Hudson Electronics Sidecar Review

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Review - Hudson Electronics Sidecar

#HudsonElectronics are a UK based company that are gaining a great reputation for well-built, wonderful sounding pedals with a slight twist. The #Broadcast has garnered an almost cult following and the #Sidecar is also a marvellous offering.

How's the build quality?

Just amazing - take a look.

The Sidecar is beautifully built with point to point wiring as you can see in the picture. You can also see the operational amplifier (Op Amp) as a small silver disc near the centre of the board and there's also a germanium diode in there responsible for the clipping duties. Now this isn't just any old diode, although it is old, it's specially selected New Old Stock - often referred to as NOS. The germanium ensures softer clipping than silicon and performs beautifully.

What kind of pedal is it?

A modern take on an 808.

Now an 808 style overdrive refers to the original #TubeScreamer (TS) variety overdrive pedals, which some people love and some people hate - a real Marmite pedal. But those who hate them often aren't using them quite right. Partnered with a slightly pushed tube amp, they will push those valves into harmonic bliss, creating more compression, overdrive and sustain. They also have a mid hump which helps push the guitar out of the band mix in a very useful way. A TS can even be used to tighten up the low end of a seriously pushed amp and is commonly used in this way for metal, or used with drive on minimum and volume up high as a boost pedal, and the pedal does all of this incredibly well. Now, if you partner a TS up with a totally clean solid state or digital amp, I can understand the lack of enthusiasm, but this wasn't what they were invented for.

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