H&K Warp Factor arrives/review !

[MartyMart]

After the recent thread and the link to the "Thomann" site....  http://www.thomann.de/thoiw2_artikel-196633.html
Two arrived this morning ( £13 each and £7 delivery, which took just a few days )

Review :

Well it's indended for "shred" and "7 string Metal type bottom end" so you get the general picture !
Very nice black metal round enclosure, bit like a smaller Fuzz Face one.
Gain - warp - volume - and sub bass switch, with electronic bypass switch

With gain set low, you can get some decent OD/ mild distortion sounds, crank it and it goes through
Rat type distortion to totally stupid "my amp just blew up' sounds !

"Warp" is a mid scoop far right and slight lift far left, so not bad, but could be more versatile.

"Does what it says on the tin" it's a fully fledged "Metal monster" but can be used more subtly also.

Caveats :
In/Out jacks at the back are "reversed" from normal
Can only be used with 12-14v dc PSU .... no batteries ( not a problem IMO )
Electronic bypass switch sometimes does not work ! perhaps one time in 20 switches, which
may be a problem "live" and should be looked into.

For £13 I could only buy an enclosure/jacks/switch ( just about! ) and it would not be a custom
"Black round metal" one either !

If you fancy a serious "Metal" pedal then this just can't be beat at this silly price

MM.

[Arno van der Heijden]

Damn... now I have to order one too.....

[MartyMart]

UPDATE :

Well, perhaps I was "unfair" about the switching, I just tried about 50/60 "switch pushes' and
it didn't "mis-connect" even once !

Setting the gain to almost "off" and increasing the volume gives a VERY nice thickened tone boost
really lovely with my strat compared to bypass, the whole pedal sound is generally "fat" so you can't
get any "thinned out" sounds, but I really like it at low gain.
Between minimum and 12 o'clock gain settings, there are LOTS of nice OD/Mild Dist tones, once
past "12" it's total mayhem, sounding like a fatter "Rat" with a boost upfront, the "bottom" switch
kicks in even more low end ( at around 90 Hz ) for a large cab sound, quite effective IMO.

If I get time later, i'll make some sound samples, the lower gain ones should prove very interesting !

MM.  (  just get one, you know it makes sense - sorry that this isn't a "DIY" thread but ...... )

[Johan]

..and when you get tired of it you can use it to play the ancient swedish game of "varpa"..shape and size is about right too...   http://avisthlm.homeip.net/noittoys/varpa/varpa.htm ..sorry..it's in swedish...

johan

[slacker]

cool, it's weird how high gain metal monsters sound nice at low gains. I've got a Zoom Tri Metal and if you use that "wrong" using low gain and cranking the mids up you get really good OD tones out of it.