Barber Electronics forum.

I'm wondering about the B-Custom Cool--I haven't seen/heard much about it aside from the PGS video library and some discussion on TGP. Anybody wanna ring in?

Question 1: It's billed as a "Small Fry meets LTD-SR," but does that refer to the EQ (ie. Small Fry with flattened LTD-SR mids) or the amount of gain (ie. a Small Fry-LG, if you will)? Or both? I'm curious because, while I'm loving my Small Fry right now, I'd like to dial out the slight mid-hump that I hear (same reason I like the LTD-SR over the regular LTD).

Question 2: Would you say the B-Custom Cool cleans up more/same/less than the Small Fry when rolling back the guitar's volume?

hobbyist789 wrote:I'm wondering about the B-Custom Cool--I haven't seen/heard much about it aside from the PGS video library and some discussion on TGP. Anybody wanna ring in?

Question 1: It's billed as a "Small Fry meets LTD-SR," but does that refer to the EQ (ie. Small Fry with flattened LTD-SR mids) or the amount of gain (ie. a Small Fry-LG, if you will)? Or both? I'm curious because, while I'm loving my Small Fry right now, I'd like to dial out the slight mid-hump that I hear (same reason I like the LTD-SR over the regular LTD).

Question 2: Would you say the B-Custom Cool cleans up more/same/less than the Small Fry when rolling back the guitar's volume?

The SF is quite different from the CC. The former excels at medium to high gain, while the latter is a dedicated low gain pedal. I think the similarities lie in the shared control scheme, although the CC is more flexible due to the push-pull pots. The tone control on the CC can be pulled up to switch between an SR EQ and a Snarl EQ (mid boost), and the dynamics control switches between smooth and crunchy. With regard to the amount of gain on tap, the CC has much less than the SF.

I think the SF and CC react similarly to volume-knob dynamics, although this will be dependent on your volume pots, taper, gain levels, volume levels etc. The CC doesn't do very high gain anyway, so a small decrease should be sufficient to get from 'slightly gritty' to 'sparkling clean'.

On a different note though, have you tried tweaking the trimpots in the SF? I leave my midrange trim at about 12 'o clock and it cuts through the mix nicely, although you could always turn it completely counter-clockwise.

At the end of the day, the SF and CC excel in different areas. I usually run the CC at a low-gain setting with SR EQ (slight grit, breaking up a little more when I dig in) and the SF as a smooth lead tone (Carlton-esque). The CC stacks really well into any of the other Barbers because you can set it to be pretty much flat and use it as a gain boost for the DD, SF, BUEQ etc.

Does this mean you got a CC?

Oh yeah, I do own a CC. I forgot to list it in my signature apparently. I guess I just have too many Barber pedals :p I'm contemplating the purchase of a Half-Gainer now too!

The SF is quite different from the CC. The former excels at medium to high gain, while the latter is a dedicated low gain pedal. I think the similarities lie in the shared control scheme, although the CC is more flexible due to the push-pull pots. The tone control on the CC can be pulled up to switch between an SR EQ and a Snarl EQ (mid boost), and the dynamics control switches between smooth and crunchy. With regard to the amount of gain on tap, the CC has much less than the SF...

I'm getting the picture, then, that it's both lower gain and flatter-EQ than the SF, in addition to the other differences. Must indeed be a "connoisseur's" pedal (translation: it's for obsessive tone freaks, and I must try one).

Twisting the knife even further... on his website, Monster Mike Welch hints that there might be something called the "Hot" in the works to complement the "Cool"--anybody on the B-Custom payroll wanna comment on that?

hobbyist789 wrote:

The SF is quite different from the CC. The former excels at medium to high gain, while the latter is a dedicated low gain pedal. I think the similarities lie in the shared control scheme, although the CC is more flexible due to the push-pull pots. The tone control on the CC can be pulled up to switch between an SR EQ and a Snarl EQ (mid boost), and the dynamics control switches between smooth and crunchy. With regard to the amount of gain on tap, the CC has much less than the SF...

I'm getting the picture, then, that it's both lower gain and flatter-EQ than the SF, in addition to the other differences. Must indeed be a "connoisseur's" pedal (translation: it's for obsessive tone freaks, and I must try one).

Twisting the knife even further... on his website, Monster Mike Welch hints that there might be something called the "Hot" in the works to complement the "Cool"--anybody on the B-Custom payroll wanna comment on that?

The Custom Hot was finished about a year ago, but has never seen the light of day, I sent it off to our beta guys, but it has never returned home...ask me if I remember the exact details so I can build another.

Note to self, "do not send new fancy designs to beta testers who never return pedals". Maybe I should have drawn myself a schematic before sending off that final tuning.

Gaaahhh!! The humanity! I shall hunt them down, and flog them mercilessly. And then I will keep the beta for myself...