Visual Sound Son of Hyde review

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.