I had such good luck with the Bogner Burnley that I decided when the time came to get some clean boost and light compression going for one of my projects I'd have to try out the Bogner Harlow.
It's a clean boost with a tone control that actually works like the wonderful Tonelux "Tilt" control - turning the control to the right turns up treble and reduces bass, and to the left it increases bass and reduces treble. It's very effective.
The second is a control called "Bloom" that is really a type of compression. The third of course is volume for your boost.
As with the Burnley, the Harlow has the Rupert Neve custom wound transformer.
I've tried an awful lot of good compressor pedals, but never stuck with them for long. Either they're finicky, or noisy, or they are over the top with the compression. This compressor is a very easy to use one-knob beastie. It can be subtler than most, adding just a touch of beef when you want it without squashing the signal into Nashville Tele territory. You know that sound. This one sounds more like it's part of your amp.
With light compression on, the tone knob does some nice things to bring out the upper frequencies, and you can hit your amp as hard as you want with it, though I use it at just a touch over unity gain to add some fullness and sparkle when I roll the volume down on the guitar.
It's a very sweet sounding pedal that adds a bit of richness. Like all compressors, when it's engaged it brings up the noise floor, too, but my rig is very quiet so it's not at all objectionable. For me it replaces an Xotic EP Boost and an SP Compressor, that turned out to be not what I wanted with the DG30. The Harlow is a very smooth pedal, with a solid bottom end as one might expect given the transformer.
Anyway, so far I like it and am using it on some tracks for a big project I'm doing. Also, GWizz, I promise to try the Wessex, but I was in a hurry to work on my project today and didn't try out the one they had at the store.
Here's a pic of the pedalboard with the Harlow switched on. Something weird happened with the iPhone camera that makes my perfectly straight pedalboard look warped, so please ignore that and check out the pedal:
It's a clean boost with a tone control that actually works like the wonderful Tonelux "Tilt" control - turning the control to the right turns up treble and reduces bass, and to the left it increases bass and reduces treble. It's very effective.
The second is a control called "Bloom" that is really a type of compression. The third of course is volume for your boost.
As with the Burnley, the Harlow has the Rupert Neve custom wound transformer.
I've tried an awful lot of good compressor pedals, but never stuck with them for long. Either they're finicky, or noisy, or they are over the top with the compression. This compressor is a very easy to use one-knob beastie. It can be subtler than most, adding just a touch of beef when you want it without squashing the signal into Nashville Tele territory. You know that sound. This one sounds more like it's part of your amp.
With light compression on, the tone knob does some nice things to bring out the upper frequencies, and you can hit your amp as hard as you want with it, though I use it at just a touch over unity gain to add some fullness and sparkle when I roll the volume down on the guitar.
It's a very sweet sounding pedal that adds a bit of richness. Like all compressors, when it's engaged it brings up the noise floor, too, but my rig is very quiet so it's not at all objectionable. For me it replaces an Xotic EP Boost and an SP Compressor, that turned out to be not what I wanted with the DG30. The Harlow is a very smooth pedal, with a solid bottom end as one might expect given the transformer.
Anyway, so far I like it and am using it on some tracks for a big project I'm doing. Also, GWizz, I promise to try the Wessex, but I was in a hurry to work on my project today and didn't try out the one they had at the store.
Here's a pic of the pedalboard with the Harlow switched on. Something weird happened with the iPhone camera that makes my perfectly straight pedalboard look warped, so please ignore that and check out the pedal:
