The Fowl Sounds Concrete Cliffs is a distortion pedal with a separate, foot-switchable Boost featuring a range of intuitive controls designed to offer extensive tonal shaping.
The clear knobs set the Gain and Volume for the base distortion and the number of decibels for the Boost, which can either increase or decrease the gain. The Gain knob spans from light overdrive to heavy distortion, even reaching gated, fuzzy tones at extreme settings.
At the center is a large, unlabeled knob surrounded by four LEDs, controlling a slew limiter that affects the high-end and reactivity of the distortion. The four settings range from clean and clear (green) to progressively darker and more artifact-laden as you turn left. These settings interact heavily with the Gain, Boost, and Treble controls, offering everything from pristine tones to chaotic, amp-like disintegration.
The EQ section is incredibly versatile. On the left, the Bass controls include a 14dB cut/boost knob and a Bass-Hz knob (84Hz-398Hz) for fine-tuning low-end frequencies, making it suitable for both guitar and bass. On the right, the Treble controls feature a 14dB shelf-style filter (1254Hz and up) for harmonic content and “airiness,” while the Tone knob acts as a high-cut filter (333Hz-22.5kHz), interacting with the Treble control for precise high-end shaping.
The Mid controls (blue knobs) are arguably the most critical, offering a parametric EQ with 14dB cut/boost on a selectable frequency range between 250Hz-1183Hz, and a Mid-Q knob to adjust the peakiness of the midrange. This allows for everything from mid-boosts like a Tubescreamer to mid-cuts like a Big Muff, or even extreme “chainsaw” tones for metal.
For simplicity, setting the Bass, Mid, and Treble knobs to noon bypasses the EQ circuit, making the pedal function like a classic drive.
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