The Hudson Broadcast 9v & 24v versions - My experiences!

Majorscale

Now these are incredibly sought after in the guitar community at the moment, it's not just a thing on TFB, but over the pond too, TGP is all over them, to the point that the American's are ordering from the UK suppliers and accepting the import taxes hit. Anyway, I have been in the fortunate position to own three at the same time... two variants of the 24v and the regular 9v model. Here's my thoughts:

Firstly, this is an insanely good pedal in any guise. It is different to almost any other gain pedal I've tried and has a clarity to it's tone that you don't normally get from overdrive/distortion pedals - something that is probably down to it being a pre-amp rather than a regular transistor overdrive. As a result it works great in a live mix.

The 9v version is very thick and gainy when running on a 9v input. It sounds best to me on the low gain side, which in itself gets almost as crunchy as the high gain side of the 24v! The 9v pedal high gain side (running on 9v input) is a very thick fuzz, the kind of gain tone that my Lazy J J20 amp unfortunately just doesn't work with. Other amps would probably work better with this type of tone as a caveat, plus there are internal trim pots for the gain which you could adjust down if you were only going to run it off a 9v power supply. 

The 24v pedal, whether on the low or high gain settings, simply sounds better for my personal tastes. Lower gain (in relation to the 9v), more articulate & open, clearer, higher headroom. The 9v pedal vs 24v is like a totally different gain pedal. You can get a lovely crunch from it, and on high gain, a lovely clear fuzz.

The big attraction of the 9v version for many is that it can work at different input voltages which has a drastic affect on the tone. I ran the 9v pedal at 9v, 12v and 16v. Each time I increased the input voltage it sounded better to me, although due to my power supply I couldn't hit it with the full 24v...and as a result it never sounded as good as the bone-fide 24v versions, especially on the high gain side. If you have a tricked out power supply then the 9v will give you more options because the 24v version runs only on a 9v input which it then transforms to 24 volts internally.

So just looking at the 24v pedals now : 1 footswitch vs 2 footswitches? Tonally they are similar, there are slight differences but they are minimal and probably down to component tolerances. The duel footswitch adds an easy way to select between low and high gain sides so in operation it's a two channel pedal and for many that added flexibility is the killer app. To counter that advantage, on the 24v single footswitch version, the selector switch is three position (low, medium and high gain). It's gain range is a little wider than the duel, not much more, but it's nice to know it's there should I need it! The lack of a second footswitch does render it a "single channel" pedal when playing live though.

In summary, the 24v version is the one I'd pick if I was shopping again for a Broadcast (unless I had a high voltage power supply). As I am a set and forget kind of player who's happier with less switches, my pick is the 24v single footswitch iteration, but you can't go wrong with any version really. 

***Postscript***  As a postscript to the review, based on a few questions that I've received, I will add that the Hudson Broadcast is not a highly compressed, soft or smooth overdrive so I can see why some will not like it. It’s very clear, very immediate and raw sounding, it’s a gain pedal without a safety net or anything to hide behind! Mind you, it’s this rawness that I like, it's different to the majority of overdrives out there and it works great with my warmly voiced tweed deluxe style amp.

meltedbuzzbox

love that colour on the end one. 

BBBlues

What’s the EQ section like and how do they compare? Are they all pretty flat sounding, any pushed mids etc?

Majorscale

BBBlues said:

What’s the EQ section like and how do they compare? Are they all pretty flat sounding, any pushed mids etc?

The EQ is fairly flat, the main "tone control" is low cut which does just that, as you turn it clockwise it reduces the low end making the treble frequencies more prominent and removing thickness, kind of like a presence control. Balancing that with the volume controls leads to a surprisingly large range of tones.

I know you've owned / own a J20 amp, so if you have also tried a Cruiser pedal before I'd say there's a similar EQ / clarity to the Broadcast, although the Broadcast has a much wider tone control and gain range.

pmg

Looking forward to getting one of the latest 24v peach run delivered

Sporky

From the schematics online it looks like the 9v version has a charge pump inside that ups it to 24v anyways. Then it's just a transistor overdrive but with a transformer on the output, which is an interesting approach.

Nice to see something that's not a tweaked TS. 

mistercharlie

Sporky said:

From the schematics online it looks like the 9v version has a charge pump inside that ups it to 24v anyways. Then it's just a transistor overdrive but with a transformer on the output, which is an interesting approach.

Nice to see something that's not a tweaked TS. 

There are different versions. The 24v one runs on 9v, and ups the voltage internal. Another one takes 9-24v and uses it straight. 

Wazmeister

Steven,

Great review and write up mate... the orange one on the left is a beaut !

Majorscale

Wazmeister said:

Steven,

Great review and write up mate... the orange one on the left is a beaut !

Thanks Warren, and yes that’s the one on my gig board! Less switches for my clumsy feet to negotiate!

 As a postscript to the review, based on a few questions that I've received, I will add that the Hudson Broadcast is not a highly compressed, soft or smooth overdrive so I can see why some will not like it. It’s very clear, very immediate and raw sounding, it’s a gain pedal without a safety net or anything to hide behind! Mind you, it’s this rawness that I like, it's different to the majority of overdrives out there and it works great with my warmly voiced tweed deluxe style amp.

Boromedic

Has anyone who has played a Broadcast, owned or used a Skreddy Screwdriver Deluxe? The descriptions are similar and the demos I watch online are very much in the Screwdriver ball park (well some of them!). Any real world experiences?

Trying to avoid GAS! Thanks

benmurray85

pmg said:

Looking forward to getting one of the latest 24v peach run delivered

Yeah I’m on the list for one of these as well. Can’t wait now. Thanks @Majorscale for the review. 

4114Effects

Might build one to see what all the fuss is about. When I have 5 minutes spare next. 

mistercharlie

I wonder if you could add a switch to bypass the charge-pump on the 24v version, to quickly switch between 24v and 9v on the fly? 

It it should be a very simple mod, no? I guess the charge pump section is the velcroed bit at the bottom of this picture:

Sporky

mistercharlie said:

Sporky said:

From the schematics online it looks like the 9v version has a charge pump inside that ups it to 24v anyways. Then it's just a transistor overdrive but with a transformer on the output, which is an interesting approach.

Nice to see something that's not a tweaked TS. 

There are different versions. The 24v one runs on 9v, and ups the voltage internal. Another one takes 9-24v and uses it straight. 

Ah! That makes sense - ta. 

And I think you're right - I can't see a charge pump chip on the main board, whereas that one at the bottom has some big caps.

I can see three wires on that lower board - is that right? 

RaymondLin

4114Effects said:

Might build one to see what all the fuss is about. When I have 5 minutes spare next. 

You can call it The Antenna  

4114Effects

Was thinking of Galaxy News Radio as I'm a Fallout geek ... 

nickb_boy

mistercharlie said:

I wonder if you could add a switch to bypass the charge-pump on the 24v version, to quickly switch between 24v and 9v on the fly? 

It it should be a very simple mod, no? I guess the charge pump section is the velcroed bit at the bottom of this picture:

It definitely is possible to get a 9-24v switch installed.  I got Michael to do this for me 2 years ago to give me the most options possible after I persuaded him to try out an idea I had to mod mine into being the first dual footswitch Broadcast:

mistercharlie

nickb_boy said:

mistercharlie said:

I wonder if you could add a switch to bypass the charge-pump on the 24v version, to quickly switch between 24v and 9v on the fly? 

It it should be a very simple mod, no? I guess the charge pump section is the velcroed bit at the bottom of this picture:

It definitely is possible to get a 9-24v switch installed.  I got Michael to do this for me 2 years ago to give me the most options possible after I persuaded him to try out an idea I had to mod mine into being the first dual footswitch Broadcast:

You don’t happen to have any pictures of the inside, do you?

RaymondLin

nickb_boy said:

mistercharlie said:

I wonder if you could add a switch to bypass the charge-pump on the 24v version, to quickly switch between 24v and 9v on the fly? 

It it should be a very simple mod, no? I guess the charge pump section is the velcroed bit at the bottom of this picture:

It definitely is possible to get a 9-24v switch installed.  I got Michael to do this for me 2 years ago to give me the most options possible after I persuaded him to try out an idea I had to mod mine into being the first dual footswitch Broadcast:

I remember you were singing it's praises way before this wave.  Always setting the trend  !

smudge_lad

How well does the low cut dial work in relation to switching between the low and high gain settings? Did you find that there was any tweaking needed when switching between the two modes? This always seems to be an issue for me which dual pedals that have a shared dial/knob. 

I guess this will all be down to personal taste, which amp/guitar etc is being used.

Lebarque

What a fantastic pedal this. Agree with all that majorscale said. A lovely open, slightly fuzzy drive. IMO, it's forte is the low gain, up to light overdrive sounds, which is the only reason I sold mine (I run my amp at the edge of break up already).

@smudge_lad In my experience, with my gear, there is an EQ difference between the low and high gain mode, which rendered the second footswitch a bit pointless to me (Besides, the manual switch is SO nice!).

The only other thing that bothered me slightly was the limited EQ options. The bass cut knob is a balancing act. If this pedal had independent bass and treble controls for each of the modes, it would be the perfect overdrive to me.

But that's all practicalities and opinions. The thing is, it sounds absolutely amazing.

Ps. I've got a Hudson Sidecar, which is brilliant too if anyone fancies it?