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NPD Way Huge Pork & Pickle

Clark W

Clark W

This Space For Rent!
Supporting Member
Aug 26, 2018
4,662
11,792
#1
So my Pork & Pickle got here about an hour ago. I'm thinking this is the last pedal I'll be getting as far as drive type fx goes, hopefully as far as all pedals go. Will place it between my Laney Black Country Customs "The Custard Factory" compressor and my Sushi Box "More" two tube, preamp.

Now that it's here, I think I can sit down tonight and piece my board back together.

So who uses this pedal and what are your thoughts?

Right now, until I mess with it, all I can say is... it is a very firm and well built feeling pedal, yet light. Appears to be of top notch construction.

I'm really curious about the internal trim pots, especially the presence and overdrive ones as I see myself using the overdrive side more so than the fuzz side

pnp.jpg
 
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#3
dedpool1052 said:
When I had mine, I left it plugged in, bass in hand, amp on.
Took off the back, would play a line, then tweak the trims until it met my tonal goals.
Only moved it along because I had other pedals that provided a low gain OD I preferred over it.

But in a pinch, I'd rock one again if I had to start over.
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I wholeheartedly concur: The only reason I'm not currently using the P&P is because I prefer other devices in the roles it provides. However, I'm not letting it go as it's a great "all-arounder" dirt pedal.

I preferred the pork to the pickle, but only because of my use case. The pork is great as a low gain OD. The pickle is a perfectly respectable fuzz... crushing, but creamy.

A useful device. Be patient with it and you will be rewarded.
 
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#4
Always wanted to try one. I had a modded Pork Loin and man that thing was amazing. It was my go to OD for a couple years until I got the MBD1. But I really liked the Pork Loin. Kinda wanna get one again. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this one. I've had the Swollen Pickle as well. Twice. Not sure why I kept selling it. Its a great pedal. I must've needed some cash :bawl:
 
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#5
gregmon79 said:
Always wanted to try one. I had a modded Pork Loin and man that thing was amazing. It was my go to OD for a couple years until I got the MBD1. But I really liked the Pork Loin. Kinda wanna get one again. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this one. I've had the Swollen Pickle as well. Twice. Not sure why I kept selling it. Its a great pedal. I must've needed some cash :bawl:
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Well I had planned on doing some pedal board work tonight testing and setting stuff up. But the current news coming out of Butler Co, Pennsylvania has got me glued to the news at the moment.
 
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#9
Many people mention it in the category of low gain OD, but to me the P&P is rally for moderate gain. First of all, it doesn't have enough clean headroom to get into subtle breakup territory, it's more of a fuzz over a clean blend. A fuzz over a clean blend can sound cool in a mix and sound good in its own way, but it isn't the same as subtle, amp-like breakup.

The clean side of that pedal sounds great though, and really adds the magic sauce. IMO the clean preamp is so good it helps make up for the actual OD channel being less inspiring. It's also one of the only clean blended OD pedals that has a tone dial for BOTH the clean blended and OD signal. Why is this so rare? As a moderate, clean blended OD it might be the best I've tried, and to me it sounded better than more expensive clean blended, moderate OD pedals (EBS Billy Sheehan, Jam Lucydreamer). I may regret selling it, but I don't currently have a use for that kind of OD.
 
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#10
DuluthDank said:
Many people mention it in the category of low gain OD, but to me the P&P is rally for moderate gain. First of all, it doesn't have enough clean headroom to get into subtle breakup territory, it's more of a fuzz over a clean blend. A fuzz over a clean blend can sound cool in a mix and sound good in its own way, but it isn't the same as subtle, amp-like breakup.

The clean side of that pedal sounds great though, and really adds the magic sauce. IMO the clean preamp is so good it helps make up for the actual OD channel being less inspiring. It's also one of the only clean blended OD pedals that has a tone dial for BOTH the clean blended and OD signal. Why is this so rare? As a moderate, clean blended OD it might be the best I've tried, and to me it sounded better than more expensive clean blended, moderate OD pedals (EBS Billy Sheehan, Jam Lucydreamer). I may regret selling it, but I don't currently have a use for that kind of OD.
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Well I had 50 bucks in GC rewards, and 75 on a digital Amex gift card for some survey I took last year, both were about to expire. So I threw in 77 bucks from my bank acct with them and bought the pedal. Figured I couldn't go too wrong for basically 77 bucks.
 
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#12
Just got mine in today, messing with the fuzz right now. Not really a fuzz guy but its fun so far, mainly got it for the OD side.

I’ve been through a bunch of overdrives lately trying to find something between transparent and colored.
 
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#16
klattman said:
No chance of edge of breakup with this one. It’s clean blended with dirt. The dirt doesn’t disappear no matter how soft you play unless you turn off all the drive knob.

Useful but not what I thought it was.
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Yup, that's what I found too. There is something that clips (hard) even with overdrive on almost zero. Probably not meant to distort, but it still does, and it makes it useless to me (since I want "edge of breakup").

And no, it doesn't help to run it at 18 Volt, I've tried.
 
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#17
Makten said:
Yup, that's what I found too. There is something that clips (hard) even with overdrive on almost zero. Probably not meant to distort, but it still does, and it makes it useless to me (since I want "edge of breakup").

And no, it doesn't help to run it at 18 Volt, I've tried.
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I even messed with the internal trim pots. It’s really a blended fuzz even on overdrive mode. It is a really good sounding light to heavy fuzz, possibly in my top three, as long as you aren’t needing edge of breakup overdrive, because that’s just not its thing.
 
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#19
klattman said:
I even messed with the internal trim pots. It’s really a blended fuzz even on overdrive mode. It is a really good sounding light to heavy fuzz, possibly in my top three, as long as you aren’t needing edge of breakup overdrive, because that’s just not its thing.
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Thing is, I'm pretty sure there is something wrong with the circuit, because you can hear that it's not the overdrive that is clipping hard. It's something else on top of that.
 

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