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The Old Black Shoe is a signature pedal I developed for Australian artist Harry Howard, who is the singer and guitarplayer of Harry Howard And The NDE – and maybe better known as the bass player of Crime And The City Solution and These Immortal Souls. Harry is also the younger brother of Rowland S. Howard.
Harry Howard initially asked me to make a pedal featuring the distortion side of the RSH-03, with a tone control added, but the development took on its own life, and I ended up with a pedal far beyond a modified Distortion+ clone. It's a unique design more than anything else.
At the heart sits a ‘holy grail’ metal can LM308H opamp IC, which is legendary for its wonderful sound and distortion texture in early 1970/80s RAT pedals. Other features of the Old Black Shoe are a hybrid silicon/germanium clipping arrangement and a subtle and tasteful tone control (only rolling off the most harsh highs and never muffling your signal completely). The circuit is revoiced for a slightly fuller and warmer sound, compared to a Distortion+, making it useful for bass guitar too. The Old Black Shoe is also a great boost pedal, with the TOE (drive) control all the way down.
The Old Black Shoe is a wonderful, transparent drive pedal, which sounds great from subtle, sparkly crunch to full on heavy drive. The pedal is finished in grey/silver sparkle and features artwork from Harry Howard’s own hand.
Mick Harvey used the Old Black Shoe live during the PJ Harvey 'The Hope Six Demolition Project' world tour.
- The clips features my friend Fzat playing a a custom PAF humbucker equipped guitar and a Tokai Les Paul Jr. copy through his 1980s 100W Marshall Super Lead amp. Fzat is a hard rocking dude, and shows the heavier side of the Old Black Show here. I'll record som additional demoes of the pedal's more subtle qualities as soon as possible.
Here's a youtube demo featuring Terry O'Tool giving the Old Black Shoe a go at my workshop (some clipping in the audio):
Download the Old Black Shoe manual here
PLEASE NOTE: Prices at the webshop are listed without VAT. For customers in the European Union 25% VAT is added at check-out.
*EU-customers also please note: Your pedal ships with new production RoHS-compliant 1N270 germanium diodes (not vintage new old stock) due to EU environmental regulations