Driftwood Heavy Hatchet

[Guitarjon]

Driftwood just released the Heavy Hatchet distortion/preamp pedal and it's really cool! Sounds great (they did some stuff internally so that it sounds as close as possible to a tube amp) but it's also packed with some great features!

Here's a little review and demo:

 

[ArtDecade]

Is that your heavy hatchet in your pants or are you just happy to see me?

 

[USMarine75]

Lichtlawood...

Driftlaerm...

Whatever, you get my point.

 

[gunch]

It sounded good but wasn't incredibly impressed until you mentioned that you can basically set it to clean channel distortion or preamp, that's new for a pedal unless I'm mistaken. I also agree that the market is getting a bit crowded with no one pedal standing above the rest (maybe the BE-OD family and the KRS Ceres) because they're all mostly just "good enough".

Have you ever considered testing out stuff like the Emma Electronics Pisdiyauwot or any Shun Nokina/Leqtique distortions?

 

[Jotun@]

It has a cool feature or two, specifically the boost setting switch and the ability to run it as a distortion or preamp. You did a good demo, but it’s the same ish I’ve seen before preamp style pedal. Nothing groundbreaking in the tone department. Not that it’s bad… just similar to the other things on the market currently.

 

[complex-barb.0t]

It sounded good but wasn't incredibly impressed until you mentioned that you can basically set it to clean channel distortion or preamp, that's new for a pedal unless I'm mistaken. I also agree that the market is getting a bit crowded with no one pedal standing above the rest (maybe the BE-OD family and the KRS Ceres) because they're all mostly just "good enough".

Have you ever considered testing out stuff like the Emma Electronics Pisdiyauwot or any Shun Nokina/Leqtique distortions?

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There are joyo pedals for $70 that have a gate and a preamp or distortion mode. It’s called the Chopper-z and is an Apex preamp clone. It’s actually a decent pedal.

There is nothing special going on in this pedal so don’t fall for the marketing.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

So this is like the Fortin pedal where it sounds great but I can't justify spending $300 on a single channel pedal when you can get the Solar Chug for $100 less and the 3-channel Ceres or Vesta for $100 more.

 

[complex-barb.0t]

So this is like the Fortin pedal where it sounds great but I can't justify spending $300 on a single channel pedal when you can get the Solar Chug for $100 less and the 3-channel Ceres or Vesta for $100 more.

Yeah I was considering getting one just to try it, but the price made me think twice. I feel as we are on the verge of $300 NAM pedals coming out it’s hard to justify buying pedals like these.

 

[gunch]

Yeah I was considering getting one just to try it, but the price made me think twice. I feel as we are on the verge of $300 NAM pedals coming out it’s hard to justify buying pedals like these.

Boy what

 

[Guitarjon]

It sounded good but wasn't incredibly impressed until you mentioned that you can basically set it to clean channel distortion or preamp, that's new for a pedal unless I'm mistaken. I also agree that the market is getting a bit crowded with no one pedal standing above the rest (maybe the BE-OD family and the KRS Ceres) because they're all mostly just "good enough".

Have you ever considered testing out stuff like the Emma Electronics Pisdiyauwot or any Shun Nokina/Leqtique distortions?

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I'm not familiar with those pedals but I'm open to trying anything out.

I think that one of the things that sets this pedal apart from the rest (aside from the features) is that when you play through it it really feels like a tube amp. It's hard to convey that through a video or sound demo. I also personally didn't think it sounded like my other distortion pedals if I'm honest.

 

[Jotun@]

I'm not familiar with those pedals but I'm open to trying anything out.

I think that one of the things that sets this pedal apart from the rest (aside from the features) is that when you play through it it really feels like a tube amp. It's hard to convey that through a video or sound demo. I also personally didn't think it sounded like my other distortion pedals if I'm honest.

Fair. There’s only what video and recorded audio convey, and something is always lost when not hearing it for yourself.

Can you maybe elaborate on what gives this that feel that so many others claim but don’t do?

 

[complex-barb.0t]

Boy what

I am speculating. It’s only a matter of time. You can build your own NAM pedal with a raspberry pi and an audio interface, for less than $300. Plugins like Genome ($0 to $89) and Tonocracy ($0) already support NAM if you are a laptop player.

Barring that you can get a Tonex pedal for $350 right now. Or you can use the free version of Tonex and buy that official Mesa pack that came out for $99.

I do think there is a place for analog preamp pedals still. And I own way too many of them. I totally wanted to buy one of these pedals. These days the pedal builders don’t just use clipping diodes and op amps so they feel is more “tube like”. Maybe because of the use of jfets? Pedals that are like > $250 should really have those “nutubes” in them imo.

Really the entire drive pedal market has jumped the shark. With a good preamp pedal and a parametric EQ you can sound like any of these other pedals on the market. You really only need one or two and then EQ.

Also to stay on topic I enjoyed Jon’s video as always.