Barber Electronics Dirty Bomb

I ordered this pedal after listening to numerous reviews and comparisons online. I was in the market for a versatile, flexible distortion and the Dirty Bomb appeared to fit the bill. Ordered direct from Barber via PayPal transfer, it took 3 weeks to receive, which is on the low end of their estimated wait time. It has the basic distortion box controls: level, high low, and gain, but it also includes a mid switch that allow a neutral, scooped or boosted setting, and also has a bass potentiometer internally, which you can use to dial in the desired amount of resonance to match your speakers' voice. The manual, as previously stated, is a printed single sheet, and is all you're gonna need.

I have played both humbuckers and single coils thru this box into my Peavey Studio Pro 112, which is equipped with an Eminence Red White and Blues speaker. The Dirty Bomb delivers stunning range, going from very light OD to total mayhem distortion, with amazing clarity and definition throughout the range. There is none of the mushiness that often comes at the higher settings. The tonal range provided by the knobs and mid switch is beyond comparison, offering the ability to dial in virtually any sound you want, and some you never knew about. All of the above is provided with practically no noise.

Just got it, but Barber's rep is secure. This thing is built like a tank. Steel case, heavy duty switch and pots etc. The only drawback is the usual need to unscrew the bottom plate to change batteries and adjust bass trim, but that should never deter anyone from getting this pedal.

Barber is a very easy company to order direct from, just send money via PayPal with your desired item in the comments, and it shows up on your doorstep via UPS.

After 30 years of playing guitar, for my own pleasure as well as gigging, I can honestly say that this is the best overall distortion pedal I've ever tried.

I got my dirty bomb by mail in January 2009. It's the first Barber stomp box that exits the overdrive category and falls right into the mayhem distortion category. I pre-ordered this even before I played or heard it because I'm a hard-core Barber fan, have three more of his effects and every one of them is superb. It's easy enough to use and you don't need a manual and you just gotta use your ears. Simple 4 control knobs with a huge range.

It's a rather unique distortion. Most true distortion pedals like the boss ds-1 and the likes have a limited range where they sound good, and then start sounding like a broken speaker when you dial down the gain, or like a can of angry hornets when cranked up.

This little black box seems to me like sorta something between a true distortion type dirt pedal and a modeling effect like the AMT effects like the california sound and the likes. With the AMT's you can make out quite a heavy amount of signal processing and modeling which changes your guitar tone a lot, but not so with the barber.

The treble and bass range controls are huge and I can go from very sweet mild "bad company" type drive to real nasty mayhem. The gain control in most distortion boxes can truly really be used only between 9:30 and 3:00 settings - dial it down and it sounds like garbage. Here I could get some very mild and sweet overdrive sounds with the gain all the way down. I don't really like the boss metal-zone type real heavy distortion so I haven't played much with the drive all the way up, but it does sound defined, clear and not flubby even at high settings.

I have only tried this with a PRS dual humbucker guitar so can't tell how it will sound through single coils - those typically work better with overdrives but I really can't tell.

I use a volume boost prior to the dirty bomb to crank up the harmonics a bit for soloing. Works really well.

As for the sound types, it can really nail the Doug Aldrich, Slash, Angus Young, Zakk Wylde kind of tones very well, but it has its own unique flavor. Not noisy at all.

It is too soon to tell but I have not had trouble with any barber effect.

They respond very quick to emails.

I am very happy with the dirty bomb. Still some options I haven't completely explored like the internal trimpot for bass, but this pedal has already replaced my main distortion/boost box in my rig. I like it.

My dirty bomb arrived a couple of days ago, and I've been trying out all the settings both at home and at the studio. The thing with this pedal is that the internal bass boost can be cranked up high when playing at home to get that chugga-chugga metal sound, but you need to go easy on the controls when playing at high volumes as it doesn't cut through well enough when everyone's cranked way up.

The manual is a single sheet of paper and frankly you don't need much more than that for a dirt pedal of this type. It describes a bunch of settings you can use to achieve a range of different tones from 70's rock to drop-d metal.

The treble and bass controls on this pedal give you a really huge range of tones so it takes a while to tweak it to suit your guitar, effects rack and amp. All in all an extremely versatile pedal.

I use a gibson les paul with moderate output alnico humbuckers. At home, the gibson goes through a compressor, a low gain overdrive, a high(er) gain OD like the dirty bomb, and one or two more pedals like a delay or something else.

I usually have the gain set between minimum and about 10 o'clock as I use another OD in series before the dirty bomb to goose it a bit and make it squeal with harmonics. This setup is absolutely stellar for lead with the toggle switch set to the left or middle. It works beautifully for rhythm with gain set a bit low and no level boost or OD before this pedal.

Though this is marketed as a distortion pedal, it works very sweetly as a low - mid gain overdrive with the drive set to near minimum and the toggle switch flipped left or middle, with the neck pickup of my gibson. It cleans up very nicely when the guitar volume is rolled down.

I'm still experimenting with the wide range of tones this pedal can produce, but I'm very happy with it so far.

Can't tell yet, but barber pedals have never let me down so far, and they are built like tanks, far more solid than the boss and ibanez stuff.

Not used.

I'd say the db is a welcome addition to my rig. It's replaced another OD pedal and my setup now really cuts through the mix when needed during solos, and gives the band a thicker juicier sound during the rhythm parts. There is no mush in this pedal like some other dirt pedals. I like it.

Barber makes some of the finest dirt pedals around, better than many boutique pedals I've tried like the blackstone, etc, at much lower prices. He just makes really really solid, great sounding pedals, no magic and no tricks.