Electro-HarmonixCrayon Full-Range Overdrive Pedal

I was pleasantly surprised at the versatility of this overdrive. The tone stack works great, from just a little extra sparkle to full on crunch. Well worth checking out!

The pedal is excellent, what I like is the tone that ranges from very soft, until a saturation type amplifier tubes.

The Electro-Harmonix (EHX) CRAYON 69 pedal arrived before the estimated delivery date BUT, again, without working properly. I should mention that, as a second buy of this same product, I was expecting not to have the same very poor quality control. It seems to me that the pedals I received were not tested at all before living the EHX facility, as a simple "connect and hit the foot-switch" test may indicate these problems. This was a frustrating experience, I am very disappointed with this U.S. company quality control.I would recommend instead the Joyo JF-01 Vintage Overdrive if you want a low price classic overdrive pedal (well built, basic controls) or the amazing Truetone V3 Jekyll and Hyde Overdrive and Distortion pedal (built like a tank, lots of controls, hide range, overdrive and distortion) if you are a big fan of The Strokes and would like to have similar tones, even if you have to pay more.Shame on you EHX!

The EHX Crayon is an affordable, versatile, and all-around solid overdrive pedal, but one that left me about as conflicted as any gear review I've been faced with. Marketed as a "full-range" overdrive, the EHX Crayon makes no apology for "coloring" your sound to provide thick, powerful overdrive tones. Since EHX has been busy cloning or reissuing a lot of popular designs in recent years, there is speculation that the "Crayon" might be clone of anything from a "Timmy" to a vintage Colorsound Overdriver. But most of that is speculation based on the control layout, and matters less than how the Crayon actually sounds.The trouble with reviewing "dirt" pedals is that their tones are so varied and subjective that you could talk yourself into a 5-star review for just about any pedal that didn't have a serious design flaw/omission. There are no glaring problems with the EHX Crayon. It's a pedal with a high amount of output (unity gain was around 9:30 on the volume knob for most of my amps). It covers a fairly decent range of what I would call the "medium" gain spectrum - probably comparable to the gain range of most Tubescreamers. And the EQ controls are quite powerful. As such, it would be pretty hard to criticize the Crayon for being either too bright or too muddy, since you tweak those properties fairly aggressively with the separate Bass and Treble knobs. Most popular overdrive pedals of the 80's and 90's only had a single tone knob (if they had one at all), so the two-band EQ is a nice feature that is becoming standard even on many of the more affordable pedals.So given all of that, what is it that had me conflicted about the Crayon? For one thing, I think it might require some extreme settings to dial into your amp. It was surprisingly bright with "all controls set to noon", and a lot of the EQ sweep seemed a little "same-ish" from 9:00 to 3:00, but would boost bass/treble more dramatically with the knobs all the way up or down. Also, it's not great as a clean boost pedal, probably because it is purposefully coloring your sound. But it can nail a decent range of overdrive sounds, and the EQ controls have enough range to dial it into bright and dark amps alike.UPDATE (03/22/2016) - After several attempts at setting aside the Crayon and pulling it out again, I remain disappointed by it. I even considered lowering my review to 3 stars, but didn't because there's nothing defective about the pedal or misleading about its description...it's just not a particularly strong offering, even compared to some of EHX's other recent affordable pedals. You have to really fight to keep it from being abrasive and harsh, both in terms of volume and treble output. I'm also surprised how quickly the pedal becomes dirty, which is too bad because it might have excelled as a clean(ish) boost pedal given the amount of output on tap. This one just isn't working for me, but perhaps it will work for someone else.

Output jack was faulty. Had to send it back. 😥

I cannot speak highly enough of this pedal. There is a deceptive amount of volume and gain on tap here. You may need to keep the dial between 9 o'clock and 10 o'clock for light overdrive settings. Chord clarity is excellent no matter how high you crank everything, and the EQ knobs are receptive and very helpful when switching between guitars. I don't review anything, ever, and this pedal is good enough to make me want to leave this review.

The crayon.A great pedal but a bit weird when you first plug it in didn't quite know what i was expecting but i've stuck with it and found its mojo. First off this isn't really transparent like the soul food and the east river drivethink of it like a razor blade with a serrated edge yep it cuts violently if you push it and it doesn't take much to go to far with the drive knob. Separate bass and treble which is a bonus but it actually needs it so you can calm it down a bit.Found mine to be a bit noisy maybe due to being more hi gain to what i'm used to but it could be where it is on my pedal board might be one of those pedals which doesn't play nicely with other pedals so i's a bit of what i'd call a brat pedal i will eventually move it around and see if i can combat this but i might add its not that noisy.Soundwise i've got some good 70s fuzz out of it right up to heavy metal and although its a beast it still might not be heavy enough for some. I actually bought it for that 70s fuzz sound and it has done it brilliantly hence the 5 stars also ehx are killing it at the moment top notch for the price. It's a pedal that needs a lot of tweaking and messing with which is my thing.I like it i like it a lot.

Very surprised by this pedal! My 2004 USA strat sounds completely different with this pedal engaged! It’s sort of a bright, cutting boost with a little bit of gain, but super sensitive, it’s very addictive and inspiring forLead parts! Turn up the gain and roll the volume and it’s very John Mayer continuum sorta of sound. Roll the gain and bass up and it makes my strat sound like a Gretch!! Weird pedal but great fun! Highly recommended if your looking for a totally new tone !!! Have not yet tried it with humbuckers

I was originally going to buy a tubescreamer or the excellent EHX green river drive but although both those pedals sound great I only really use that mid hump sound for a few songs. Enter the crayon! It's got some cute graphics on the front and , naturally for EXH , it's built like a tank. I was able to instantly dial in a good SRV style tone proving it could ape the little green box. By using the eq controls tho you can get a whole smorgasbord of tone from piercing trebles to fat bottom end thump. My only gripe about this pedal is you have to have a baby touch on the gain pot. It's really sensitive so unlike other pedal you need to remember where you set it, there's no ballpark here. Only 53 quid so much cheaper than either of the other pedals. I'm buying another as a backup!

Very good OD pedal - provides a nice, responsive range from an easy going, clean boost to a really distorted, dirty sound. Great if you're into blues, and driving a tube amp like a fender blues junior. Noise free and doesn't colour the tone in any unnatural ways.For me this lost out very slightly to the TCE mojomojo - really just a personal preference thing. This is slightly brighter and clearer than the mojo, which many might prefer. Still, if I'd never tried the mojo I'd be delighted with this. I recommend trying both alongside each other.All in all, this is a solid, high quality pedal the provided a wonderfully natural and dynamic overdrive.

This thing is amazing. Second pedal owned after purchasing a tuner pedal, and first purchased a Nano Big Muff of a co-worker recommendation, however the Big Muff was more distortion than desired. After watching multiple videos I pulled the trigger on the EHX Crayon and glad I did. Sound is amazing with a good range of distortion to keep it subtle which is what I wanted, with the ability to dial in bass and treble as well. Overall not too complicated a pedal to work with and dial in.Highly recommend if your on the fence about this pedal