TwilightOdyssey
Darkness on the edge of Tone
Yesterday I had the opportunity to give the HomeBrew Electronics (HBE) BIG D overdrive/distortion pedal a workout for a couple of hours, and took some notes. Here are my initial impressions of the pedal. I will be testing it further today, and will have some sound clips up this week. I’m still trying to decide how to organize the clips since the pedal is so complex.
Quick background: I purchased the pedal at 30th St Guitars in NYC for approx. $250. All testing was done with a BKP Miracle Man bridge pickup and BKP Irish Tour neck pickup in an all-maple guitar. Amplifiers used was a 1985 Marshall JCM800. Cabinets used were a Carvin 1x12, Marshall 1922 2x12, and a slant Rivera 4x12.
THE OUTSIDE
The pedal itself is approx. 4.5” W, 3.5” D, and 2.0” H. The chasis is made of cast steel, and is very rugged. Some of the components are actually riveted to the chasis! The right side of the pedal has the input and 9v DC jacks. The left side of the pedal contains the output jack. Both the input and output jacks are locking Swtichcraft ¼” jacks. The pedal rests on four rubber feet, very well attached, but not so special that it would be hard to replace them. The paintjob on the pedal is amazing!! It has so many coats of day-glo orange paint that the pedal appears to be made of plastic. There is also a metal flake in the paint to give the pedal a ‘sparkly’ look.
The bottom panel is held in place by four nickel machine screws. I was a little disappointed to open the chasis and see an Eveready battery inside. (Pedal was brand new, so this must be the battery chosen by HBE; I prefer Duracel batteries, but I also like the “Golden Power” batteries that Fulltone stocks in their pedals as well.) I will be doing all further testing with a Duracel 9v battery.
Inside the pedal you can see the diode select switch, which is hardwired to the actual diodes, but covered in grey gook, covering the ‘secret’ components.
There are 4 knobs across the top of the pedal: Gain, Tone, Level, and Bigger. None of these knobs are indented at their ‘neutral’ position, and I don’t know what it is, but I will be calling HBE tomorrow to find out. All of the knobs are on extra long shafted pots, and the tapers are incredibly smooth. I would definitely use this pedal on a pedal board, not just sitting on the stage floor where an errant cable or accidental kick can move the knobs.
The middle of the pedal contains the clip select switch, which allows you to set the threshold for the gain slipping. When Hard is selected, the gain circuit has less headroom and clips sooner. When Soft is selected, the gain circuit has more headroom and takes more to clip. Generally speaking, the H setting worked well with the single coil pickup but was a bit too solid state sounding with the humbucker. The S setting worked a treat with the humbucker, and retained a glassy, vintage breakup sound for the single coil. For high gain single coil work, I would use the H setting, tho.
There are also two indicator lights in the middle of the pickup, one RED (for ON/OFF) and the other YELLOW (when the Bigger function is activated).
Quick background: I purchased the pedal at 30th St Guitars in NYC for approx. $250. All testing was done with a BKP Miracle Man bridge pickup and BKP Irish Tour neck pickup in an all-maple guitar. Amplifiers used was a 1985 Marshall JCM800. Cabinets used were a Carvin 1x12, Marshall 1922 2x12, and a slant Rivera 4x12.
THE OUTSIDE
The pedal itself is approx. 4.5” W, 3.5” D, and 2.0” H. The chasis is made of cast steel, and is very rugged. Some of the components are actually riveted to the chasis! The right side of the pedal has the input and 9v DC jacks. The left side of the pedal contains the output jack. Both the input and output jacks are locking Swtichcraft ¼” jacks. The pedal rests on four rubber feet, very well attached, but not so special that it would be hard to replace them. The paintjob on the pedal is amazing!! It has so many coats of day-glo orange paint that the pedal appears to be made of plastic. There is also a metal flake in the paint to give the pedal a ‘sparkly’ look.
The bottom panel is held in place by four nickel machine screws. I was a little disappointed to open the chasis and see an Eveready battery inside. (Pedal was brand new, so this must be the battery chosen by HBE; I prefer Duracel batteries, but I also like the “Golden Power” batteries that Fulltone stocks in their pedals as well.) I will be doing all further testing with a Duracel 9v battery.
Inside the pedal you can see the diode select switch, which is hardwired to the actual diodes, but covered in grey gook, covering the ‘secret’ components.
There are 4 knobs across the top of the pedal: Gain, Tone, Level, and Bigger. None of these knobs are indented at their ‘neutral’ position, and I don’t know what it is, but I will be calling HBE tomorrow to find out. All of the knobs are on extra long shafted pots, and the tapers are incredibly smooth. I would definitely use this pedal on a pedal board, not just sitting on the stage floor where an errant cable or accidental kick can move the knobs.
The middle of the pedal contains the clip select switch, which allows you to set the threshold for the gain slipping. When Hard is selected, the gain circuit has less headroom and clips sooner. When Soft is selected, the gain circuit has more headroom and takes more to clip. Generally speaking, the H setting worked well with the single coil pickup but was a bit too solid state sounding with the humbucker. The S setting worked a treat with the humbucker, and retained a glassy, vintage breakup sound for the single coil. For high gain single coil work, I would use the H setting, tho.
There are also two indicator lights in the middle of the pickup, one RED (for ON/OFF) and the other YELLOW (when the Bigger function is activated).
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