Beginning as recently as 2008, Eike Hintzen’s Weehbo Effekte of Hannover, Germany, is a relative newcomer to the boutique pedal scene. Eike is a one-man company and does everything on his own. Eike prides his work on being “… completely hand crafted with the greatest care and only high-quality parts.
"It's important for me that my pedals are very versatile on the one hand, and that they have a unique sound that is comparable to tube amplifiers on the other. I've spent much time developing and comparing different circuits to tune them to the maximum.
"Furthermore, I've put many very usable features like the Dynamic switch, integrated boosters or switchable gain voicings into the boxes to offer the best price-performance ratio. Last but not least, there's the aged look of my pedals. Every box is unique because of the handmade used look finish.”
Late last year, Weehbo quietly released four new Overdrive/Distortion pedals. The Plex Drive (low gain but very Plexi-like crunch at full throttle), JCM Drive (offers uncannily close assimilations of JCM and JTM Marshall amps), Hell Drive (wicked low to medium gain OD/boost reminiscent of the classic "Brown" sound) and Morbid Drive (high gain distortion – one for the djent-heads and shredders) have all been received very favourably by cork sniffing dirt-box cognoscenti around the planet.
I’ve demoed them all for Eike (see links below) and I have to say that these four pedals are right up there with the best I’ve ever tried. It’s the amp-like voicings of each along with their dynamic response that does it for me. Add to that the extra headroom and volume that comes with a flick of the Dynamic switch (internally doubles Voltage from 9 to 18V) and I’m convinced: these are some of the best overdrives and distortions currently available on the market.
We live in a world that enjoys an unprecedented flood of high quality pedal releases from dedicated builders from all parts of the globe. In 2011 alone, I’ve been lucky enough to try some superb drives from Israel (Greenhouse Effects and PiggyFX), Germany (Weehbo and OKKO), Japan (Providence, 320design), Australia (MI Audio, Lightening Amplification), Brazil (Alien Amplification), New Zealand (Crowther Audio) and Siberia (AMT, Russia).
Many of these experiences I will share with you in coming blogs, but in the meantime, you can refer to my Youtube channel if you have an appetite to know more immediately. I have no doubt that every country on the planet has at least one builder that is dabbling in the fine art of stomp box manufacture. (I reckon there should be a specific word for such an honourable vocation, like "luthier" is to "guitar builder." Suggestions?)
This is a great thing as far as I’m concerned as more’s the better, and we sure need some unification on this planet, even if it’s just to build toys and tools for guitarists.
I digress. Weehbo Effekte is definitely worth a close look if multi-functional and quality drive is your thing. Top class stuff. Get more info right here.
Brett Kingman, aka Burgerman666 on Youtube, is Sadie’s dad. He’s also a 40-something seasoned pro/hack who continuously runs around Australia and other parts of the world with iconic singers, trying his best to make them and him sound good. Brett uses HIWATT amps and Providence cables and pedals. He is part owner and designer of Australian pedal company, Dvk Technologies.
