Cheap and flexible
It has been designed to provide several distortions, so to be useful in many different contexts. Let's say immediatly that at this price, it costs only 60 Euros, approximately, Digitech has made a good job. But let's see the controls, we will speak later about its characteristics.
Separate equalization
The main characteristic of this pedal is the presence of two separate knobs for treble and lows, by comparison with other devices of the same type, that generally have a single knob for the equalization.
- Level
The distortion level.
- Low
It modifies the quantity of the low frequencies.
- High
The second control for the equalization. Obviously, it adjusts the treble.
- Gain
I have to say that at an important value of this control the pedal turns out really noisy, too much. In addition, in my opinion it can make a good job with an humbucker, but with a single-coil it is unusable, excessively harsh. But not only. It can work with a Les Paul, or the humbucker of an Ibanez, but with a Stratocaster the final result is terrible. Perhaps is only an impression, or it depends on the instruments that i have used, but the sensation is that this device can make a good job only if exist some particular conditions.
General opinion
Like i said at the beginning of this review, the Hot Head works well. First of all it provides a great gain amount, with a good sound quality, considering the price. In my opinion it is much similar to the typical Marshall, and this is an added value. Obviously, the result depends on your setup, guitar and amp, but in my test it has made a good job with the humbucker of my Ibanez RG370DX. I used a cheap guitar for this test because the Hot Head is certainly a good device for beginners that are looking for a quality distortion. In this context it makes an excellent job and it seems to be designed for classic Rock, first of all. But it's my opinion. The mixer output, the output with the speaker emulator, works very well and it produces a very pleasant sound. It is a bit too much noisy, but at this price we cannot ask more. As a whole, if we evaluate the cost, really low, it can be considered a very good product.