West Co Grease Juicer

The West Co Grease Juicer is a fuzz and envelope filter pedal in one box, announced by California's West Co Pedals in February 2019¹. What sets it apart from most filter pedals is its signal path: an analog fuzz runs into the front of the envelope filter through a sidechain, so the fuzz feeds and drives the filter rather than sitting after it²³. The fuzz section is footswitch-able, and the pedal can also run as a clean envelope filter on its own³⁴.

It was designed by session drummer Curt "Kirkee B" Bisquera in collaboration with Bob Daspit of West Co Pedals, and it was the company's first signature pedal³. MusicRadar's Michael Astley-Brown noted it as "the first signature pedal for a drummer that we can recall"⁵.

Fuzz into an envelope filter with a sidechain

Most pedals that combine fuzz and filtering put the filter first or treat them as parallel effects. The Grease Juicer instead runs the fuzz in front of the envelope filter, with a sidechain connecting the two²¹. In practice this means the fuzz shapes what the filter reacts to: the envelope follower that sweeps the filter is driven by the signal coming out of the fuzz stage, so the character of the fuzz changes how the filter opens and closes.

The fuzz is footswitch-able, so a player can bring it in and out while the envelope filter stays active⁴. With the fuzz off, the pedal works as a conventional envelope filter, responding to picking dynamics the way any filter pedal does.

The controls

The five knobs cover the fuzz, the filter and how they interact⁴:

Sense sets how hard you have to play to open the filter, Juice sets how peaked the filter's resonance is, and Grease sets how much fuzz feeds the front of the chain. Sizzle controls gating, which tightens the decay of the effect. Volume dials the overall level in⁴.

Guitar and bass versions

The Grease Juicer ships in two versions, one voiced specifically for bass and another tuned specifically for electric guitar³. The two are told apart by their knob and LED color: green for the bass version, orange for the guitar version². The detector and audio circuits in each are specifically tweaked for their instrument, which matters for a filter pedal since an envelope follower has to track the input level of whatever is plugged into it¹⁴.

Bassist Kaveh Rastegar was named as using the Grease Juicer on tour with John Legend and in the studio³:

The announcement also says the pedal works beyond guitar and bass, sounding "incredible on synths, electric piano, and clavinet"². A demo video was made by guitarist Pete Thorn, who has played with Chris Cornell and Melissa Etheridge, featuring Curt Bisquera².

A signature pedal for a drummer

Curt Bisquera came to West Co Pedals to collaborate on an envelope filter for bass players to use while recording and performing, and the result became the company's first signature pedal³. Signature pedals are normally associated with guitarists and bassists, which is why MusicRadar flagged this one as unusual⁵.

The pedal was sold as a limited edition, and the first 10 units were signed by Curt Bisquera⁴⁵. At launch it was available through Clif Jones' LA Vintage Gear store in Burbank, California, or through the West Co Pedals website³.

Videos

Click to load

Click to load

Click to load

Questions