software

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).

SONICS AND TESTING
Okay, how does the pedal sound? It’s GREAT!! Is it better than the Fulltone Full-Drive 2? For my taste, yes, it is. One of the settings is comparable to the FD2, but it’s definitely not identical. The HBE is much more open and transparent sounding, much higher gain, and much louder. It’s not as soft sounding as the FD2, nor does it sound so tube like.

I dialed in a tone on the JCM800 to the point where there was the barest amount of tube breakup. (Gain on 5, Boost Volume on 2.5, Master Volume on 3) With the HBE on, but with and the Level set just above unity gain (slightly louder with the pedal on), the amp was already driven right into a singing, vintage overdrive!! When the gain is turned up, the tone goes into beautifully saturated distortion, very high in harmonic content. I was able to get pinch harmonics with no problem, yet could still hear every note in a chord.

Initially, I thought that the pedal sounded very ‘transistory’ … you could hear the pedal’s effect over that of the amp. When I switched to the 2x12, though, this went away and the tone really opened up!! Switching to the 4x12, the tone opened up even more, and I could hear that more gain would be needed to get all 4 drivers to sound properly distorted.

I systematically went through all 5 of the diode settings, both with hard and soft clipping. The setting I like the most right now is #3, Soft clipping, with the Gain, Tone, and Level at 12:00.

When I switched on the “Bigger” effect, I could see why this is not called a boost. It is another gain stage. When turned up too high, I was getting feedback. At a lower setting, it filled out the tone nicely, but I really didn’t have time to do any critical listening with Bigger being on and off. I hope to get that done tonight.

My conclusion to the first round of testing is – this pedal can do it all, from mild boosting of the input of your tube amp all the way to power metal tones. I was surprised at how modern of a power metal tone I was getting from the JCM800 … a very hot rodded tone I associate with bands like Silent Force, Helloween, Firewind, Hammerfall, etc.

In Part 2, I will have clips overviewing what the pedal sounds like.

VERY nice!

you got me wondering when you said you replaced your fulltone with it and now i see why.. you got everything you need in one pedal

very cool.. but 250? it's a little bit steep (at least for me)

dude, i think a bird sh!t in ur pedal or something.

That looks like a VERY cool pedal. I was going to pickup a Fulltone until I read this stuff....

I am honestly not quite sure how I would use a OD pedal. My heads all generate MORE than enough gain. I was thinking of getting something to use on the clean channel to give me a completely different kind of overdriven tone versus the OD channel on my head.

I'm glad you like the pedal mate

I thought it was a little too bright sounding for my tastes, but as long as it fits what you want, then it's all good

Craig


Originally Posted by RGNThat looks like a VERY cool pedal. I was going to pickup a Fulltone until I read this stuff....

I am honestly not quite sure how I would use a OD pedal. My heads all generate MORE than enough gain. I was thinking of getting something to use on the clean channel to give me a completely different kind of overdriven tone versus the OD channel on my head.

I would go to a shop that has both and compare 'em head to head. Like Brow said, he preferred the EMMA pedal, which I thought was too tubby/warm. He thought the HBE was too bright; what works for one person may not work for the other ...

My heads have no issues with gain, either. I prefer to just get a dry, overdriven tone from the head, and then add an OD to it. I find that this creates a more 3 dimensional kind of sound, and has more harmonic content.

I've never liked ANY OD pedal on the clean channel of my amps; it sounds too artificial to me; but, that's my personal taste.


Originally Posted by TwilightOdysseyLike Brow said, he preferred the EMMA pedal, which I thought was too tubby/warm. He thought the HBE was too bright; what works for one person may not work for the other ...

The HBE (apart from sounding a little too bright for my tastes) was also a little too complicated for what I was looking for Not that having a pedal that has lots of options is a bad thing, I was just after more of a 'plug and play' Fuzz pedal

I'm looking forward to hearing the clips mate


Originally Posted by TwilightOdysseyMy heads have no issues with gain, either. I prefer to just get a dry, overdriven tone from the head, and then add an OD to it. I find that this creates a more 3 dimensional kind of sound, and has more harmonic content.

yea.. i found that out too. rather than using just the amp's distortion (nothing wrong with that though) for a two tone type of effect (guitar amp), you use the pedal to color the sound, so you get a 3 dimensional sound (in Ben's words) cos every pedal i heard/tried didnt force it's own sound on the amp, but colored it (some more, some less) and added some frequencies which just the guitar and amp cannot produce and give it a fuller sound (not always though.. if you use too much OD and everything, things tend to get too thin and ****ty)


Originally Posted by TwilightOdysseyI would go to a shop that has both and compare 'em head to head. Like Brow said, he preferred the EMMA pedal, which I thought was too tubby/warm. He thought the HBE was too bright; what works for one person may not work for the other ...

My heads have no issues with gain, either. I prefer to just get a dry, overdriven tone from the head, and then add an OD to it. I find that this creates a more 3 dimensional kind of sound, and has more harmonic content.

I've never liked ANY OD pedal on the clean channel of my amps; it sounds too artificial to me; but, that's my personal taste.

The odds of me finding a single HB pedal within 100 miles is probably about 200-1. I doubt there is even a Fulltone dealer in the Dallas area! Here there is GC and well,... not much else. I am going to Vegas in a couple weeks. Maybe Ed Roman has boutique pedals


Originally Posted by RGNThe odds of me finding a single HB pedal within 100 miles is probably about 200-1. I doubt there is even a Fulltone dealer in the Dallas area! Here there is GC and well,... not much else. I am going to Vegas in a couple weeks. Maybe Ed Roman has boutique pedals

HA! That made me laugh out loud; sorry, I sometimes forget that not everyone has access to all the crap we have here in the City That Never Sleeps.

That being said, RGN, you will be pleased to know that Guitar Center IS a Fulltone Dealer!!!!

So, go down and tell them they need to demo the pedals!

The test rig ...
Sorry, it just looked too cool NOT to post it!!

Sorry, I'm not that interested in either pedal, but that guitar looks incredibly badass.


Originally Posted by twoheadedboySorry, I'm not that interested in either pedal, but that guitar looks incredibly badass.

Thank ye!

Good review.

EMMA?


Originally Posted by RainmakerGood review.

EMMA?

The EMMA was 1 of the pedals that I bought