Top Finds of 2009 / Way Huge Pork Loin

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!

"Can I get mine on rye?"

Aaaaaaand we're back with another kickass Way Huge guitar pedal. What can I say, these are pedals that need no introduction. The shear mystique and popularity these stompboxes carry is enough to send anyone diving into their favorite guitar shop for a go at one of them. Back when George Tripp made his first run of these it was the same thing, everyone wanted one and no one could seem to get their hands on one. Well times they have a changed, now we have access to his killer line of pedals. But for how long?

Way Huge Electronics

Presents

The

Fat Sandwich

harmonic saturator

TOP CONTROLS:

* Volume: produces mucho output for mucho headroom

* Tone: dials in your tonal flavor in cahoots with the Pres & Reso controls

* Distortion: produces a endless roar of dirty greatness

* Presence: shapes your trebles and highs

* Resonance: spanks the bass and lows into place

* Footswitch: see that bright light? hmm what does that mean?

INTERNAL CONTROLS:

(these controls are for fine tuning to your guitar and amp)

* Curve: works to fine-tune the edges of the 1rst gain stage

* Drive: controls the hair of the 2nd stage of dirt

* Highs: sets the highs in the 2nd stage dirt

By now you must be saying to yourself "That is one monster of a pedal! Ooooh doggie!" Well you're right, and this isn't even the craziest of the bunch. Like all the Way Huge pedals the Fat Sandwich is a unique pedal monster with a control panel slick enough to hand you just about every tone in the book. Harmonic saturator is damn right! This pedal dished out the sweetest brown sounds, women tones, and warm, buttery overdrives you will ever hear. You will notice right off the bat the Fat Sandwich is not designed after anything out there, this is definitely an entirely new class of overdrive pedal. It's unique layout of controls, components, and overall design out this pedal into a category of it's own. With the hundreds it not thousands of overdrive pedals available today the Fat Sandwich is a breath of fresh air. How many times have we gone out hunting for an overdrive pedal only to find something that tops it a few weeks later? I know I'm guilty of that sin. This pedal will not only keep you busy for a long, long time, but push you to want to play, write, and perform. Each of the Fat Sandwich's controls are extremely responsive, sounds great in every setting, and capable of covering everything from classic to modern rock. I must have spent two hours tweaking the Fat Sandwich and was happy with everything that came out of it. As someone who spends their life writing in the studio and always hunting for new tones this is the perfect stompbox. In the studio the pedal delivers quickly and the quality it produces behind a mic is fantastic. I also had a chance to take it along to a gig with me and found it easy to match it to the room I played. I guess the easiest way to learn your way around this pedal is to just jump in and go for it, which is exactly what I did. I found a clean amp setting works best with this pedal, just set your eq the way you dig it and fly baby fly. Not that the pedal doesn't sound killer through a sightly dirty tone but you will definitely get the most out of it through a nice, warm clean tone, just my opinion. We plugged it into my modified 4x10 Deville, played it with a Custom Tele, and started with the Fat Sandwich's settings at around 15%. Through the neck pickup the tone was warm, crunchy, and perfect for rocking some rhythm guitar. Every time I dug in the grit would break up a little more, become richer, and more open. Played in the middle pickup position was probably my favorite. I was able to get the perfect balance of highs, lows, and mids. You can hear each frequency clearly without any clashing or interference from the drive. Through the bridge pickup the sound became even more defined, the mids became punchier, and highs stronger but not shrill. Next I tweaked the pedal's Tone and Presence knobs to match my amp, kicked the Resonance to noon, and slowly upped the Distortion. The sound was stunning! It had all characteristics as before only much bigger, thicker, and in your face. It was like the definition of a killer modern tone and warmth/character of a classic rock sound all in one. It really shocked me just how tight the eq stays no matter what level of distortion you're pushing out of it. Some pedals lose their sweet spot once you start turning things up, not here. This is a great pedal for anyone having trouble cutting through a live mix. Chords sound great, notes shine through, and harmonics jump out evenly and balanced. Your amp's sweet spot is instantly enhanced. If you're looking for an instant brown sound this is your pedal. It's insane how responsive the controls are, a flip of any knob and you got a whole new flavor. How many of you need up to two, sometimes three overdrive pedals on your board to get all the sounds needed for your live sets? Lord knows I could use some slimming down on the old board. With the Fat Sandwich all you need to do is mark down a few of your favorite setting and you're home free. I was easily able to dial in a solid Stoned mild crunch, Neil Young grit, and scorching blues lead tones. Opening or fattening up any sound you dial in is as easy as turning the three internal controls. You can also set one tone and use your volume knob to clean it up or tame it. The possibilities are endless with this pedal, Way Huge really did one hell of job.

For more info on Jim Dulop/Way Huge products go to either www.jimdunlop.com or www.wayhuge.com You can also click the Way Huge logo in our sidebar for direct access to their website. Keep your eyes peeled for the rest of the Way Huge gang, we'll be posted another review on these killer pedals shortly.

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Fuzz Week/Part #4: Way Huge Swollen Pickle

Fuzz Week
A collection of unique and superb fuzz boxes
part#4

Oh how stoked was I when I heard that Way Huge Pedals were making a comeback, definitely the most exciting thing to hit the stompbox world in a good long while. As a serious tone connoisseur and pedal junky, having Way Huge back in the mix meant that once again we would have access to the interpretation of tone as seen through the mind of George Tripps. Would these pedals be able to influence and grab a hold of players like they once did? Hell Yes! Not only do these pedals still own their unique vibe but they've managed to keep their signature sound and feel. Any fan of the boutique pedal world must go out and try these pedals, as someone who makes it a point to try out as many pedals as possible I highly suggest it. I invite you into the world of Way Huge, and what better pedal to start with here than the Swollen Pickle mkII.

#4.
Way Huge Electronics
Benicia, California

Builder/Designer: George Tripps

Years in the Game: Plenty

Pedal: Swollen Pickle

This killer reissue wasn't in my presence longer than 5 minutes before I made up my mind to add it to my gigging pedalboard. The range of sounds this fuzz box is capable of just blew my mind and all sounded killer, absolutely ridiculous. All of the controls works well with one another and each one sounds great in just about any setting. Yet there's more to this pedal, something beyond it's look and sound that makes it super freakin cool, like a cult film and it's cult following. From the packaging these pedal's come in to their layout of controls these are not your every day stompboxes, even the enclosures are super cool. I am sure you all know the Way huge line very well, chances are you may have come across a few in your time, if you're lucky. If you didn't get a chance to rock out to some of the first run these will have you more than satisfied. This new and improved version of the Swollen Pickle sports a layout of controls that makes it one of the most versatile stompboxes we have ever come across. Just when you think you've reached all it can do you remember there are also internal controls. Let's start with the outside first shall we? Sustain knob: With this badboy you can dial in as much (and I mean as much) smooth and off-the-wall grit or fuzz you want. Starting from it's lowest settings gets you some tasty natural break-up sounds, from Rolling Stones grit and Clapton woman tones. It's crazy just how much further this knob will actually take you. Getting into higher Sustain settings is Black Sabbath and Queens of the Stone Age land. The effect somehow maintains all it's great sounding gritty overdrive while delivering a massive onslaught of fuzz, it's beautiful. Filter knob: This amazing control isn't the norm tone/eq control, no sir. Rolling back the Filter produces some really cool low-fi sounds, this perfect for layering tracks or coming off as dirty and mean as you want. Roll this puppy up and you get more in your face, open fuzz tones. Twist a few of the other knobs and the possibilities are endless. Loudness knob: This here controls the amount of volume you want slamming into your amp, believe me you won't need much, unless you want to kill your pets and your neighbors all at the same time. The next couple knobs are new to the Swollen Pickle, but oh am I glad they're there. Crunch knob: This knob does exactly what it says it does, controls the squash and compression of your sound. This knob will have some affect on your volume depending on where you have it, it can also produce some killer trumpet-like sounds in the right spot. Scoop knob: Works to control the mids in the fuzz tone. Again the possibilities are endless. I found this working best for me right at noon, but turn it left and right and it's like day and night, very cool. You get enough? No? Good cause there's more. Flip the Swollen Pickle over, unscrew the feet and WAHLAH! Inside it's guts you'll find a few controls that will help you fine-tune and match the sound to whichever amp/guitar you might have. Voice control: This works to set the overall intensity of the external Scoop knob, great for dialing in the perfect mid tone. Last but not least, Clip control: This flips between two different sets of clipping diodes. Your choice of smooth'n'creamy or raw'n'wicked. Like having two completely different fuzz boxes in one. I have no idea how the hell Tripps did this, but he managed to up himself by giving us more out of the Swollen Pickle. Everything I threw at this pedal sounded great, Tele, Strat, hollowbody, and Junior. All the sounds coming off well defined, balanced, rich, and powerful. If I had to pick a favorite fuzz box for the year I might just have to go with the Swollen Pickle. Never has a fuzz box made it to my board so quickly and never has a fuzz box done so much for so many different instruments. My favorite setting by far, which pulled off a sound somewhere between a woman tone and Fuzz Face. Sustain at two O clock, Filter just behind eleven O clock, Crunch a hair past noon, Scoop at ten O clock, Voice at stock setting, and Clip in the smooth mode. Last I roll back my guitar's one knob 50% and I'm there baby. That's how this monster sits in board and I don't see myself changing a damn thing for a long long. I have been hunting for this sound for a long time, to able to knock it out with just one box is stunning. Don't get me wrong, it's beautiful when we can mix and combine our pedals with one another, when it helps us. When we have to work to combine a few pedals a different story. The key is to have tools in our arsenal that will take us to where we're trying to get, gear that will enhance our core tone, and motivate us to play what's floating around in our heads. Plugging into the Swollen Pickle unleashed so many of the riffs I have been wanting to release from my hands. You know how it goes, you write a riff or a lick, then when you go and play it you notice something's just not there. Now how good does it feel when we come across those sounds that work best with our playing? Freakin awesome! As a cat who is big-time into fuzz boxes and vintage pedals this mkII version of the Swollen Pickle has me floored. In some cases I've seen that reissues don't always stack up to the original's, this is not one of those cases. I'll tell you something, at first I thought this pedal was going to be a difficult to operate, but once I got in and got my hands dirty my ears led me to all the right places. One amazing tone monster.




For more info on Way Huge Electronics go to www.wayhuge.com or click the logo in our links. Also look out for the rest of the Way Huge line reviews here on Analog War Cry and a feature with George Tripps next month. Do the damn thing do it!