My Dirt Bender - Another Jounal

[el murdoque]

Somehow, it went past me that Way Huge released the Smalls Series.
Funny.
They did combine the Pork Loin and the Russian Pickle in a single pedal.
But when you double the functionality, you gotta half something.
So they halved the size of the enclosure - but still included the option to put a battery in.

The Pork Loin already had some internal trim pots to adjust stuff, and so does this one.
I have not toyed around with them, but I suspect it's again a mass of clean blends and low pass filters at various points in the circuit. Plus a volume control for the fuzz and the overdrive.

This pedal has that really useful feature where the knob labeled 'Volume' really sets the volume.
Turining any of the other knobs, including gain, will not alter the output volume. That is really useful, especially with a pedal that can serve double duty as an OD and a fuzz.

I'd attest the OD circuit to be true to the "Soft Clip Injection" Pork Loin way of things.
Is it identical? No Idea - but it's at least very close. It's pleasant on the ear, the clipping is not what you'd want to use if your bandmates are from Sweden and play 7 string guitars.
It works really well in a mellower setting.

The pleasant surprise is the fuzz side of things.
To my untrained ear, this fuzz is not wooly, but sounds like a warm and friendly muff.

 

[el murdoque]

View attachment 4987564

Somehow, it went past me that Way Huge released the Smalls Series.
Funny.
They did combine the Pork Loin and the Russian Pickle in a single pedal.
But when you double the functionality, you gotta half something.
So they halved the size of the enclosure - but still included the option to put a battery in.

The Pork Loin already had some internal trim pots to adjust stuff, and so does this one.
I have not toyed around with them, but I suspect it's again a mass of clean blends and low pass filters at various points in the circuit. Plus a volume control for the fuzz and the overdrive.

This pedal has that really useful feature where the knob labeled 'Volume' really sets the volume.
Turining any of the other knobs, including gain, will not alter the output volume. That is really useful, especially with a pedal that can serve double duty as an OD and a fuzz.

I'd attest the OD circuit to be true to the "Soft Clip Injection" Pork Loin way of things.
Is it identical? No Idea - but it's at least very close. It's pleasant on the ear, the clipping is not what you'd want to use if your bandmates are from Sweden and play 7 string guitars.
It works really well in a mellower setting.

The pleasant surprise is the fuzz side of things.
To my untrained ear, this fuzz is not wooly, but sounds like a warm and friendly muff.

 

[sloppy_phil]

View attachment 4987564

Somehow, it went past me that Way Huge released the Smalls Series.
Funny.
They did combine the Pork Loin and the Russian Pickle in a single pedal.
But when you double the functionality, you gotta half something.
So they halved the size of the enclosure - but still included the option to put a battery in.

The Pork Loin already had some internal trim pots to adjust stuff, and so does this one.
I have not toyed around with them, but I suspect it's again a mass of clean blends and low pass filters at various points in the circuit. Plus a volume control for the fuzz and the overdrive.

This pedal has that really useful feature where the knob labeled 'Volume' really sets the volume.
Turining any of the other knobs, including gain, will not alter the output volume. That is really useful, especially with a pedal that can serve double duty as an OD and a fuzz.

I'd attest the OD circuit to be true to the "Soft Clip Injection" Pork Loin way of things.
Is it identical? No Idea - but it's at least very close. It's pleasant on the ear, the clipping is not what you'd want to use if your bandmates are from Sweden and play 7 string guitars.
It works really well in a mellower setting.

The pleasant surprise is the fuzz side of things.
To my untrained ear, this fuzz is not wooly, but sounds like a warm and friendly muff.

Is there enough funky sauce about it that you would keep it around? I know you gave the Pork side quite a good run through a while back, and seemingly never quite bonded with it. I've never really found the need/use for full-out fuzz, but that's obviously a YMMV-thing. Would you keep this one around just for the fuzz side of things?

 

[dedpool1052]

View attachment 4987564

Somehow, it went past me that Way Huge released the Smalls Series.
Funny.
They did combine the Pork Loin and the Russian Pickle in a single pedal.
But when you double the functionality, you gotta half something.
So they halved the size of the enclosure - but still included the option to put a battery in.

The Pork Loin already had some internal trim pots to adjust stuff, and so does this one.
I have not toyed around with them, but I suspect it's again a mass of clean blends and low pass filters at various points in the circuit. Plus a volume control for the fuzz and the overdrive.

This pedal has that really useful feature where the knob labeled 'Volume' really sets the volume.
Turining any of the other knobs, including gain, will not alter the output volume. That is really useful, especially with a pedal that can serve double duty as an OD and a fuzz.

I'd attest the OD circuit to be true to the "Soft Clip Injection" Pork Loin way of things.
Is it identical? No Idea - but it's at least very close. It's pleasant on the ear, the clipping is not what you'd want to use if your bandmates are from Sweden and play 7 string guitars.
It works really well in a mellower setting.

The pleasant surprise is the fuzz side of things.
To my untrained ear, this fuzz is not wooly, but sounds like a warm and friendly muff.

I had one of these, and really liked what I could get with the curve and presence trimpots all the way up.
It got me a similar feel as the MBD-1/2, but with more midrange, and a touch less "modern" sounding.

Confirmed before you can actually run it safely at 18V as well.

 

[el murdoque]

Is there enough funky sauce about it that you would keep it around? I know you gave the Pork side quite a good run through a while back, and seemingly never quite bonded with it. I've never really found the need/use for full-out fuzz, but that's obviously a YMMV-thing. Would you keep this one around just for the fuzz side of things?

I liked the Pork Loin. I think I sold it back then because I got other pedals that also managed to do the settings I used it for, but were more convincing when you turned the drive higher - I was also looking for more tone shaping capabilities back then. That soft clipping sound might come in handy on the synth side of things where you sometimes want the clipping to sound artificial. I've had great fun maxing the drive knob and playing into a phaser. Of those pedals I sold off after giving them a spin, the two that I'd sometimes like back were the Barbershop and the Pork Loin. I'll keep this one for now and see where it gets me.

I had one of these, and really liked what I could get with the curve and presence trimpots all the way up.
It got me a similar feel as the MBD-1/2, but with more midrange, and a touch less "modern" sounding.

Confirmed before you can actually run it safely at 18V as well.

The Smalls Series Pork and Pickle can run at 18V for more headroom?

IIRC, I've had my Pork Loin running wide open (curve, presence, tone - all these low pass filters with different names) and I actually enjoyed the clean tone, too.

 

[Mr. voodoobass]

I had the original russian pickle, liked it but found it a little dark. Tested it against the ehx russian muff(the latest series. Found the ehx sounding exactly like I wanted. Sold the pickle.
The pork n pickle does however add a clean blend to the fuzz side, that could be handy.

 

[sloppy_phil]

I liked the Pork Loin. I think I sold it back then because I got other pedals that also managed to do the settings I used it for, but were more convincing when you turned the drive higher - I was also looking for more tone shaping capabilities back then. That soft clipping sound might come in handy on the synth side of things where you sometimes want the clipping to sound artificial. I've had great fun maxing the drive knob and playing into a phaser. Of those pedals I sold off after giving them a spin, the two that I'd sometimes like back were the Barbershop and the Pork Loin. I'll keep this one for now and see where it gets me.

Are you finding any fizziness in the top end when running some big OD into the phaser? I learned that, contrary to conventional wisdom, putting the phaser before the drive can yield some surprisingly pleasing results. I've often found the fizzy/harsh treble to be really exaggerated when pushing heavy drive into phase-style pedals. But then, your dead flats probably don't respond in the conventional way, either lol

 

[el murdoque]

I had the original russian pickle, liked it but found it a little dark. Tested it against the ehx russian muff(the latest series. Found the ehx sounding exactly like I wanted. Sold the pickle.
The pork n pickle does however add a clean blend to the fuzz side, that could be handy.

The Pork Loin / Pork&Pickle clean blend is one of the best I ever tried. The 'british voiced preamp' that does not pass the signal unaltered might play a role in this, but more often than not, I found pedals with a clean blend often give you two voices - your clean sound and the added drive, and you can discern between the two. That's not what I'm after - and the Way Huge really blends it into a sauce where you can't make out where one ends and the other begins.

 

[dedpool1052]

The Smalls Series Pork and Pickle can run at 18V for more headroom?

Yup.
First confirmed by my throwing caution to the wind.

Secondly confirmed by @johnk_10 examining the board and seeing it's ok.

 

[el murdoque]

Are you finding any fizziness in the top end when running some big OD into the phaser? I learned that, contrary to conventional wisdom, putting the phaser before the drive can yield some surprisingly pleasing results. I've often found the fizzy/harsh treble to be really exaggerated when pushing heavy drive into phase-style pedals. But then, your dead flats probably don't respond in the conventional way, either lol

Not really. I'm using the Strymon Mobius as phaser and I have the 12 way thing selected. There is, of course, sizzle in the top end, but nothing unwanted.
I gave it a listen and there's nothing in there I don't want - I discovered dirt into phaser by accident, though.
To check if that might be once again an issue with my using flats, I bought a Dingwall with fresh rounds on it and played that into the dirt/phaser, but still no fizz, only sizzle.

 

[el murdoque]

I just ruined Hans Thomann's Saturday.

...by ordering a Zvex Mastotron. That poor man will have to get up, go into the storage, retrieve it, pack it and ship it while his wife is waiting in the golf cart. He's past 60, too. Do golf carts have horns so his annoyed wife can start honking it when he takes too long finding my shipping address in the computer system? I'll have to google that.

Nonetheless, that blue thing is now headed my way and since it says fuzz, it qualifies as dirt.

 

[sunbeast]

I just ruined Hans Thomann's Saturday.
View attachment 4995169
...by ordering a Zvex Mastotron. That poor man will have to get up, go into the storage, retrieve it, pack it and ship it while his wife is waiting in the golf cart. He's past 60, too. Do golf carts have horns so his annoyed wife can start honking it when he takes too long finding my shipping address in the computer system? I'll have to google that.

Nonetheless, that blue thing is now headed my way and since it says fuzz, it qualifies as dirt.

Mastotron is still my favorite all-around fuzz pedal after putting up against many that often cost twice as much. Amazing how much sound comes out of so few components

 

[el murdoque]

Mastotron is still my favorite all-around fuzz pedal after putting up against many that often cost twice as much. Amazing how much sound comes out of so few components

Too many people have that pedal on their board - and it seems that if they take it off, they are reluctant to sell it, and rather put it on the shelf for later. There must be something special going on. I'll find that out.
The fuzz bit on the Emma is a bit too - I want to say shrill. The highs are weird. I can see that in a chain with other pedals going on, but when you're aiming for the basic octave - fuzz - envelope setup for creating a bouncy synth, it's not what I'm looking for.

 

[sloppy_phil]

Well, has it arrived? Or did Hans somehow manage to avoid upsetting his wife-in-the-golf-cart by failing to pack it up for you...

 

[arepa_funk]

Too many people have that pedal on their board - and it seems that if they take it off, they are reluctant to sell it, and rather put it on the shelf for later. There must be something special going on. I'll find that out.

I am/was one of those. It was off for a long time, kept it, and now it'll likely go back on. Using a passive bass, my filters have a hard time triggering if I don't boost before them. The Mastotron is a perfect in that role, and the gated square wave tones are ideal for synth chains.

 

[Sugarbear08]

I'm really enjoying this chain at the moment:

Broughton hpf >
Sushi Box slampegg >
Creation audio labs grizzly >
Way huge Pork & pickle >
Source audio spectrum >
Broughton omnicomp

Hpf nixes the room boom and allows me to goose the bass on the slampegg. Slampegg > grizzly is sweet (with volume knob, I can go from grit to hair to overdrive)... add the pickle fuzz and it crushes, all while maintaining ample low end. Shoving all of this dirt into the spectrum (meatball setting) really makes it sing. Omnicomp to finish keeps things neat and juicy.

 

[deepestend]

View attachment 4987564

Somehow, it went past me that Way Huge released the Smalls Series.
Funny.
They did combine the Pork Loin and the Russian Pickle in a single pedal.
But when you double the functionality, you gotta half something.
So they halved the size of the enclosure - but still included the option to put a battery in.

The Pork Loin already had some internal trim pots to adjust stuff, and so does this one.
I have not toyed around with them, but I suspect it's again a mass of clean blends and low pass filters at various points in the circuit. Plus a volume control for the fuzz and the overdrive.

This pedal has that really useful feature where the knob labeled 'Volume' really sets the volume.
Turining any of the other knobs, including gain, will not alter the output volume. That is really useful, especially with a pedal that can serve double duty as an OD and a fuzz.

I'd attest the OD circuit to be true to the "Soft Clip Injection" Pork Loin way of things.
Is it identical? No Idea - but it's at least very close. It's pleasant on the ear, the clipping is not what you'd want to use if your bandmates are from Sweden and play 7 string guitars.
It works really well in a mellower setting.

The pleasant surprise is the fuzz side of things.
To my untrained ear, this fuzz is not wooly, but sounds like a warm and friendly muff.

I had this and while it sounded good, I had some user fatigue with all of the internal and external options. I just couldn't get my head around it. It taught me that I need something a lot simpler if I'm actually going to use it.

 

[sunbeast]

Too many people have that pedal on their board - and it seems that if they take it off, they are reluctant to sell it, and rather put it on the shelf for later. There must be something special going on. I'll find that out.
The fuzz bit on the Emma is a bit too - I want to say shrill. The highs are weird. I can see that in a chain with other pedals going on, but when you're aiming for the basic octave - fuzz - envelope setup for creating a bouncy synth, it's not what I'm looking for.

I’m kinda amazed everyone doesn’t have one! It’s one of those few fuzzes I’ve tried that neither loses lows or gets lost in the mix. It does seem to be a good option for fitting into the mix in a nice way- it retains punch but doesn’t get in the way of the guitars like some more raucous fuzz tones. I used for years as “just” a gated fuzz til I realized it does smooth non-gated tones really well too, and the interaction of the pinch (pulse wave), impedance (push) and fuzz controls allow for lots of different textures. It is very well rounded! I sometimes wish it had a bit more high/high-mid that could be dialed in (I like bright tones!), but I have found it stacks decently well with some other drives to add some of that and other character. Luckily mine was rehoused in a more typical orientation box with top jacks before I bought it, as the sideways orientation plus side-jacks would annoy the heck outta me!

 

[deepestend]

I’m kinda amazed everyone doesn’t have one! It’s one of those few fuzzes I’ve tried that neither loses lows or gets lost in the mix. It does seem to be a good option for fitting into the mix in a nice way- it retains punch but doesn’t get in the way of the guitars like some more raucous fuzz tones. I used for years as “just” a gated fuzz til I realized it does smooth non-gated tones really well too, and the interaction of the pinch (pulse wave), impedance (push) and fuzz controls allow for lots of different textures. It is very well rounded! I sometimes wish it had a bit more high/high-mid that could be dialed in (I like bright tones!), but I have found it stacks decently well with some other drives to add some of that and other character. Luckily mine was rehoused in a more typical orientation box with top jacks before I bought it, as the sideways orientation plus side-jacks would annoy the heck outta me!

Is it the same thing as a mastodon? Does anyone make a more pedalboard friendly version?

 

[sunbeast]

Is it the same thing as a mastodon? Does anyone make a more pedalboard friendly version?

My understanding is that the Mastotron is mostly the same circuit as a Wooly Mammoth just with added impedance adjustment (the push/relax control) and Subs switch, as the Mammoth is known to be very sensitive to input source (it wants to see a passive input, and an active input of any sort either instrument or activated pedal will make it misbehave). I can’t say for certain if these two pedals are in fact so similar- I’ve played through a Mammoth but never next to a Mastotron or opened one to compare circuits. I know they are incredibly simple circuits though, probably 30 or less components each. For some reason the Mammoth has been cloned a bunch but not so much the Mastotron.