Original 4 Knob Barber Burn Unit Overdrive

Original 4 Knob Barber Burn Unit Overdrive

Barber Burn Unit

Even though I am a creature of habit and hate change of any kind, the quest for gear will always win out. If you read my “Open Road” article a couple of posts back, you probably didn’t expect a new overdrive to enter into my set up I’m sure. But in fact that is what happened. Two pedals to be exact.  And both of them are keepers for sure. On a whim I picked up an original 4 knob Barber Burn Unit. And let me tell you , It was a great find. The job of “main overdrive” is now split between the Barber and the Open Road. But the barber does something that the Open Road didn’t do very well: it blends with other overdrives to allow me a wicked range of tones. So the Open Road is used as stand alone, and the barber I can use alone or with other pedals.

The Barber utilizes 4 knobs (volume, tone. dynamics, and burn) And can be dialed in to give you a huge tonal palette, as long as what you’re after is NOT metal. It doesn’t go there nor was it designed to. It’s an overdrive of the highest order, NOT a distortion pedal. However, if you drop another drive pedal in front of it you CAN reach metal territory no problem, as happens with a  Modtone Dyna Drive.  But I don’t play metal so it’s a moot point anyway.

The volume and tone are pretty straight forward. It has gobs of volume on tap and I doubt I will ever have a need to dime that knob. The tone knob is actually useable on this unit too. The Dynamics knob reacts like a depth knob IMHO and is usable through the entire range. Then there is the “Burn” knob (which is a pretty accurate description). I guess it’s the “gain” knob but it does a lot more especially when you get the right balance  in conjunction with the Dynamics knob. This is when the pedal really comes to life. The more you crank it, the sweeter and more defined the tone becomes. There is also an internal trim pot that I have no idea what it does and now I’m afraid to tweak it because it sounds so good as it is, and I don’t want to screw it up.

Construction is typical Barber. Rock solid. You could drive a truck over it and it wouldn’t miss a lick. (It’s like that old joke: If we have a thermonuclear war the only things left will be cock roaches, and Keith Richards.  Well, you can add  Barber stomp boxes to that list.)

It’s honestly like no other overdrive I’ve ever used. I tried at various locations in front of and behind a Modtone Dyna Drive, Visual Sound Open Road, and my Akai Blues Overdrive (see previous article). The Barber likes to be first in line for sure and it seems to play well with these pedals at least, especially the Akai (go figure) which leads me to conclude that it will play nice with virtually anything. As I said before, this is now my main Overdrive with the Akai right behind it, and it gives me everything I need, and unless I stumble across something really rare or just flat out too cool to pass up, it will be from now on. (I could probably let the Open Road go, but I still love that box too. Besides, no one can make me give it up so I think I’ll just keep it).