Hizumitas™
Fuzz Sustainar
The Hizumitas was designed for the one and only guitar magician, Wata, from the legendary band Boris! We couldn't be more excited to have the honor of working with such an iconic legend known for his crushing riffs and stunning leads. The Hizumitas is a sonically faithful recreation of his favorite distortion that has been a staple of his sound for many years: the Elk BM Sustainar.
1. Volume: Adjusts the output volume. The unit is around 9-10 o'clock.
2. Sustain: more clockwise distortion and sustain; less counterclockwise.
3. Tone: Increase the low frequencies clockwise and increase the treble counterclockwise. This control has a huge effect on the character of Hizumitas.
Design Notes
The Elk Sustainar is a Japanese variant of the better known “Triangle” BMP. During development, we used several vintage models of the BMP, as well as a few different versions of the Elk, and quickly realized that they were all very different. The only way we were going to truly capture the magic was to get our hands on his original pedal. Wata was kind enough to send his beloved pedal halfway around the world so we could see what made it tick. Right away we realized it had something special that none of the others had - heavy saturation with a gritty edge and massive bottom while maintaining a clear, dynamic sound with ample mids and treble to cut through mud. We set out to faithfully recreate all of these features in the Hizumitas!
The Hizumitas has plenty of heavy distortion and smooth sustain with an underlying grain that makes the speakers sound like they're about to rip apart, while delivering incredible clarity that you wouldn't expect from a its also aggressive. The Sustain control has a wide saturation range, so even small changes will have a big effect on the overall tone. The Hizumitas has excellent response to different mic types and playing dynamics. Power chords sound huge and heavy, open chords are dynamic with fantastic note separation, and single-note leads are smooth and powerful, especially when using the neck pickup.
The Tone control is atypical for this type of distortion and can radically change the character of the distortion in conjunction with the Sustain setting. Low frequencies are emphasized clockwise while high frequencies are emphasized when rotated counterclockwise. The treble side can range from piercing highs to an aggressive midrange grind. As the Tone is turned clockwise, the mids become less present, the highs are tamed, and a massive, thunderous bass comes to the fore.
As you might expect, there is a lot of output gain on tap, so be careful. The unit is around 9-10am and everything above it is about to destroy itself.
