Electro-Harmonix Crayon 69 Full-range Overdrive Pedal Reviews

I don't normally comment on pedals but this one was incredible bang for the buck. I have used it with three different amps and put it on my main pedal board as a replacement to another, more expensive pedal. I use a Wampler Belle is on my mini-board but find the Crayon a tad easier to adjust on the fly. Love the no-frills treble and bass controls, especially since one of my amps is overly dark.

The main reason I am writing this review is to praise Sweetwater on how fast the shipping process was. I ordered a few items locally a month ago but the Crayon from Sweetwater was purchased, shipped and received in a shorter time span than the other items was purchased and shipped locally. Plus, Sweetwater shipped for free!

Guess there is only one place to go and that is Sweetwater.

Full disclosure, I use OD pedals to push my tube amp's preamp and add a different flavor of dirt to my tone. I don't use them as an amp-in-a-box to give me higher gain tones over a clean amp. For my application this pedal really shines. It cleans up without sounding thin when you roll off the guitar volume then pushes the preamp and adds its own dirt as you add guitar volume. It adds a nice mid boost if you back off the treble and bass controls too.

Great pedal! Love the way it goes from a sparkling clean to a medium gain pedal. The independent bass and treble controls are very effective. Very transparent too!

Excellant pedal just what i needed to get the high gain tone I wanted

I took a chance on this for the price on the expectation I could use it as an economical treble booster (rangemaster clones go for 200 or more). It meets expectations there, as I can get a reasonable enough approximation of Brian May for my liking. (When you get down to it, that tone is actually pretty awful playing anything but Brian!)
But this may be more versatile than straight treble boosters for full range--not full eq, but you can scoop or peak it, or favor the high or low ranges for style. Great basic gain tone when set flat-ish.

This is a great overdrive pedal! It has a warm, round, yet "dirty" sound. Perfect for what I was looking for. The EQ is very musical...it's a fantastic upgrade from the standard "tone" knob on most overdrive pedals. Build quality is excellent! You won't be disappointed.

I got the Crayon pedal for my Bugera G5 and my Bugera T5. Works great on the clean channel. Great boost and overdrive distortion. Give it a try. For the price you can't go wrong.

this overdrive reminds me of a peavey classic 30,peavey duce or a vaulve king 100 amp turned up. a lynyrd skynyrd style thing happening.i've been looking for something like this overdrive pedal for some time now.i wait no longer...

Back in the 1970's I used an EHX Small Stone Phaser. I've been an EHXaholic ever since. The Crayon 69 definitely lives up to the EHX standard of quality and craftmanship. I was looking for an overdrive to give my Jaguar (Nadine) just a little bit of bite. Nothing over the top. The Crayon 69 filled that bill to a tee. Of course it can be driven to a hefty bit of dirt if one wanted to do so but for me the tone quality at the lower levels where I play it are just perfect. EHX ya got me for life!

I've had the EHX Crayon about 4 months now. I own at least 10 other EHX pedals; all have proven top-notch and each one has integrated easily with my work as a songwriter.

Sure, there's "spendier" stuff out there.
But let's face it: Mike Matthews was there when it was all taking off; the sound, the fury and the rock and roll; Mike did us ALL a favor by chasing those gains, distortions and modulations he heard on his head and bestowed them in the form of his pedal creations on the the best guitarists in rock & roll...
and he has made incredibly affordable.

Favorite Electro-Harmonix Overdrives? Soul Food, East River Drive and most recently, the Hot Tubes.
Each of these OD pedals has such definitive character, it's easy to pair them with whatever track need I have.
(For sonic references? I tend to play a Gretsch Country Gentleman, an American made Tele Deluxe or a Ric 330 run through a Fender Twin and/or one of the new Fender Blues, Jr's IV, which I've reviewed, as well.)

Honestly? The Crayon's strengths are exactly what it's "ink" states. Full-Range is exactly the territory it covers. Shane's review below nails it: The Crayon has great tone, very responsive EQ and is (best of all) incredibly musical.

My Tube Screamer still gets the call here and there, but honestly? That's happening less and less.
When the Crayon is stacked with the Soul Food or the East River Drive there is a magic spectrum of "fat-ness" that manifests. It is atone that is defined (as opposed to murky), and articulate (as opposed to muddy.) Think Mark Knopfler's intro to "Money for Nothing" or a Joe Walsh progression.

This pedal broadens the scope of your tone and plays well with each of my guitars.
EHX has made dialing in the sweet spots an art form. The price for this inspiration is a steal.
Bravo, folks!

Thanks & accolades to Sweetwater rep. Aaron Regenold for consistent great advice & suggestions.
Thanks to the ever creative guitar guru, Don Carr for exceptional vids on the products.

I don't give five stars on much these days, but this pedal actually deserves it!! Great tone, superb EQ control, and the gain stage is extremely musical. Use it as a boost, or an organic sounding overdrive. Stacked with the Soul Food overdrive and it sounds super full and gritty...but not at all harsh! Get it now before they raise the price!

I'm not really a fan of overdrives, but I saw this pedal being used as a boost in a video by EHX... I was a bit skeptical about this pedal... But I plugged it in when it showed up, and it's exactly what I needed for my pedal board!

I bought this on a whim since it wasn't very expensive. And, I have more than enough OD/Dist/Dirt boxes.. but man oh man was I pleasantly surprised by this great little box! I use a pretty high gain pre-amp into my tube amp for most stuff, but I've been on the hunt for a good LOW gain box I can easily stomp on when the need arises, instead of needing to reach down to my board and crank down the gain.. this is the solution.. It has a great cranked tube amp tone with smooth break up even at the 10 o'clock position.. it's perfect for early Zeppelin, or 70's Joe Walsh type tone.. and it works perfectly for boosting the front end of my tube amp... this is NOT another Tube Screamer clone.. there is no honky mid-range.. unless you want it.. this cant be beat for 60 bucks.. I like it even better than the Soul Food... get one now!

That's a satisfying 75 bucks! Bought it go with my Pignose, for walking around the city. Sounds so good. I've also been running it through a tweed in my Positive Grid stuff. Also, great. The missing half of that last star is because the switch is pretty difficult to depress. Dang near gotta balance yourself on it and jump. Still, I wouldn't trade or sell it unless I was gonna make a profit.

Spent about 30 minutes or so playing in this for the first time today through my Mark V:35's clean channel on a few different gain settings. This is an amazing pedal for the price point!

Simple to use and we'll worth the dinero. Add new dimension to your music and color a piece of music to the sound in your head. You can't go wrong and sweet water will help you get it done

I was looking for a pedal to beef up the tone on my Stratocasters and this is exactly what I got. A sweet full tone, not extreme but enough to carry you to the border of break up, and it'll give you a full deep throated tone. Gone is the twang. Now is just a deep sweet full tone without losing the natural characteristic tone of your guitar. Extreme articulate and transparent. One of my favorite pedals, together with the Pigtronix Philosopher's Tone you'll fall in love all over again with the sweet sound of the 6 string.

I'll give it a 4.5. The pedal just pours out the tone and the active eq attributes are a definite enhancement. For the money I don't see another dirt pedal beating this one. The Mooer Rumble comes closest. This pedal can clean up and become a boost but it's a touchy spot. It sounds awesome pushing other dirt pedals or an overdrive amp.

Great addition to my existing lineup. This pedal rocks.

Big fan of the OCD and MXR Distortion II but the Crayon has now taken over as #1. This pedal's overdrive isn't bright but isn't too dark. It is similar sounding to the OCD but better. More definition and grit in my opinion. Sounds like a tube amp overdrive/distortion with more presence. Definitely has a enough gain to crank for hard rock. I am very happy with it and for the price it's a must buy. There is no better pedal in this class or price point. Well done Electro-Harmonix!

Ok, everybody is looking for something different in a dirt pedal, I get it. But after trying this one and that one, I just might have found something I am really satisfied with, something that sounds like my amp driven to it's limit, without the mid boost. (I've never heard any amp magically boost the mids when it's cranked). A nice flat response and smooth overdrive is what I hear from the EHX Crayon. Maybe the search is over for me…..? Thanks Aaron R for great customer service.

I haven't been playing for a super long time nor have i used a lot of overdrive's so i feel my taste isn't experienced enough to rightfully give this pedal 5 stars, otherwise i would. This pedal gives you the option of having a good rich clean boost, to punchy overdrive(set to whatever tone you prefer with the bass and treble knobs), to a decently heavy metal distortion, to a warm but bity fuzz. On a side note it arrived a day early with free shipping, packed extremely securely with 2 types of bubble wrap, a little bag of candy and a letter from sweetwater. Customer service 10/10 for sure.

Awesome overdrive.I use it in front of my tube amp to help push the gain and color up the tone. My only complaint is that despite trying a variety of setups and cables this pedal did add a lot of feedback to my signal even at low gain. Awesome job by Sweetwater with keeping me in the loop with the shipping process.