EarthQuaker Devices Special Cranker Overdrive

EarthQuaker Devices Special Cranker

The EarthQuaker Devices Special Cranker is an all-discrete analogue distortion device. It gives your signal some extra grit and boost without altering your tone. It retains all of the natural nuances and character of your amp.

Think of it as sticking an extra preamp tube in your amplifier for more saturation. Single notes will blossom and bloom with rich harmonics and singing sustain with responsive, tube-like sag.

Power chords will sound thicker and crunchier, a little more ragged around the edges. Complex chords remain distinct and complex. The Special Cranker keeps your tone’s integrity without smearing the midrange.

The Special Cranker picks up where our beloved Speaker Cranker left off.

It has the same spongy, dynamic, and touch-sensitive character of the original but with more gain, double the output volume (now with a user-friendly Level control), an added Tone control to shape your signal, and a diode selector switch featuring the original asymmetrical silicon diodes as well as a hot, new germanium diode option.

Main Features:

• Gives your signal extra grit and boost without altering your tone and retains all of the natural nuances and character of your amplifier.
• Two distinct clipping modes that are both very responsive
• Two playing dynamics: Germanium and Silicon
• Germanium mode delivers a softer, more rounded response with tamed highs and lower output.
• Silicon mode delivers a brighter, more modern response with higher output.
• At maximum gain, the Special Cranker can achieve explosive over biased tones depending on the output of your pickups.
• Flexible Tone control to give the user full command over the treble frequencies for excellent tone shaping and clarity.
• All-analog signal path
• True bypass
• Silent relay-based switching with Flexi-Switch® Technology
• Powered by regular 9 V DC PSU
• Neg centre -, 2,1 mm, ~15 mA current draw

The More control goes from nearly clean to a medium gain overdrive when at maximum.

This control adjusts the bias of the transistor, so you may hear a little noise as you turn the control.Don’t freak out; it’s totally fine.

The gain characteristics are dependent on which diodes are chosen.

When the Germanium diodes are selected, the Special Cranker delivers a softer, more rounded response with tamed highs and lower output, while the Silicon diodes add a brighter, more modern edge and higher output.

Both are very responsive to playing dynamics and have excellent clarity. The Tone control gives the user full command over treble frequencies, cutting the highs when left and adding a slight high-frequency boost when turned right. The Level control adjusts the output from nothing to nearly double at maximum.