The Swollen Pickle Mk II is Way Huge!
The second coming of Way Huge Electronics may have been the most talked about event in the pedal world during 2008. The idea that the brains behind such sought after stomps as the Aqua Puss delay and Green Rhino overdrive was returning to the market after an almost decade-long hiatus was more than enough to set the gear forums buzzing. Way Huge mastermind Jeorge Tripps and Jim Dunlop teamed up to resurrect the brand with three new pedals released last October – the Fat Sandwich Harmonic Saturator, Pork Loin Soft Clip Injection and the Swollen Pickle Mk II Jumbo Fuzz. WTDP? got our hands on the latter. In this fuzz-filled world, is it worthy of the hype?
First thing you notice about the new Way Huge pedals is the decorative box they come in. No plain white wrapper here. The box is covered with Mr. Huge’s famous comic strip still touting the vintage Way Huge pedal line to the masses. Inside is a post card sized intro the Swollen Pickle Mk II complete with a visual tour of the pedal’s features including the two internal trim pots – Clip and Voice. Also in the box was various Dunlop/MXR propaganda and a pair of cool straight pin “Way Huge Electronics” and “Swollen Pickle” buttons inspected by Mr. Huge himself.
The pedal itself is larger than the typical Boss-sized stomp, but smaller than I actually expected from early photos. It’s a good looking pedal, encased in green brushed aluminum and highlighted with mustard-tainted fonts and features. Its controls include Loudness, Filter and Sustain knobs across the top, two smaller Scoop and Crunch knobs set below and the solid-feeling footswitch located bottom, center. The Pickle also has the easy access 9v battery enclosure along the switch-end side at the base of the stomp.
The Loudness is simply the volume control or output. Dialing up the Sustain knob adds the fuzz to your tone. The Filter knob adjusts the range of a band-pass filter rolling off high-end to low-end. Scoop and Crunch are new controls on the Mk II. Scoop allows you to dial out the mid-frequencies when pegged left and add them back in as you turn to the right. Crunch allows you to control the compression and sustain of the fuzz. Internally, the Clip and Voice controls allow for even further tone sculpting and dialing in of the stomp to your set-up.
With humbuckers, the Pickle offers up a monstrous wall of fuzz that can easily rattle some windows if you are too liberal with the Loudness knob. With Loudness at around 10 o’clock and Sustain dimed, Scoop at noon and Crunch dimed, you can get a pretty good Black Keys-esque tone.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
For classic Swollen Pickle tones, per Mr. Tripps himself, dial the scoop in at around 9 o’clock and roll the Crunch all the way off and let her rip. We set the Loudness and Sustain around 2 o’clock and kept the Filter at noon for a dirty version of the main riff of Galactic Cowboys’ Idle Minds.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
At the tail-end of the clip, you can hear the pedal’s reaction to the muted section. Like many fuzzes, the Swollen Pickle can get messy with palm-muted playing. The filter is playing a little havoc there as well. Best to roll that off and dial up the Crunch for more percussive-style riffing. You can also hear the effects of the filter as the harmonic lingers at the end.
Switching to the Strat and using the bridge pick-up, we dial in a little lower-fi fuzz. With Loudness at 10 o’clock, Filter at 2 o’clock, Sustain around 9, Scoop dimed and Crunch rolled off, we run through a little power chord progression. Clean first, then the Pickle…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The Swollen Pickle MkII gets high marks for its ‘wall of fuzz’ capabilities. The stomp also boasts a solid range of tweakable Big Muff style tones that get a thumbs up as well. Folks have recently commented that while the Pickle does several things well, it may not be enough for it to bump existing ‘grail’ fuzzes off anyone’s pedalboard. That’s fair comment. There is nothing subtle about the new Way Huge Swollen Pickle MkII Jumbo Fuzz, however, if you currently looking to fill a fuzz void in your life you might want to start by giving it a test drive. It could prove tough to beat. That’s our take anyway… your mileage may vary.
Special thanks to Brad at ToneFactor.com for spotting us a loaner Pickle!
PLEASE NOTE: All YMMV Review clips are played through a Reverend Hellhound 40/60 combo amp with 1×12 extension cab. No reverb or other effects were added to the clips. Guitars used in this review include a 1979 Gibson Les Paul Custom and a 1998 Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster.
