One of the coolest things to hit the pedal scene last year was the return of the Way Huge pedal line. Anyone who's hip on hip stompboxes knows the name of Way Huge and the man behind the plan, Mr. George Tripp. I had a chance to put the first three Way Huge pedal releases through their paces and was impressed by each and every one of them. I was able to pull a huge number of tones from all three pedals and found them to work beautifully through everything I ran them through. These new pedals are a great way for those who didn't have a chance to get their hands on the first run, and a perfect way to get inside the mind of electronics madman Mr. Tripp. Anyone looking to downsize their pedalboards while maintaining a wide variety of sounds would benefit highly from these pedals. Or if you're just looking to take your sound to the level, looking for something new and exciting, or are in need of a tonal facelift. The Way Huge pedals will hand over exactly what you're looking for. Hold on tight, we're going in.
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Way Huge Electronics
Benicia, CA
Designer: George Tripp
Years in the Game: Plenty
Pork Loin
Soft Clip Injection
Top Controls
* Volume: Controls the pedal's overall output level
* Tone: LPF used to roll-off high end.
* Overdrive: Used to dial-in grit amount
* Clean: Blends in clean preamp signal
* Curve: Used to fine-tune overdrive's character
Internal Controls
* Filter: Adjusts the clean preamp tonal spectrum
* Presence: Tweaks the high-end on the overdrive
* Drive Mix: Controls the mix of the overdrive.
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So there you have it, another genius control layout making up one of the baddest stompboxes to ever hit the stompbox world. It's definitely the tuffest purple stompbox I've ever come across. Again I was dumbfounded by the ability of another Way Huge pedal, dumbfounded and left out to dry. I felt as if the Pork Loin had taken my overdrive virginity, showing me overdrive tones I never knew I could hit. I must have ran this damn pedal through every amp and guitar imaginable and ended up highly impressed each time. The Pork Loin loved single coils and humbuckers the same, dug huge/fat clean settings, and thrived in over saturated drive tones. The Pork Loin's magic lies in the clean "british style" premp sound and smooth overdrive that it pushes into your root tone. The outcome is one of the richest, fattest, and most harmonic driven overdrive tones you will ever hear. On the pedal's face you'll find what may seem like not too special of a control layout, a Volume/Tone/and Overdrive. Then you look a little closer and realize there's more, like internal controls that consist of a Filter/Presence/and Drive Mix. Thhhhen you look even closer and realize the controls are not your typical run-of-the-mill control pedal features. How slick a man that George Tripp is, an absolute madman of the game. I had no problems pairing up the Pork Loin with other pedals, and even got great results using it through other instruments such as bass guitars, Rhodes keyboards, and lap steels. Oh what a good time I had, and absolute great time if you really want to know.
Live Situation
The first setup I plugged the Pork Loin into was my modified 4x10 Deville and beautiful custom Tele otherwise known as "Lady". I was to sit in with a buddy's band the day the pedal arrived and was told to bring a mellow setup, "There ain't much room on the stage we're goin to be playing on so make sure to keep it simple brother.", is what my friend said to me. I did need something loud, something capable of mucho tones, and most important a decent tone. What I ended up with that night was more than a decent tone. I figured I'd take the pedal along for the ride and test it out in a live situation first, whatever the outcome was up to fate. Other than the Pork Loin, the Deville, and Tele I also had a tuner, clean booster, vibe, and delay pedal. When I was dialing in my root tones for the night I set my amp like I always do for live setups, everything at 7, reverb at 2-3, and volume to fit the room. Then I kicked in the Way Huge pedal, I had no idea what to expect. I had faith in the pedal because of my prior experiences with the Fat Sandwich and Swollen Pickle. I started by cutting the pedal's volume all the way down then turning it up to match my root tone. I worked each of the pedal's knobs from the middle into the desired settings and went from there. In fact, with everything at noon I was able to get a killer tone! For my semi-dirty tones I ended up setting the pedal with it's Overdrive at 10'o'clock, Tone at 1'o'clock, Curve at noon, and Clean signal just passed noon. The internal settings were set at their stock position, getting to them was going to be tuff while playing a show. The sound ended up being a perfect blend between gritty and sparkling clean. The two sounds combined created something of a Kieth Richards meets a blackface amp tone, it worked wonders for my rhythm parts. I had all the clarity and sparkle I needed, and just the right amount of grit and grime thanks to the Pork Loin. All it took to get back to a semi-clean tone was rolling the guitar's volume back a bit. Once I had that setting marked off I moved onto the next setting, which was to be a more intense medium to high overdrive. For this setting I set the Pork Loin with it's Overdrive at 3'o'clock, Tone at noon, Curve at 2'o'clock, and with a hint of the Clean signal. The sound that came from the amp was that of a tube amp being pushed to the fullest. I had a ton of richness in the drive, the right amount of warmth so as not to come off too brittle, and a sweet balance of clarity and aggression. This ended up being the tone I used that night the most, I was able to take this setting back into a mellower grit, and push it further by using the clean booster in front of it. I switched back and fourth from humbucker to single coil throughout the night, getting these rumbling, thick overdrive tones when in the bucker, and banshee lead tones when in the Tele bridge pickup. All in all I would say it was a great night, with this one pedal I was able to handle all of the dirt tones I needed. What was even more impressive was that it was the first time I had ever used it. The Pork Loin was user friendly, provided a wide range of tones, and adapted to my picking and playing beautifully.
"A bunch of amps & guitars"
Back in the studio I was able to look deeper into the Pork Loin's capabilities, really get inside of it to see what made it tick. I was eager to hear how well it would work with lower watt amps, amps ranging from 7-22 watts. The Pork Loin handled the 4x10 Deville's output and character just wonderfully and I had a feeling it would do the same for the little amps. I took out the 7/15 watt head and 1x12 cab for this demo. The guitar of choice was my Hagstrom Viking 335 style semi-hollow body. The combination of the pedal's smooth, defined overdrive, with the guitar's warmth, and vintage voiced pickups made for some real champion guitar tones. The amp was set to a naturally tube driven overdrive, and guitar set in the neck pickup. Now here is where the Pork Loin really started working it's wonders. I dialed a subtle crunch out of the pedal but dialed in a bunch of the clean signal. The already overdriven amp being pushed by the subtle grit of the pedal and clean signal flowing into it all created a complex, wonderful color of tones. Up front you could hear a steady amount of grit and crunch, while just behind this was a bright'n'tight clean guitar tone. Everything I played through this tone sounded sweet, but it was chords that really sounded amazing. To darken up and make the sound more intense I just opened the pedal and added more of the Drive Mix, and throttled back on both the Filter and Presence controls. The internal controls really make it easy for matching the Pork Loin to whatever amp you're playing through. I switched the 7 watt setting for it's 15 watts and pushed some clean boost and higher gain sounds through it. To achieve a clean boost setting from the Pork Loin we matched the Tone knob to the amp's, Clean Signal 100%, Curve at noon, just a hint of Overdrive, Drive Mix rolled back, and all other internal knobs at noon. The pedal had more than enough juice to push the amp's tubes into a roaring, howling, natural overdrive. I was able to maintain my root tone's characteristic's with a booming thrust of British flavor. The overdrive had lots of high-end spank and definition. We rocked this setting through a Tele, Strat, Les Paul, and Junior, and all of the different pickups worked wonderfully through the Pork Loin. We also setup a Super Lead to a massive classic rock overdrive, turned it up nice and loud then fed it the Way Huge Pork Loin. For this I matched all of the controls to the amp's sound, and started with the Overdrive knob at zero. The pedal took the Super Lead from clean boosts, gritty overdrives, fuzzy overdrive tones, brown sounds, and woman tones. Way Huge absolutely hit a homerun with this pedal. The Pork Loin is capable of so much and through a little time spent with it you can really nail just about any rock tone imaginable. For those who dig the "Blackface" type amplifier the Pork Loin is perfect, it add a lush, howling British style sound to your overall tone that meshes to create something really special. The pedal sounded great through low watt amp, high watters, and even solid state amps. I am super excited to check out the next run of Way Huge pedals and you guys can be sure we will be bringing you all the tasty info as soon as possible. Keep it huge and stay tuned for more!
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For more info on Way Huge products go to www.wayhuge.com or click the direct link in our sidebar. You can also visit the Dunlop website at www.jimdunlop.com Keep your eyes peeled we have more coming soon!
Have it and it is an awesome pedal!
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