Barber Electronics Burn Unit 2

Not a toy for the kids. It??s designed for real musicians, that know what is tone. Play a lot with it and let the internal trimpots as they came first. There are a lot of sounds here, and what a tone!

I??m playing it with my custom strat, and can tell you for sure, that??s the best dist/overdrive pedal for me. Right now I??m using the Dumble setting, and what a tone man! I am addicted! I had Fulltone OCD, Fulldrive, GT500, Tonebone Classic, Eden Detroit and many many others. For me the Burn has the tone that I was looking for. Right now I??m just missing my Barber Tone Pump (wonderfull) and Banzai Fireball, which I also like a lot! Other pedal that makes my mind it??s the Barber Direct Drive, my friend have one, and it??s also wonderfull! What can I say? Dave Barber has nailed it for sure!

I had the Barber Tone Pump, Compressor, and now the Burn. Never had a problem with them.

Don??t know, seems to be great.

Well, that??s the one for me, congratulations Barber Electronics, for making such a magical effects unit!

1) takes time to get the tone that u like. Like any OD/Dist pedals that i had...the best ways is , tweek it while ur practicing with the rest of the band . If you're a bedroom guitarist..sorry, this pedal is not for u cause it is made for real musicians (atleast for small gigs).

1) never tried it with humbuckers . My strats > one with 57/62 and the other with original vintage 1979. My 50th anniversary Tele are standard.

2) my amps > '93 hot rod deluxe /fender princeton reverb (s.state)

3) chain my Barber Burn Unit with :

a) RMC 1 wah b)Boss TU2 c) Burn Unit d) Marshall Blues Breaker 1 e)vintage DOD chorus f) vintage DOD Delay....sometimes i throw in my
Sweet sound Mofaux Vibe or EHX Tremolo in my rigs.

1) A+ (nuff said).

1) Got no hot & horny chicks to answered & reply my mail so no point to contact them.

1) from my rig u can see that i'm only using this pedal for my blues / rock blues kind of gig only. Yeah, it's not that versatile ( got other pedals to do the job for pop/fusion/hard rock kind of things) but it's really great for what it does...it's enhance the true color of your playing @ tone xpecially if u wants to play the blues without sounds like all the legends but our own....except john mayer. yeah..this pedal have that kind of dark @ bassy + mid tone that mayer had in his solo (well..not all of his songs).

2) been playing for 30years now..had try all kind of OD in the market..but this Burn Unit got mojo for vintage tone for blues licks ..thats for sure. Thanks, DAVE.

IT REALLY SOUND LIKE MARSHALL , DUMBLE(?)
BY VARYING DYNAMIC POT, YOU GET COMP SOUND, NATURAL SOUND
I CAN'T BELIEVE ,,,
AND YOU CAN VARIFY TREBLE,MIDDEL,BASS INSIDE OF THE BOX BY USING POT....

ANYWAY IT SOUND GREAT .....

IT LIKE TANK ...
AND TRUE BYPASS

IT IS LITTLE EXPENSIVE...
ANYWAY IT IS WORTH....
IT REALLY SOUND LIKE TUBE...EDGE,RESPONSIVE, BRIGHT BROWN SOUND....

Just a comment or two.. I just received mine a couple of days ago and have spend some hours playing with it. This is a great pedal for sure, I really can't add anything to what's been said. What I wanted to mention was that to wring the most out of this pedal try following it with an "enhancer" of some sort... a BBE Sonic Maximizer, Stinger, Sonic Stomp, or my favorite, the Boss EH-2 Tone Enhancer. The EH-2 is not made anymore but can picked up easily on eBay for around $50. With any of the above you'll hear good stuff coming out of this pedal you didn't know was there.

Not a plug-n-play unit, requires fiddling to find the right match to your amp by using the internal trimmer pots (presence, bass, and midrange). In all fairness, the pedal sounds incredible as is but its nice to be able to tweek the pedal to match you amp / speaker. This is the only pedal that I've owned that sounds good with any set up after tweaking.

I can go on and on about the sound....which is the smoothest most articulate I've ever heard. Very rich and harmonic and the Dynamics knob is a great touch. Clockwise is more Fender tweedish or Marshall crunchy. Counter clockwise is more smooth and more "Dumble-esque". I own a Fuchs ODS 50 and this pedal is the closest in a solid state pedal that has come to that California smooth sound that I've owned. I sold a Chandler tube drive at a profit to keep this pedal. I'm not saying that the Barber sounded better, it just made me rethink keeping the Chandler and instead sell it for some extra moola'- that's how good the Barber sounds.

For all you tweakers - TRY STACKING THE OP AMPS CHIP. I HAVE A 4559,TEXAS INSTUMENTS 4558, AND A 4558D STACKED IN PARRALLEL AND IT SOUNDS INCREDIBLE!! This stack adds a little more "hair" and "grind" to the sound of this pedal. In my opinion, it brings it closer to the tube sound as it adds a different quality to the distortion. It adds a little touch of rawness that most pedals miss. I'm keeping this stack in my pedal. See this site for more info about parralleling your OpAmps:

www.barberelectronics.com/parallelopamps.htm

Even after this, the pedal still remains its crystal clarity, even with the heaviest overdrive. Jazz chords are completely clear. The keyboard player I jam with noticed that clarity right away...and he doesn't play guitar or is familiar with these qualities as we guitarists are.

Barber stuff is built like tanks.

Great pedal, its really like two pedals in one. I set the green for tube screamerish sound (lite overdrive) and the Red for leads at a higher output to cut through the mix.

This is the Burn Unit EQ I am reviewing.

Not the easiest to use only because the internal trimmers require removing the back cover. But other than that, there is not a bad sound in it.

This is absolutely the best sounding and flexible distortion unit I have ever used in all my years of playing. It excels at Marshall crunch with not even a hint of fizz or fuzz. Clean, powerful and defined. The note definition is astounding, even when set to balls out crunch. It sound fantastic.

I have tried almost every great boutique OD box around: TIM, Fulldrive 2, ProAnalog Dual Drive, Menatone King of the Britians, Menatone Howie, Lovepedal Eternity, you name it. THe Burn Unit is in a class by itself. You can EQ it so that it is voiced for YOU. Want more mids? Boost em with the internal trimmer. Don;t want a mid hump or want it scooped - turn em down. There are trimmers for mids, bass & presence. They TOTALLY change the way the pedal sounds & feels. I can't imagine the sound you cannot get. This is a pedal you can have for life and tweak whenever your tastes change.

David Barber's pedals are among the best made in the business. Even the other boutique guys admire David's work. Open his pedals up and you will see nothing but the best components and impeccable soldering and point to point wiring.

There is no such thing as a "better" made pedal. Period.

David Barber is the nicest guy in the world. He is incredibly knowledgable about guitars, amps, pedals and sound in general. He will talk to you and answer all your questions. I was really blown away by how attentive & genuine he is.

I have both the Burn Unit EQ and the Tone Pump EQ. I couldn't decide which I like better, so I kept both. They both share a similar sort of flavor - clean, defined pure tube sounding gain. I really really love the way the distortion breaks up. I find them to be SO much fun to just play the pedals. I can't get over it. The Tone Pump excels in the low gain department and the Burn Unit takes over where the TP leaves off.

I am a professional musician and the Barber Burn Unit EQ (and Tone Pump EQ) are the two best distortion units I have ever played - ever. I have found my boxes for life. And this is not th ehoneymoon phase. I have had em for over a year.

On a side note, I also tried the new Small Fry - which is supposed to be one channel of the Burn Unit. I find the Burn Unit to be more flexible and "bigger" sounding. The Small Fry is an amazing box as well, but it is lighter in the mids. You can scoop the Burn Units mids out to the point of thrash metal if you want, so fear not if you don;t like a lot of mids. But the Small Fry doesn't have as much mids on tap for the asking. Plus, the extra channel of the Burn Unit makes it THE most flexible and well rounded distortion pedal I ever played.

I absolutely love this box. If it were lost I would get another in a split sceond, and I am definitely going to get a backup for mine. I already have a backup for the Tone Pump.

Very easy to use. Controls are self explanatory. Dynamics control could be renamed to compression. Since this is the EQ model, you can removed the bottom plate to get at 3 internal trimpots (bass, middle, presence) to further tweek the EQ of the pedal. I did have to adjust these to get the sounds I wanted, but I found adjusting these can make a big difference.

I'm using a CS Gibson ES335 into the DigiTech Whammy XP100 into the BU EQ into a Q535 Dunlop Wah into a Fender Deville 2x12 amp with a Line6 DL4 in the effects loop. I set the dynamics control at 5 o'clock (all the way off - too compressed otherwise), tone around 1 o'clock or so. green burn control to 11 o'clock. red burn control to 5 o'clock. Great sound for the 335! 1st I thought the BU was not round enough sounding, but after adjusting the internal pots, I think I've found I'll be happy with for awhile. The sustain and pinch harmonics out of this thing are great! This might be the best pedal for this guitar + amp I've tried yet.

I bought this used. The 1st battery I installed in it did in the battery clip pivot rivet. It looked like the head of the rivet was barely big enough to hold it in place. Drilled it out per Dave Barber's instructions and with a leather care kit installed a new 1/8" rivet with a bigger head than the stock rivet. Swings fine now and looks like it will hold for a long time. Was the original rivet a slip in QA or damaged otherwise? Don't know. Other than that, it looks like a very well built unit and don't expect any problems

David Barber was very quick to respond to my questions

I play a hybrid of jazz/funk/rock/other and have been playing for a long time. Been through alot of dirt pedals that just didn't cut it. Probably the most difficult pedal to find is a high quality od/dist pedal - this qualifies. I love the quietness of this pedal and it's true-bypass (a must have after all these years of using non-TBP Boss pedals!). I think this is probably one of the very best sounding od/distortion pedals for use with my 335. I really like the dual channels. I'm using little bit of smooth grind or even more fat with a step of the red setting. Nice size - not too big. Very expensive pedal. Would I buy again? if stolen or lost - likely, though I would see if there's anything else on the market. The fulltone FD2 is nice, but it's more of OD with a boost more than a 2 channel OD/Dist like this one.

This pedal is very straight forward and really does show up to be two pedals in one once you master it. The manual is to the point and has some good examples. I tend to have one stomp for blues and one stomp for rock (country is clean).

PRS Hollowbody I > Barber Launch Pad > Barber Burn Unit > Fulltone TTE > Fender SRRI.

This overdrive pedal really rocks. You set the volume just above unity gain and get a lot of overdrive. The tone is outstanding. I don't try to sound like Clapton, Page, Etc. I look for something that can help me find my own sound. My Super Reverb was made for a pedal like this coming though the front end. It is very versatile and delivers both scream and punch. True bypass is there as always.

No back up needed here. Look inside and see the workmanship and quality components. This is well built.

Dave and crew are a great of bunch people. They are into their work and it shows. Always polite and helpful they try to answer all questions promptly.

I play rock, blues and counrty laced with worthy originals. I use the low burn about 50% of the time. Whe you crank it this thing delivers. Put the Barber Launch Pad in front of it and you can expand the overdriven tones even more. Keep rockin' DAVE!

Ease of Use is simple and direct by reading the one-page manual for different settings. There are 2 switches on the Burn Unit EQ (mislabeled as the Burn Unit 2 on this page) that can be used as drive and more drive separate channels.

You can set the volume of each channel where you want between 7 and 5 o'clock, but I don't recommend anything past 12 o'clock, as it gets LOUD rather quickly past 11 o'clock, and usable distortion becomes too distorted.

There is a tone knob that governs both channels, a dynamics knob for the same, and 2 "burn" knobs, one for each channel. Sound quality is covered below.

I currently use two guitars through my rig at separate times. I play a PRS SingleCut Private Stock, and a PRS Archtop Private Stock through the following:

Guitar > Fulltone Clyde Wah > Barber Burn Unit EQ > Peterson StroboStomp Tuner > Fulltone ChoralFlange > Voodoo Lab 4-Way Amp Selector (3 amps on) > 2 Mesa LoneStar 100W Amp heads and 2 2x12 closed-back cabs + 1 Fender Blues Deluxe RI 1x12 combo. The Mesas have a dBx Graphic EQ going through their effects loops.

I set the Mesa amps EQs flat, and use the dBx to regulate EQ. The dBx 2x15 band EQ is set like the responses of how "good" speakers or microphones would have. (Ask an audio tech to see a audio response curve of a "good" speaker) The Fender Blues Deluxe is scooped (mids turned down to 3, bass and treble up to 8.5) slightly for more definition. (This cleans up any inherent muddiness from the flatwound strings on my Archtop.

All of my effects sound clean and well-defined with the Barber Burn Unit EQ at these settings. (Too much mids present will muddy up your tone) The Barber Burn Unit EQ is not exceptionally noisy at "reasonable listening levels." Any amp hiss that comes from your amp already will be amplified. I have slight RFI signals coming through the speakers when not playing and the speakers are idle, and the Burn Unit EQ is engaged.

The weakest effect in the chain is the Fulltone Clyde Wah strangely enough being before the Burn Unit EQ. I do not use the Fulltone Clyde in great amounts, so this is not an issue for me. The Fulltone and the Burn Unit EQ together, however, work quite well, each complimenting the other.

You can dial in plexi or JCM 800 sounds, an overdriven blackface, tweed champ, warm boost, Carlos Santana's tone, or the exclusive $15,000 amp we know as D*umble. I almost always use the D*umble setting, because it has it's own unique quality, the sound of a saturated amp while still at "reasonable listening levels."

I can call up Dickie Betts, Duane Allman, Larry Carlton, Carlos Santana just to name a few. There are myriads of others I have yet to tweak with my 2 guitars just by using the volume and tone knobs on the guitar and adjusting the dynamics, tone, and burn knobs on the Burn Unit EQ.

Based on the RFI filtering through, I cannot give the sound quality a 10. Otherwise, it's near perfect.

I gig with my Fender Blues Deluxe and Barber Burn Unit EQ regularly, but play short sets of under 45 minutes at open-mics. I haven't had a problem with my unit as of yet, and based on the responses I have received from Dave Barber of Barber Electronics personally, I will never need to worry about reliablity. The switches are solid, and the unit is military grade built. (you just can't get much better than that, unless we're talking NASA).

Dave Barber answered my email overnight regarding questions I had as to what purchase I should make. Dave is prompt, courteous, and treats the customer with respect, all hallmarks of excellent customer service.

Never had a problem with the unit, but since it is only 1 month old, I can't say I'll ever need a repair.

Dave stands behind his work. Read the other reviews for their customer service related issues. I haven't had or required service.

I play blues-based rock and jazz. I have yet to discover all the intricacies of the Burn Unit EQ with my amps. I was astonished by the sound of my Archtop through the Burn Unit, and although my SingleCut requires some fine-tuning with the EQ settings, the Burn Unit sounds outstanding out of the box. It is well suited to my rig, both at home and gigging.

In all my 35 years of playing, I have not been able to get this sound out of any amp(s) setup. It is what I have been searching for for all these years.

It is indispensable to me now. I would buy another if it were lost or stolen without hesitation.

The Dynamics knob is the best feature, as it conjures up almost all of the varied tones, with slight other knob adjustments.

I've listened to TS-808's, TS-9's, Xotic AC/RC/BB units among others. These are essentially one-trick-ponies. The Barber Burn Unit EQ can do it all.

The Burn Unit EQ is essentially a very musical unit that helps the musician by not muddying up tone, and works well with other effects that like the Burn Unit EQ are true-bypass. Since the Burn Unit Eq is true-bypass itself, it does not detract from tone. If you have any inherent tone-suck, it's coming from other places, not the Burn Unit EQ.

Compare with other OD/Distortion units before you buy. As far as versatility, tone range, quality, and sound are concerned, the unit surpasses them all.

Super easy to use, basicaly two identical units in one housing. Dial in your drive and then set the other for more drive, (at least thats what I do so I can switch from verse to chorus, I have a bit more drive and a touch more volume for accent purposes, then I hit it with a pharaoh amps Clas A Boost for leads. I have been playing for 9 years now, and have come to be a real gear head.

I dont usually do this but I have to just say WOW!!!!! I have been through so much gear this last two years but I really think its over. Ive had Marshall JTM-60, Marshall Artist 3203, Orange AD30TC, Soldano Hot Rod 50 (that would have been it but the effects loop sucked), Egnater TOL-50, Silvertone Twin Twelve with an Ibanez Tube King (came close), Peavey Rockmaster preamp and Peavey Classic 50/50 amp (was almost it but I dont like rack gear), and the modeling stuff Line 6 Vetta, Vox Valvetronix AD120VT, Behringer Vampire. Now the only ting I have kept through all of this is, blieve it or not, a Peavy Bravo which is a 1-12 all tube combo that has 3-12Ax7's in the preamp and 2-EL-84's in the power section, put a Celestion Vintage 30 in it and stand back KILLER TONE, but not enough power for some of the bigger things we are doing now. So here we are, I buy this Barber Burn Unit from reading reviews and listening to the sound clips on the site. I get it home and run it into my clean channel, nice but I like more low end, not overwhelming but full. I adjust the internal trim pot and that helped but not enough, I almost gave up, but I pulled out my Aphex Guitar Exciter Pedal (nice), and WOW WOW WOW, this is it, the be all end all of TONE for me. Very articulate, you can hear every note on every string ring out, enough gain for me to do hard rock. It going into a Fender 62 Jap reissue strat with a Duncan Hot Rials in the bridge and Lace Golds in the middle and the neck, then into a Sovtek Tube Midget head and a 2-12 cab with Vintage 30's in it. KILLER TONE and Ill stop ranting about it now.

Built like a rock with the best components available. I think that it will last a LONG time.

Havent needed it.

I never though that I would be using a pedal for all my overdrive, I have become a real tube snob over the past two years, but this into a good tube amp it heavenly, I love it and there are not many things that I would go on about like I have here. Buy one you wont be dissapointed, its worth the money. THANKS BARBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!