Heavy Electronics

Demo by gearmanndude

Demo by Alberto Barrero

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Review by reddit /guitarpedals

Review by The Gear Page

Highway 77 -- Green and white version

The Heavy Electronics Ascend is a refined one knob clean boost. Discrete analog design allows this exquisite boost to be balanced and true. Wonderfully transparent and clear, yet powerful. Drives reverb tanks beautifully with its strong and concise low end. At the extreme the Ascend boost can even be used to drive tube amplifiers into distortion, allowing the pedal (and your guitar) to speak through the voice of the amp in a new way. Frequencies seem to melt into one another rather than stand apart. The Ascend's tone function switch inserts a simple eq which can be swept via an internal trimpot. Because boosts often end up at the front of the signal chain, the Ascend incorporates a J-FET buffer circuit on the input signal. This guarantees better impedence reaction and long cable performance. After all, the Ascend was made for big stages.

Review by Tone Freqs

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Ascend

Simple and precise volume reduction with no muddy tone! Put your amp to work and use the Descend as a clean channel in a box. Stunningly useful in live performance. All too often, guitarists find themselves unable to drive their amps into distortion and rely solely on pedals for distortion while limiting the amp as a clean(er) channel. The Descend was made to reverse this catastrophe and inspire single-channel amps to get cranked up where they belong. 6-way rotary switch gives the user a consistent and calculated volume drop. The Filter section also ensures that the volume drop will not diminish treble performance. Filter switch can be disegaged for more traditional volume drop that still leaves hands free for playing. Even the filter itself is fully adjustable via an internal trim-pot. Perfect for any guitarist who believes that some parts should be quieter than others?

Descend

Crushing Bass Distortion... The Oso is the lowest and baddest distortion circuit presented by Heavy Electronics so far. El Oso blends roaring low-end gain with the dry signal and readily pours out both thump and gain to the input of your amp. Mix knob has total effect, at full mix there is no hint of the dry signal and at zero mix the output signal is undistinguishable from the true-bypass signal. A JFET input signal buffer guarantees a solid match with the wide variety of impedances found in bass pickups.

Distortion top-end is rolled-off nicely, with plenty of room for a bright maple-board P-bass and enough contouring to do away with any harshness often found in lesser bass distortions. Using the mix and gain knob together the user can create a deep palette of bass distortion tones. High gain and low mix sounds very different than low gain and mix even though dynamically similar. Very simple to use and operate users will "find the tone" within seconds. Perfect for the stage-performing bassist.

Demo by MrExcane

Demo by Sinasoid

Review by No Treble

Review by Premier Guitar

Review by Talk Bass.com

El Oso

Lo-Fi revolution in a box. Radio Havana breaks tonal conformity and pronounces a tone reminiscent of a small transistor radio. Tinny with washed frequencies, and very responsive to pickup choices and string manipulation. The center "disorder" knob can be used by willling hands to dial in any amount of clipping decay desired, exposing a characeristic static appeal. This discrete engineered pedal loves to find the odd frequencies and push them to the forefront (especially at higher gain). Perfect for breakdowns and artistic expressions of decay. Exciting applications for less traditional instruments and perfect for that scratchy-throated bass tone. An official cult-classic in the making.

Radio Havanna