Melvins, Buzz/Hilbesh Designs "Pessimiser" distortion pedal

[Mount Ambulance]

eager to hear some reviews of how this pup sounds ... guess the true test is if the man uses one himself ... dig the obvious shout out in the pedal's name tho ...

https://www.discogs.com/label/46319-Pessimiser-Records

[meezer]

Someone from Facebook emailed Hillbish and he told them that Buzz has made demos but they're not up yet.

[GiveMe45]

Tempted.  Wonder what a bass would sound like through it....

Yeah...even though I shouldn’t be throwing money around right now I’m probably gonna grab one on the tour

[sadcorps]

Just ordered one from Hilbesh. Looking forward to it.

[vince furnier]

Yeah. so I got the thing a day after I saw them here in PHX and I think they sold the last one on the table just before I walked in (according to my posse). pretty nice. Get some sweet overdrive tones and play creamy Eric Crapton leads. Get some swampy distortion tones and play some old school Suicidal Tendencies. the eq really works. the mix knob works wonders. the unit is built like a tank, but takes no battery. You need a Boss/ Ibanez style power adapter for it. I did some demos with guitar and bass on the despised fb and folks seemed to like them. I did an A/B demo with the dreaded Boss Metal Zone 2 and I gotta admit I liked that pedal better, but i'm still learning this one and my gear (and playing) kinda sucks. 

[Dumpster D]

Probably good for a solid state rig, I'd like to try one someday...the pedal I mean.

I'm using a Electroharmonix tube muff, it's great when it's dialed in nice so I don't need this, plus going to the show in August will cost as much as one of these if they aren't already sold out by now and I wanted to get one like hot cake.

You might think oh yeah $300 now....but wait another couple of decades to get one of those bad boys...god luck and good speed.

I still regret the time I had a buzz Box in my hands and passed on it for GOD KNOWS whatever bizarre reason.

 

For that Matter.. Dale and Buzz need their own line of designer Mumus and Gardening gloves IMO.

[amazonAMAZON]

I would buy a pair of "Let God Be Your Gardener" gloves, especially if they were black and had cut off finger tips and I could use them to play drums

[sadcorps]

I have the Pessimiser - it is a reallly good pedal, built like a tank, looks great and has a great sound with a wide range of tone in each knob.

[Dumpster D]

Pessimistic?

Why is it called a "pessimiser" Distortion?

 

In addition:

What Sound Does it best emulate off a Melvins recoring in your Opinion?

[meezer]

I don't know a whole lot about gear and stuff, but my opinion is that the blast knob gives you a grittier punk/ noise rock tone and the boost knob gives you a more straight forward metal tone. I'm guessing blast is a distortion circuit and boost is an overdrive circuit? Not 100% sure. Those knobs plus the mix knob (turns effect anywhere from 0-100) can give you thousands of different levels and flavors of dirt in your tone. Then there's the eq, which is very responsive.

So which Melvins song does it sound most like? Yes. 

[Dumpster D]

Meezer Sent me a Sneak preview of the sound.

I'd rate it from very good to excellent all around from his demo

It's not quite a screaming heavy metal distortion, it's not quite a bass overdrive or dry fuzz.

The most important thing is the paint Job.

So...Next question, Who here is going to do the Melvins bench test with this thing and turn their amp volume all the way up and turn the pedal all the way up to full blast then Switch the amp on. 

[meezer]

Meezer Sent me a Sneak preview of the sound.

I'd rate it from very good to excellent all around from his demo

OMG! It worked? 

[thor]

Yeah. so I got the thing a day after I saw them here in PHX and I think they sold the last one on the table just before I walked in (according to my posse). pretty nice. Get some sweet overdrive tones and play creamy Eric Crapton leads. Get some swampy distortion tones and play some old school Suicidal Tendencies. the eq really works. the mix knob works wonders. the unit is built like a tank, but takes no battery. You need a Boss/ Ibanez style power adapter for it. I did some demos with guitar and bass on the despised fb and folks seemed to like them. I did an A/B demo with the dreaded Boss Metal Zone 2 and I gotta admit I liked that pedal better, but i'm still learning this one and my gear (and playing) kinda sucks. 

It actually does take a battery. I got mine and noticed a lack of a battery connection. I contacted Nathan and showed him pics of the internals...and he had forgotten to attach a 9 volt connector before shipping it to me. He then mailed me a connector which was easy to install...it just literally clipped onto the circuit board.

[bUTTHOLEmAN]

That seems like a huge thing to forget.

[Dumpster D]

That seems like a huge thing to forget.

Not so much, It happens when your working your ass off meeting deadlines and demands from time to time.

 sometimes things happen along the way.