Earthquaker Hummingbird


Earthquaker Devices is known for creating offbeat or strange pedals. Here is an example of accomplishing that goal with subtlety. The Hummingbird is a really fun take on tremolo. Using a sawtooth wave at any of three speed modes you can find a lot of fun, simple, or wacky trem sounds. You can also use it as a clean boost pedal when the Depth knob is at zero.

External Control: EXP
Cost: $

HornFX Review

Interface: 3.5/5
This pedal is straightforward and simple. The depth and rate knobs have an intuitive feel and are easy to pin at a spot that sounds good. The mode switcher is somewhat difficult to see in darker situations.

Versatility: 2.5/5
Although this pedal really only does tremolo, it can have a surprising amount of colors and textures with the three modes and the surprisingly large sweep of the rate knob (or expression pedal).

Clarity of Effect: 4/5
Wonderful clarity. The depth knob does exactly what it should and will saturate your tone as much as you could hope for.

Complexity: Simple

Complexity: Simple

Live application: 2/5
Tremolo is an effect not very well suited for horns, but if you have a use for it, this pedal will work nicely. It gives you more than the standard range of tremolo sounds, and can be a nice source of uncommon textures.

InterfaceVersatilityClarity of EffectLive ApplicationTotal Score
3.5/52.5/54/52/512/20

Product Information

The Hummingbird is a choppy, sawtooth tremolo modeled on the vintage “repeat percussion” unit and similar to those found in old Valco and Vox amplifiers. It is capable of producing everything from classic “50’s style” shimmering tremolo to a synthy, delay-like chop that turns your signal into a burst of short pings and on through to near ring modulation speeds. Simply choosing between modes 1 (slow), 2 (mid-tempo) or 3 (fast) and adjusting the rate and depth controls will unlock a whole new world of amplitude modulation at your feet. The Rate is also expression pedal accessible to allow instant changes on the fly. Using an expression pedal opens up the possibility of true random amplitude modulation! In addition to the modulation, the Hummingbird has plenty of clean gain on-tap allowing you to either boost or cut the signal using the level control. If the Depth is turned to zero, the Hummingbird will become a JFET clean boost!

Measures
4.625″ x 2.5″ x 2.25″ with knobs

Power
Our pedals take a standard 9 volt DC power supply with a 2.1mm negative center barrel. We always recommend pedal-specific, transformer-isolated wall-wart power supplies or multiple isolated-output supplies. Pedals will make extra noise if there is ripple or unclean power. Switching-type power supplies, daisy chains and non-pedal specific power supplies do not filter dirty power as well and let through unwanted noise. Do not run at higher voltages!
Current draw is 10 mA.

Product info taken from the Earthquaker website.