Barber Electronics Dual Unit

really easy to use. I went to the Barber web site and was able to download pdf files of both the tone pump and the burn unit so it was no big deal. plus I have been playing forever and did own in the past a first version tone pump (the one with three knobs and two switches). the manuals for for curiousity and not neccessity.

sound is excellent. what is funny is that I am a jazz player and use this. I'm 42 and have been in bands (all gigging) since I was 16. I have been playing jazz for the last 6 years and it is great. it works very well for me - an ex-shredder with a wife, 3 kids and a house in the suburbs but I get to play my ass off and get home at a reasonalbe time after some corporate gig? how do you do that? jazz baby! Currently I play in a trio (guitar, drums and upright bass - doing originals, standards and rock tunes converted to the jazz style - sorry to alex skolnick - you are not the only one doing it! - although i am a big fan of your work) and I get away with murder being the only harmonic instrument. some gigs i play just straight ahead stuff and other times use my pedal board with an mxr super com, the dual unit, boss ce-5 chorus, line 6 rotomachine (the korg g-4 has been retired), boss giga delay (for looping, trippy delays and just adding a little depth) and a ernie ball volume pedal jr. I have way to much stuff but my jazz amps are: fender hot rod deluxe, or a 60's epiphone devon (one volume knob --that's it! - all tube) or a peavey tube bravo or an old kay solid state amp with 2-10's and built in tremolo. Amp choice depends on the gig and the mood. anywho -- i have been using a rat II pedal for distortion needs (for the scofield, stern and frisell tunes I do) but as you know you are always looking for something different. I have and have gone through a pile of distortion/overdrive pedals and the only one that rivals the dual unit is an original chandler tube driver (built in power supply, 4 knobs with the yellow tops - same this as eric johnson uses). the burn unit sounds fantastic - I do the tone about 1:30, dynamics off and the burn about 1:30 (I'm playing jazz remember -- not blazing rock) - althought with the burn cranked you get a great drive sound. the tone pump is cool in that the pump knob can be pulled out so you get symetrical or assymetrical drive. i usually keep the pump at about 12 o'clock. the 3 switches are laid out as follows: starting from the left: first switch engages the unit. the middle one switches you from burn unit to tone pump. the far right switch gives you 2 different flavors of the tone pump. this is the same set up as the original tone pump. my understanding is that you keep it off and that is your setting as defined by the tone pump knobs and turn that switch on and your eq changes resulting in a stronger drive and jump (not too much and not too little --but not adjustable) in volume. to the guy below: the far right switch does not combine the units - it only effects the tone pump. you cannot combine the units --although that would be very cool. there is a bass trim pot - actually 2 of them -- one for each unit - if you open the unit up. the factory setting is in the middle. since i play hollow and semi hollow bodies for these gigs my tone is naturally fat so consequently i trim it towards more to the treble side. however if i play my strat or a couple of my 80's shred guiatrs (actually got tyhem in the 80's! - an ibanez rg550 and an ibanez saber (with three switches for each pickup and not a strat style switch) the dual unit sounds really ripping. my jazz guitars don't sound as ripping since they have lower output pickups and half of them have flatwounds which are not the greatest for piercing distortion. the unit does give me that elusive "on the edge of distortion" drive that is perfect for my needs. since a typical gig is basically me just going off for a couple of hours throwing in a little drive now and then over a crusty standard adds a little variety (no rock licks though -- think more of horn lines). I'm not a purist. Nothing is a ten (sorry guys) but I am giving this a 9 (which is top in my book).

built tough. expect no problems. every now and then i will sit in with a couple of rock bands but most of my gigs nowadays are not as brutal on my equipment as in the olden days. I expect it to last.

never delt with them and hopefully I won't have to. from what I understand barber seems like a decent guy.

this is an excellent pedal for my needs. I wish i had this years ago. if you are a rock or blues player --this pedal is golden. no lie. if you are a metal player --keep looking. although it will do "classic" metal. the dumble setting on the burn unit is big and fat and the tone pump can get you a slight grind , a little push or a nice crunch. I have and still do play alot. from gigging 4 times a week to 4 times a month since i was 16 is a little bit of playing. well, except when my kids where born --then i took some time off. read: not a bedroom player - (not bragging -just trying to show level of experience. this would work fine if you played in the bedroom however my feeling is that you need to push your amp a little beyond bedroom levels to really get the tone. just my opinion). I have not seen one of these units except from one picture i could find on the web. and i have only seen it one time for sale (and i bought it). mine is black with stickers. very cool unit. note to dave barber: reissue this baby. one thought might be to add one additional footswitch (so what if the unit gets a little bigger - have you seen the size of the tonebone units?) and have that footswitch be able to combine the units and you will conquer the overdrive world. even without the additional footswitch by reissuing this you will still run over the competition. I don't mean to be all gushy over this but it really is one fine sounding pedal.

This pedal has a Burn Unit 2 and Tone pump in one. It's pretty easy to use. I got this used so there was no manual. The only thing that I find a bit confusing without a manual is the 3rd button labeled status. It appears to blend both effects, but does not output as much gain as just the burn unit alone. As I usually set the burn unit for max gain and the tone pump to just add a bit of sustain, the mixing of both can be a nice compomise. If anyone knows exactly what the status is supposed to do please shoot me an e-mail.

As another reviewer said bout the burn unit, a sweet high gain pedal is the toughest to find. My setup is this: 74 Strat/79 LP/88LP(both loaded with Duncan 59's) Fulldrive II, ZVex SHO, Dual Unit, Carl Martin chours II. Into either a 78 JMP using a 2x12 1936 cab, an 80 JMP combo using 1 vintage 30 and 1 heritage 30, a JCM 800 combo with the same 2x12 speaker config, or a 70 Super Reverb blackfaced and stock. Thorough the JMP's both running 6550's (my favorite) the tone pump works great at adding a bit of sustain to quite a bit of gain. I usually run the pump at about 12:00. It does tend to smooth out the distortion of the amp, but that can be a good thing it has a more modern sound and the mids are not as pronounced as in say the FDII. Using the burn unit with the JMP's can be overkill, but is the only pedal that has taken these amps into the 80's- today's metal realm. I don't have much call for that kind of gain anymore, but when I do it's great to have it! The burn unit into an already distorted amp can get a bit noisy at full burn, but i'ts still quiter than most other pedals. The tone pump is as quite or more so than my FDII. Through the Super Reverb this pedal really shines. I've looked all over for a pedal that will make my Fender sound like a Marshall. The burn unit does! I've tried the KOB, Cobalt,Varidrive, TS...etc. Nothing has come close to the Dual Unit. Great tone great crunch incredible liquid long lasting sustain! Plenty of gain for most of your needs, if you want Metal style gain you should not be starting with a clean amp anyway. The Tone pump side through the Fender works well, although I prefer the FDII for that barely breaking up blues thing. The FDII seems to work better with single coils as it's got more top end sparkle than the Tone pump. As for people complaining that these pedals are dark? Well I guess that depends on what amp/guitar/pickup/cab combo you are using and what volume you are playing at. My Marshalls are pretty bright anyway and I have no problem. The Fender can get a little dark with the tone pump but setting the tone at aroun 4-5 cures that. Also, I have the bass pots both set at max bass. To tell you the truth I didn't find that the bass pots inside made much difference. Years of standing in front of loud amps has also made me particularly sensitive to high frequencies and the Dual warmes up the highs so that they are not piercing to me. With my JMP's the dual unit can get me very close to VH's sound on say Women and Children and also nails Iron Maiden's Murry from the Powerslave era. A very usefull tool.

Seems sturdy I hear people complaining about it having stickers instead of silk screening. I guess I don't care. Mine's gold and the paint is flaking in a couple of places. The internals are nice, not Fuller nice, but sturdy and well done. It could use a battery tray though as I've had to add foam to mine to prevent the battery from moving around. I've got several od pedals, and I usually carry a Maxon OD808 as a backup, but I've no reason to believe that I'd need it.

I sent an e-mail to Barber inquiring about a manual as I got this one used wihtout one. Never heard back. I've heard great things though.

I've been playing for 23 years. I've had gas for quite a while but am finaly settling down with "my tone". I've been searching for a pedal that would give me massive gain with my JMP but retain the characteristics / tone of the amp and also turn my Super Reverb in to a Marshall at the click of a switch. This is by far the best pedal I've found to accomplish these two tasks.
I'd read about both of these pedals here, but had never heard one. I saw this one used at a local store for $100.00. At the time I had no idea that they go for almost $400.00 new. I tried it, liked it, bought it, and then found out what a stellar deal it was. It has now become my main OD pedal and the FDII is relegated to blues for the most part. It really is a great combination. If I had to give up all my Overdrives but one (ok this one has two) I'd keep the Dual Unit. I play mostly classic hard rock and blues with the occasional flashback to 80's metal where I spent most of my formitive years. If it were lost or stolen I'd probably only get the Burn Unit as I already have a cople of other pedals of the mild gain variety and It would be tough to justify $400.00 for a new Dual.

very easy, i followed the manual and set the burn unit for the british setting--volume at 2:30, dynamics and burn at 5:00, tone at 2-2:30, and got great crunchy sound that i had been missing in my setup. i set the tone pump side like i set my original tone pump, volume at 2:00, tone at 3:30, pump at 2:00. THESE PEDALS ARE NOT TOO DARK!!!

this sounds great. it gives me that one step over the tone pump's boost channel that i was missing and had been using a bixonic expandora on the forbidden setting for...for a british classic rock sound, very distinct, very usable...AND NOT TOO DARK, THE TONE IS PERFECT MORE THAN enough TREBLE AND BITE. WHY DO PEOPLE SAY THE BURN UNIT IS DARK? HOW LOW A VOLUME ARE THEY PLAYING AT? my tone pump is a little dark in my bedroom at stage volume it is perfect!!!
here's my set up: lindy fralin loaded custom relic strat into a fulltone fat boost-- barber tone pump--barber dual unit--analogman oranje juicer--voodoo lab chorus--voodoo lab chorus--boss tu-2 tuner--ibanez ad-9 analog delay. my amp is a top hat club deluxe.

yes. i always kepp a bixonic with me just in case, haven't needed it yet.

i sent 10 emails to dave barber yesterday. he answered everyone within 15 minutes.

i play blues and classic rock. THESE PEDALS ARE NOT TOO DARK!!! i would replace this with another or just a burn unit as i have a ton pump already. i have all the fulltone pedals a way huge green rhino, modded ts-9, bixonics and PE overdrives. I use Barber's stuff when i play out. His tone seems to cut better, sustain better and have the gain i need with the clarity that is crucial. Every time I use the tone pump live ( I haven't used this live yet) peole tell me how great I and the tone pump sound!!