There are a LOT of Black Friday deals out there. And, since T-day isn’t even until next week, there are more of them coming. I almost always end up picking something new up between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Most of the time, it’s the Cyber Monday deals that get me.
This year, I’ve already spent my Black Friday budget. Well, not that I really had a budget. So no budget, but I bought a pedal from one of the Black Friday deals. It has already come in. I’ve already been playing with it. And I love it!
I saw an email from JHS Pedals that they were selling everything for 25% off. I immediately thought that I should get a Morning Glory. That would price those at $150. I’m not sure I could get a used one for that. But I couldn’t really rationalize spending that much on a pedal right now. Besides, I have several BluesBreaker clones, and, as much as I like them, both my boards end up with a klone a screamer of some sort. I always end up pulling the BB clones off eventually and going back to the other. So, I guess most of it was that I didn’t want to spend $150 on a pedal that was probably going to end up in the drawer.
Then I remembered that I’ve been trolling Reverb lately for a 3-series Harmonic Trem. I wanted to pay $70 or less for one shipped. All of the used ones I was seeing were running about $75 + $15 shipping. I’m not spending $90 on a pedal that I can get a brand spankin’ one for $100. There’s no sense in that. In my humble opinion, something used should be at least 25% off if not more like 40% off.
So, I laughed all the way to my cart as I got my new pedal for $75. Which was cheaper than the vast majority of the used ones on Reverb. I was going to get it directly from JHS, but they had that big banner up that said to add up to 2 weeks extra for shipping during this sale. So I hit Amazon, and I ordered the pedal at like 9pm and it was dropped off on my porch by 9am the next morning.
Wasn’t really sure what a Harmonic Trem was when I got it, but I’m a big fan of trem pedals in general, and I had read that this pedal could do the univibe thing. Which a univibe is my all time fave pedal. Got it in, and I’ve been playing with it since.
I like that it has a Vol knob. I really wish my other similar pedals had that because most don’t. With the toggle switch up in the trem position, it sounds like a trem. It’s good, but I’m not sure that it would knock my Boss trem off my one board or my Keely trem off my other board. It’s good, but it’s not that good.
But flip that toggle switch down to the harmonic trem setting, and I think I’m in love. It’s not quite that full swirly sound that you get from a univibe, but it goes from being a regular tremolo sound to this warbly, curvy sound that’s not the regular trem sound an not quite the sound of a univibe sound, but oh my gosh I like it!
The big board has a univibe at the front and that trem on the end. The little board just has a trem on the end with no vibe. So it’s probably going to kick the trem on the little board off and replace that one.
By my own admission, I’ve only had it a few days now, so I’m still in the honeymoon phase with it. But, so far, I have been enjoying it enough and like the sounds I’m getting from it enough that I think this one is a winner.
Also, I’m scratching my head, but I think this is the first JHS pedal that I’ve owned. I do have a couple of the the IRs that they made loaded in my PodGo, but I don’t think I’ve had any of their pedals. Wait, that’s not entirely correct.
I just remembered that I picked up a Notaklon when they were released, but it’s buried in a drawer somewhere. It sounds like…a klone. But, doing a couple of different tests where I tried to be as objective as possible, my KTR is actually the best sounding Klon/e that I own. And, I got one of those Wampler Germanium Tumnus pedals, and it sounds absolutely amazing to my ear. So that are what I run on my boards.
I, also, picked up one of the Lizard Queen fuzz pedals (the EHX pedal), but it is also buried in a drawer somewhere. I got it on a whim a couple months after they were released because I was trying to be on a fuzz kick at that point. It’s a fuzz. I got it more because it was EHX’s new fuzz and not because it JHS had a hand in designing it. I don’t really use fuzz, and, when I do, I either grab my Wrought Iron Kaibur Fuzz or another one-off fuzz that a forum-buddy had made and sold.
Neeways, the JHS Harmonic Trem pedal. I’m a fan. It’s going on the little board probably before the weekend is over.
