Hudson Sidecar, the hunt is over!

paulnb57

Been umming and aahing over what lowish gain overdrive pedal to try next with the Origin 20 Combo, a Marshall Bluesbreaker works really well, but on a whim I thought I would try a Hudson Sidecar...
I tried the two footswitch Hudson Broadcast a while back, through a different amp, but there was something about it I didn't like....
Well, the Sidecar is bloody excellent, it really seems to suit the Origin well, Amp clean, pedal gain at 10 o'clock, treble and bass around noon, it growls magnificently and cleans up on the guitar volume pot.....
I don't seem to have to change settings for different guitars, my favourite Strat has high output single coils, the rest are more standard and the Bluesbreaker needed a tweak or two depending which guitar I tried, the Sidecar just keeps on giving, yes it sounds different, but it still sounds good.....
even my partcaster Tele sounds great and I've never liked the bridge pickup on it, I do now!

Well impressed!

Majorscale

A very good pedal for sure. Have mine wound up as a high gainer on my gig board

spirit7

It’s brilliant. I use mine with a Broadcast through a Mark V:25. Medium gain boost, stacked with the Broadcast and a Wampler Ego for high gain leads!

paulnb57

I like it so much I'm seriously considering getting a second one, one for low gain, one for high, would that be madness?

simonbeckwith

Not at all! 

smudge_lad

It sounds phenominal on the TPS video! Would love to try one

pedalo

paulnb57 said:

Been umming and aahing over what lowish gain overdrive pedal to try next with the Origin 20 Combo, a Marshall Bluesbreaker works really well, but on a whim I thought I would try a Hudson Sidecar...
I tried the two footswitch Hudson Broadcast a while back, through a different amp, but there was something about it I didn't like....
Well, the Sidecar is bloody excellent, it really seems to suit the Origin well, Amp clean, pedal gain at 10 o'clock, treble and bass around noon, it growls magnificently and cleans up on the guitar volume pot.....
I don't seem to have to change settings for different guitars, my favourite Strat has high output single coils, the rest are more standard and the Bluesbreaker needed a tweak or two depending which guitar I tried, the Sidecar just keeps on giving, yes it sounds different, but it still sounds good.....
even my partcaster Tele sounds great and I've never liked the bridge pickup on it, I do now!

Well impressed!

Just came to praise this pedal and found your thread. This just showed up at my house and I think it is exactly what I was after!

Had been contemplating getting a Duellist or a Protein or a Blues Power but this is much cheaper and exactly what I wanted out of the Broadcast low gain side but didn’t get. 

Thanks for posting settings. 

Rejoice!

Springywheel

 I'm hoping people keep hyping it up so i can sell for 5 grand in 10 years time. 

paulnb57

Another convert! Ive have not even considered buying another drive pedal….

Sharky77

I regret selling mine and will be keeping an eye out for another. The problem I had was that it takes up two pedal slots on my board because of the shape and size, and I downsized to a more compact board for regular gigging again. It does look super cool though!

paulnb57

paulnb57 said:

I like it so much I'm seriously considering getting a second one, one for low gain, one for high, would that be madness?

Actually, not quote true, I bought a second Sidecar, one at about half gain, the other at full gain, switched through a Quartermaster 4…

pedalo

I really hate to admit it but it’s possibly going to kick my custom hand wired rattler off the board. I wasn’t expecting that!

pedalo

paulnb57 said:

paulnb57 said:

I like it so much I'm seriously considering getting a second one, one for low gain, one for high, would that be madness?

Actually, not quote true, I bought a second Sidecar, one at about half gain, the other at full gain, switched through a Quartermaster 4…

Still not decided whether or not to go low or high with this one. It actually stacks into the rat really well so maybe if I go lower gain like I originally planned it’ll be best. 

In your first post you were talking about positions on a clock but I’m sat here scratching my head how to translate as the dials don’t have an arrow on them and have numbers and also zero is at the north position when fully off. 

Would you be so kind as to share what numbers are at the north position on your settings please? I’m probably being dim! 

digitalkettle

pedalo said:

In your first post you were talking about positions on a clock but I’m sat here scratching my head how to translate as the dials don’t have an arrow on them and have numbers and also zero is at the north position when fully off. 

Would you be so kind as to share what numbers are at the north position on your settings please? I’m probably being dim! 

Some of them have knobs with an arrow on, some of them have knobs with numbers!

paulnb57

Mine has pointers
Low gain is 
Gain at 12 oclock
Bass and Treble at 1 oclock
Level to taste
High gain
Gain full on
Bass at 1 oclock
Treble at 2 oclock

digitalkettle

digitalkettle said:

pedalo said:

In your first post you were talking about positions on a clock but I’m sat here scratching my head how to translate as the dials don’t have an arrow on them and have numbers and also zero is at the north position when fully off. 

Would you be so kind as to share what numbers are at the north position on your settings please? I’m probably being dim! 

Some of them have knobs with an arrow on, some of them have knobs with numbers!

I think you can assume that the arrow is in the same position as the number '5' when translating between knob types.

pedalo

Thanks that is super helpful. 

It also didn’t help that it’s currently sat on my board sideways 

pedalo

paulnb57 said:

Mine has pointers
Low gain is 
Gain at 12 oclock
Bass and Treble at 1 oclock
Level to taste
High gain
Gain full on
Bass at 1 oclock
Treble at 2 oclock

Your low gain is very Tube Screamer but with a little extra. Love it. It is a really satisfying gain sound that doesn’t crap out too quickly. I landed my bass and treble around the same when playing around earlier. 

The high gain setting is so crisp. I had it sounding a lot Rattier earlier but I like this too. 

Cookiemonster

I need to try one of these. Tubescreamer with a big muff tonestack I believe and some fancy diode stuff going on. 

pedalo

Cookiemonster said:

I need to try one of these.

I think I need to try two! 

Would be nice if there was another foot switch to switch between high and low gain 

This is a total keeper and I would recommend it to anyone. 

Majorscale

I’ve been a big fan of the Sidecar for a long time. As a result I have two… one on each board! Works great as a stand-alone pedal and stacks well for big leads.

My early one has the arrow knobs and the newer one the big unmarked dials. I just used a sharpie pen to add a dot on the top to give me a visual.