Knife Drop: Jack White Synth Octave Fuzz
Synth, Octave Fuzz madness in one Jack White approved effect pedal!
5,0 / 5,0 | 
Knife Drop is the new Eventide and Third Man Hardware collaboration with Jack White. This latest effect combines a mono synth, fuzz, and more into one compact unit.
Knife Drop Eventide and Third Man Hardware
Jack White has been releasing new gear for the last few months. He has collaborated with Eventide and Third Man Hardware on the new Knife Drop pedal.
Combining monophonic analog synthesis with a sub-octave fuzz and giving it many options is very Jack White, so this pedal is all about extremes.
Experimental Fun
It is a pedal for guitarists who want to make a statement and a far cry from the reinvention of Klon overdrive circuits that other brands seem to focus on religiously.
It is also compatible with Eventide’s H90 Control, allowing the pedal to receive updates and new features.
Controls
The pedal has two footswitches, one for engaging the effect and the other for the octaves. The three primary control knobs are multi-function and will control Synth, Drive, and Level, or Attack, Resonance, and Cutoff. These can be accessed via the Alt LED Button on the top right of the pedal.
This should allow the user to dial in all manner of nastiness (in a good way) and helps to keep the unit compact and not menu-driven, which is a bonus.
Octaves & Buttons
The Octave LED button allows users to switch between Green (Upper octave only), Red (Upper + sub octaves), or Off (Octaves Off).
It is a valuable visual aid and easy to see on a dark stage, so there are no nasty surprises.
Filtering
Users can access filtering options and choose from pre- or post-distortion routing. The envelope for the filter attack can also be adjusted between 0 and 1000 ms, which means the filter can be either instantaneous or gradual.
According to the Eventide website, resonance and cutoff frequency controls can be dialed in precisely. The effect’s main output level can be -12 to +9 dB, allowing it to sit well in several different situations without (hopefully) blowing any speakers.
Presets & MIDI
The pedal also saves five presets, allowing users to make the most of these settings. It has room for accessing even more presets via MIDI (6–127) and controls for the pedal’s main control parameters.
Five presets personally designed by Jack White with very different sound characteristics are in Eventide Knife Drop when it ships Knife Drop, Dub Drop, Chainsaw, Hard Bounce, and Obsidian.
Expression
It also has a facility for working with an external expression pedal, which can be assigned to any knob parameters. They have also given it a mono or stereo input, and users can choose between line or guitar input, which opens up what you can use the Knife Drop with.
Verdict
The Knife Drop certainly looks like a lot of fun on paper. However, I would probably get lost using it quickly and have to read the manual. It has no menus, which is a huge positive, so I like that design aspect.
It will be interesting to see what musicians think of it and whether it receives any major software updates in the future.
Overall, I really think this could be a fun pedal and great to use in the studio and live with a band.
More Information
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