Humbucker Soup
If I could use only one pedal, what would it be?
If you are not sure how to answer this question, don’t worry, we can answer it for you.
Zvex Super Hard On
I once had a dream that I could make a deal with the Devil. He said: “I will give you all guitar skill you could ever dream of and you will play guitar at 100% of you ability, but you can only use one pedal, for as long as you live… do we have a deal?”
I said: “Sure, just gimme the Zvex Super Hard On”
Although there are several pedals that I consider to be in the “Holy Grail” category, such as the Fulltone OCD, there is only one pedal that for me, suits every need. This pedal is not really an overdrive, or even a distortion box per-se. it simply pushes your amp in a really strange and wonderful way.
The layout is insanely simple, two knobs: “On/Off” and “Crackle OK”. The On/Off control should require no explanation, but the”Crackle OK” knob… well. let’s just say that the crackle that you hear when you turn it up is OK, don’t worry about it.
At its lowest settings, the pedal simply addes a touch of body and bite to your sound. You will definitely notice a bit more “umph” in your sound. As you turn it up, you essentially get many of the characteristics of power tube drive, without the volume. If you can afford to turn up a bit, hold on to your hats, your amp will sound like someone poured nitro glycerine into one of the input jacks.
The reason that this one gets my vote for “One and only” is that in some cases, I might be doing a gig that does not require any overdrive or distortion at all. Perfect, the Super Hard on allows me to simply goose the amp a bit and git a slightly more complex sound. If I do have to use some drive, forget it, this baby really pushes your amp / pedals like crazy.
My favorite way to use this is in conjunction with an already slightly overdriven sound. For example, I get the sound I want out of my pedals / amp first, and make sure I am happy with it; I ask myself: “If I had to use this sound for the rest of the night, would I be happy with it?”. Once I can answer that question to my satisfaction, I turn on the Super Hard On. Then I adjust the SHO so that my sound is a bit more “Goosed” then before.
I would not recommend using this as an overdrive that you click on and off as there can be a bit of a “pop” when engaged, depending on your drive settings. It’s really more of a “Set it and forget it” pedal; you use it to sweeten your existing tone. I don’t mean sweeten in terms of high end, just the final touch of gain or complexity that you want.
I really can’t recommend this pedeal enough. It holds its value quite well so if you try it and for some reason dont’ like it, you can always sell it on eBbay and get most if not all of your money back. If you like your tone, but feel as if there is something “Missing”, give this pedal a shot, it really is something quite special.
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