

[@StompboxBreakdown]

For real. They seem to be able to do the kind of small-shop productions at a big scale and still be profitable. It’s unbelievable how many different pedals and pieces of gear they have.

[@codykensington1424]

Hope this channel blows up. Fantastic in depth review. I've had this pedal for years and always wanted to see an indepth review of it.

[@randelj]

The Hot Wax with its blend knob makes it a good choice for the bass player who wants overdrive tones. I use it after a preamp/compressor and before a EHX Sovtek Deluxe Big Bass Muff, not too fuzzy so you can hear the overdrive.

[@aitken1965]

I lucked-out and found one of these used with the original box, ac adapter, and stickers etc. It’s my main overdrive pedal now, along with the EHX East River Drive.

[@BlueberryStinkFinger62]

Best $130 dollars I spent one of the very best duel overdrive pedals out there

[@derekhand7904]

EHX has to be the best pedals of all time, not only do they have the history, there affordable, great tones, but most importantly they look cool 😎

[@jazzboifuckicontm5239]

I think they’re definitely up there within the top 3. I love that they do weird stuff too like the superego and bassballs

[@cdclaxton]

The intro demo was really good indeed! 🙂 I'm really enjoying your laid-back, friendly presenting style

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Thank you so much, Christopher! I had to go back and re-listen to that jam, it was one of my favorites in recent memory.

[@azrael87d]

This is a great review, really good tones, really good explanation and nice pacing. Full mark! :D (oh, and I bought the hot wax after watching the video)

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Can’t get any better than that! Thank you so much!!

[@bradennix7823]

I really love your demos man! Keep em coming!

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Thank you so much, Braden

[@jacobpugh4096]

Great demo and review. Thank you. I just picked up my Hotwax yesterday!

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Awesome! It really is a lot of pedal for the money. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do

[@Supernautiloid]

I like to put drives in front of my Hot Wax and use the blend knob to mix them together. I love that pedal.

[@therewasascene]

That seems like the way to do it Especially with how thick and wild the hotwax can get. Flavor to taste :)

[@reed785M]

This is exactly how I use mine, especially since I also use a clone theory which adds some gain as well

[@BryanDenham]

nice demo sounds good to me

[@reed785M]

I got this on sale a couple months ago for $100, best $100 pedal purchase by far. It’s a mainstay on the board

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Definitely a winning combo in one pedal

[@davewebb9452]

Love the way he wears a toque so we can tell he's the bass player.

[@3603mailmaster]

I think your the pedal review G.O.A.T.

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Thank you so much!

[@marvelherman419]

Now thats tone.

[@GoCreateSomething]

How is it on bass? I suspect that blend knob might be good for keeping the low end when you add some distortion to a bass.

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Hmmm I haven’t tried it. But I really should.

[@serfinusa9532]

would be interesting to hear how it compares to a Klon Centaur or Analog Man King of Tone.

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Best I can do is a DS-1 and a Jar of Dirt

[@wesmitchem825]

It sounds great I've tried the original hot tubes out and didn't really dig it and doesn't jhs have a pedal called the crayon that's the same thing I've also tried some kinda overdrive from ehx with a tube in it or maybe it was a compressor I dunno it didn't seem to do a whole lot really

[@StompboxBreakdown]

It's really weird that EHX and JHS both released OD's called the crayon, but JHS's is a little-brother of the bigger "vintage mixing console in a pedal" Colour Box, but if what I read is right, it was just parallel thinking... and I think the EHX Crayon is more of a standalone OD pedal, whereas JHS's really is more like a warmth-injector vintage studio preamp. But yeah, EHX put out a couple of pedal with tubes, I have one of them, the Tube Zipper. You may have tried out the Black Finger. They also did the English Muff'n, and I think I'm forgetting one or two more. It's a strong flex, having a pedal like that in your signal chain, but pretty inconvenient with 12vAC 1000mAh power supply. Still, I can guarantee there's nothing else quite like 'em. I stupidly passed up a shot at a vintage Hot Tubes a while ago and am still kicking myself for it, although it does make me feel better reading from you that you didn't really dig it. Maybe it's for the best. Either way, next time I put together a guitar pedalboard, the Hot Wax is going on it.

[@wesmitchem825]

Your right I think it was the English muffin with the tube in it I tried really most pedals with tubes in em aren't all that great aside from like the butler tube driver hell even the tube screamer with a tube wasn't really my thing but then again I've never really wanted a midrange bump in my overdrives I dunno if rather have a more open sounding drive than anything and alot are all about the treble boost and not in a good way thank God more modern builders are realizing some of us like to retain the bass in our sound hell depending on the amp I use I'm always trying to make up for the bass lost by some pedals rather than the high end lost by cable capacitance I dunno alot of it is due to using solid state amps it seems introducing a tube preamp doesn't always work out too well I guess maybe if I ran into the fx loop and bypassed the solid state preamp it would sound better

[@Chrosa]

I didn't know you had a G&L. I have an ASAT Special and a LP Studio myself! My only two guitars and they cover everything I could need!

[@Chrosa]

Also I've had each of these pedals individually and I like both

[@StompboxBreakdown]

I definitely oscillate between favorites, but the G&L and Les Paul are definitely in heavy rotation. The Jazzmaster has also gone from being a "Why did I think I need this?" to a "How did I ever live without this?" instrument as well. Maybe it's the seasons or something. That ASAT Classic is a custom shop job I bought secondhand, and it's actually a semi-hollowbody but without the f-hole. Took a complete gamble on it, from a Reverb listing, but I knew right away that it had ended my search for a Telecaster that I actually enjoyed playing. They make some phenomenal instruments.

[@Chrosa]

@@StompboxBreakdown that's awesome man. My G&L is my number one. I really think they make the best $1500 ish instruments and the used market pricing is also fair. In general I'm not a fan of buying copies of fender or Gibson but since G&L IS Fender, I feel no guilt haha

[@StompboxBreakdown]

EXACTLY! Its like quitting a band and they keep covering your stuff, but your new band does it better.

[@therewasascene]

Eyyyyyy Classic 30!! :)

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Heck yeah!

[@therewasascene]

@@StompboxBreakdown Mine needs a power transformer (wamp-waaaamp) as of a couple days ago so it’s about to sit for a few months (gotta move across the country). JC-50 time. I’ll survive without tubes for a little while🥲 The Peavey was built in ‘94. I ain’t mad at ‘er. I’ve used an old Presonus Blue Tube preamp in front of the JC-50 before to add a little 12AX7 to the front end. It does…a little something. Not bad. Anyway, keep on truckin with the channel! I’m here. Subscribed as of this video I think. 🤘🏼🤘🏼

[@osoloco3651]

its very similar to the Maxon ROD881 but i think the Hot Wax sounds just a bit better & less noisy.

[@StompboxBreakdown]

Oh I’ve been curious about that one. Just might need to check it out. Thanks for watching!!

[@EricTheCleric93]

Basically a JHS Double Barrel...but only $120? They're probably going to sell a lot of these.

[@StompboxBreakdown]

I haven’t gotten to try out one of those yet. Looks like the Double Barrel is a TS and a Morning Glory, and while the features look similar, its probably voiced pretty different.

[@misterknightowlandco]

Save yourself some time and money just get the hot tubes. Great pedal.

[@jjschulz3472]

This was painful to listen to.

[@johnrogers2826]

That, was very interesting and entertaining. Talk about bring spoiled.