Visual Sound Son of Hyde review

  • £99.95
  • $148
Reviews
By
published
Son of Hyde: Visual Sound's new distortion pedal.

MusicRadar Verdict

Don't overlook Visual Sound in your search for ultimate tone. Like us you might be surprised by the quality and versatility this pedal has to offer.

Pros

  • +

    Creative uses of some high quality tones in every function.

Cons

  • -

    Apart from matters of taste, nothing.

MusicRadar's got your back Our team of expert musicians and producers spends hours testing products to help you choose the best music-making gear for you. Find out more about how we test.

Not everyone needs the dual overdrive/distortion of the Jekyll & Hyde, so this pedal has just the distortion channel.

The chunky knobs control drive, treble, mid and volume, and there's a bright switch for extra sizzle. Inside, there's also a variable noise gate (that you can turn off, thankfully) and also a mini-pot for bass - set at maximum as standard.

In normal (non-bright) mode, the pedal has a generous, but tightly controlled bass response. As it happens, the bright switch affects the bass response; while the treble control seems to leave the bottom end unaffected, the bright switch raises the entire tonal spectrum of the pedal considerably.

Using a Fender Strat, we managed to pinpoint some great tones by setting combinations of treble, mid and bright.

That said, the mid-range control seems quite subtle on single-coils, although it really comes into its own on humbuckers. Boosting the mid frequencies adds plenty of thick, focused sustain ideal for use with vintage-voiced humbuckers. Cutting the mids results in a tighter sound that responds well to high-output pickups.

Overall, the Son Of Hyde has a naturally quite 'gritty' distortion tone, without sounding ugly. There's always a very crisp attack, even at high gain settings.

Adrian Clark