EarthQuaker Devices has unveiled an all-new version of its cult classic Life Pedal, offering the Sunn O))) signature octave fuzz and boost pedal in a more compact housing, and adding it to the production lineup for good.
That’s right. No more searching on the resale market for one of the original three variants, the HalfLife is officially part of the EQD lineup for good, and EarthQuaker Devices Founder and President Jamie Stillman has even made a few refinements to the pedal that has become the must-have stompbox for fans of Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley’s electric guitar tone.
As before, you have a fuzz/distortion circuit with a blendable analogue octave-up effect and a a discrete MOSFET-driven clean boost for smashing the front end of your guitar amp – “harmonic saturation and feedback bliss” await you.
Again, you can use these effects independently. There are switchable op-amp, asymmetric and symmetric clipping modes, too. For many metal guitar players – certainly those who don’t have the space or budget to amass Sunn O)))’s formidable backline – this is the ultimate doom pedal. But the HalfLife has a refined octave effect; Stillman’s modifications should make it more noticeable without losing any low end frequencies.
The circuit has been reworked; one of the reasons the original Life Pedals were limited run was because EQD was making them with NOS components. Here, we have modern components and – touch wood – a steady supply of them.
And the HalfLife is just that; it’s approximately half the size of the Life Pedals. Owing to this, you cannot switch the octave and fuzz separately as you could on the originals. But EQD says the control surface is more intuitive now that the Amplitude and Octave knobs have swapped places.
There were many signs that EQD’s Life Pedal was a success. Firstly, it sold out immediately. Secondly, it was not just being used by drone and doom guitarists. Musicians were using it on bass guitar, with synthesizers, and it became a staple in studios.
It is also EQD’s most-cloned pedal. The general public were not slow in letting EQD know that they wanted more of them. “At one point I felt like people were genuinely angry that we didn’t make more,” recalls Stillman.
What players were jonesing for was something quite different. The original Sunn O))) Life Pedal was designed to recreate O’Malley and Anderson’s front-end signal chain when they were tracking Life Metal under the auspices of the late, great Steve Albini.
The fuzz is inspired by pure stompbox unobtanium, rare circuits from vintage Japanese Shin-Ei FY2 and FY6 units. This then is fed into a “brutal take” on a Rat-style distortion.
Thereafter you have the boost, and on your pedalboard, the means to level the first few rows. You can add an expression pedal to control the octave. You can blend the octave effect to taste.
As per all EQD pedals, the HalfLife is made in Akron, OH. It has a lifetime warranty, and ships with EQD’s Flexi-Switch Technology.
“I’m ecstatic for the continuation of this LIFE-affirming collaboration with EarthQuaker Devices,” says Anderson. “May the sounds you create from the HalfLife be as deep as the forests and massive as the mountains.”
O’Malley says the pedal is steeped in Sunn O)))’s audio and visual aesthetic preoccupations, and urges those who add one to their ‘board to “enjoy this filthy pleasure”.
And you can do just that now. The HalfLife Octave Distortion + Booster is available now, priced £265/$259. Head over to EarthQuaker Devices for more.
