Barber Electronics Tone Pump

It takes a little tweaking to dial in to your amps sound. But that's why you want it.

The Tone Pump has a sound similar to the LTD which is what I needed for my foundational tone. I dialed the mids out and the bass cranked, presence 10-11:00 with the tone at 9-11:30 and pump at 9:30 on the green ch. This setting is as close to a neutral tone, with a bit of edge, on my amps as I could get. Just like an amp a little past the clean headroom threshhold. It was sweet.
The red ch at this point really deals with the push/pull asym/sym pump knob for my OD tone. When it is pulled up the sound I hear is somewhat softer, or compressed with a flatter mid. Less volume and more gain. These are not dramatic changes from the knob pushed in. In this position it actually sounds a little fuller and I was tempted to make it my low gain ch. It doesn't cut the mix as well though. But in the bedroom it sounds wonderful. With the pump knob pushed in, it seems to be more articulate with more mids and more volume. I assume this is a reasonable clone of the green ch. Which is good. No dramatic changes in tone.
The switching of the ch's live was a very smooth transition that I enjoyed more than any other pedal stacking combo. And takes the pain out of pedal stacking requiring a compromised EQ setting on the second pedal to work with the first one.

Never had a problem with any of my barber pedals.

Call the number on the web site and David barber answers. He also will repair any pedal he made. And has a 5 year warranty, 1 year on footswitches.

I needed to cut down on the pedal dance with my Tone press, LTD mod, SF, & DD mod in that order. The Tone pump did the trick by eliminating the LTD and SF. 2 pedals of this quality would cost $300 plus.

I have a 'pre-EQ' two channel Tone Pump that I purchased a few years ago after being absolutely blown away several years ago by the original single-channel Burn Unit.
Ease of use- it doesn't get much much easier. The problem I have is that the clean 'green' channel is so useful that I can't leave it alone! ( I may cure this with the LTD soon...)

I decided a year or so ago to go back to basics and go with a Class-A tube combo and a few select pedals. This is after spending years trying to get a good tone with modeling/solid state (which is possible now, by the way). I just missed tubes! I knew after my fabulous experience with the Burn-Unit that more Barber pedals were on their way. I purchased this unit on eBay, and it very quickly has become my pedal of choice. I play the amp clean, and use pedals for OD. This is very easy thanks to Mr. Barber.
I use the green channel in two ways. One is with the gain very low, which gives me an alternate clean tone that sounds thicker than the bell-like Fender chime that comes from the amp. The other is to crank the green channel about half-way up into a mild break-up 'SRV' type tone which is very musical and useful. I use the 'red' channel cranked as a heavy rythym/lead tone. It's voice is rich, with a very 'boutique' amp-type quality. I kick the sustain and compression up a notch with the Burn Unit, or something else (Boss SD-1. Don't laugh until you have tried it! Sometimes I still crave that 'over-processed' harmonically saturated tone). The amazing thing is that the Tone Pump responds to these other pedals that same way an amp would.
The end result- This is my desert island OD pedal. A close second would be the Direct Drive, which is an excellent device as well, different, with a more 'Marshally' voicing.
Barber knows OD. Period. There are others out there as well, but his pedals are remarkable. The Tone Pump will add two channels to your rig, and will give the OD channel on your amp or any of your other pedals a run for their money.

Barber's pedals are hand-made with the best ingedients. It doesn't get much better.

I have e-mail the man a few times, and he has responded promptly and personally.

Just a side note- I have been playing for 25 years, and still love it. I am eternally obsessed with tone, just like the rest of you poor suckers out there. The good news is that great tone is now available at a relatively cheap cost, via Barber Electronics.

Bottom line-
Almost impossible to distinguish this pedal from tube-amp distortion. I would bet even the most seasoned pro's could not tell the difference. In fact, many would think the Tone Pump to sound superior to most amps. (this is the case with all the Barber pedals I own).
Once again, it doesn't get much better than this...

It sounds great right away. But there are many options ans some interenal trim pots you can adjust. The trim pots involve removing the back cover, so it can be a bit of a pain.

I play a Gibson SG Standard through either a Paul Rivera made Fender Concert, a Reverend Kingsnake or a Fender Blues Jr.

The Tone Pump EQ is the smoothest, most natural OD I have tried.

Channel one is especially amazing. You can set the gain to just above zero - and it does not add ANY distortion, but still firms up and gives muscle to the sound. NO fuzz at all. This is what Barber is THE best at. I have not found another box that doesn't start introducing a gainy sound too early. Ican actually set the box to sound IDENTICAL to the dry sound, and then slowly introduce gain into the equation. Perfect for a Stones-y grind or lead work if you don't want it to sound too "rock".

Of course you can inch the gain up and it is fat, beautiful and warm. Again, think Stones, Jerry Garcia, Trey Anastasio. Channel one can get a lot of gain (think AC-DC - clean sort of Marshall-esque tone). Lots of variation and usable tones.


Channel two is the same as channel one, but has a push pull pot on the gain knob that switches between symetrical (up) and asymetrical clipping (down). I prefer it with asymetrical. There is a bit more high end and a bit more crunch.

I notice that channel two is a hair darker than channel one. This is good to smooth out the extra gain (gain adds high end). The result is that you can crank up the gain and it NEVER gets shrill.

On top of the pedal is a bass control and a tone control. The bass control is very subtle and I don't really notice it that much. The tone control is also subtle but audible (no extreme settings available here), but it allows you to perfectly dial in exactly how much high end is needed.

David Barber has a reputation for making THE best pedals. Go to his website and read up. The pedal is light and sturdy. The internal battery clip features a unique "pivot" thing, which I suspect may not last forever, but from what I hear he is a stand up guy and I'm sure would take care of that. My pedal is on my board and powered with AC so it is not an issue.

I've heard he is the best. Nice guy, and likes to talk pedals and shop. Have not needed any service yet. I don't expect to either.

Like another reviewer here said: more than once band members have asked me what that pedal was (refereing to the TPEQ) and said "whenever you kick that on your guitar sounds great".

Well, I agree and the Tone Pump EQ is the pedal that keeps returning to my board despite whatever new pedal I try.

It has beaten out two Custom shop Fulldrive 2's, a Menatone KOB, Menatone Howie, ProAnalog Dual Drive, as well as a Barber Direct Drive SS.


The pedals housing is WAY big (too big, but it works on my pedalboard as it rises up above some other pedals and makes it possible to kick it on without hitting the other pedals).

Also,, this is NOT a Heavy Metal pedal. If you want that go for the Barber Burn Unit EQ instead. This is a fat, natural sounding overdrive that can go from hardly there to beautiful crunch.

Very versatile with a full EQ section including Presence control. I like the bass knob being on top. The pull knob on the second channel's pump control switches that channel to asymetric clipping for more versatility!

Great blues to classic rock tone with this pedal. Does a great Cheap Trick sound with My Strat. This pedal seems to like Strats. Really fat and smooth. I play it into a SRRI or a Kendrick BG 35. Likes the Kendrick! The dynamics are not as good as say a BJF BBOD but still the tone is addicting.

All of Barber's pedals are built to withstand alot of abuse.

Haven't dealt to much with Dave but He seems like a nice Guy and gives modding ideas for free!

I play all the usual classic rock and blues. This pedal has almost went ebay several times but I can't seem to get rid of it!

Tone Pump EQ. Has global tone and bass control on top of unit and mid and pres. control inside. Bottom cover has to be removed to adjust mid and pres. Volume and gain control for each channel with push/pull pot for one channel. It switches between symetric/asymetric clipping.

I use this pedal with a Kendrick Black Gold 35 w/ Emi Texas Heat. This combo along with My Strat gives everything I need. It doesn't do Heavey Metal but I don't play much HM anyway. I play mostly blues and Classic rock. I set one channel for a low gain that gives Me a great neck blues tone. Never farty or harsh. I set the other channel for a heavier gain for rockin' out. This pedal's tone is so smooth and thick. It's hard to put the guitar down! It has a personality of it's own that is addicting.
I feel it's the first pedal I've owned that I really connect with. Usually I just think it's a good or bad sound. With the TP EQ I feel I've found My tone. Excuse Me while I dry My eyes.

Built like a tank. What more do You need?

Dave always answers when I call. He uses the speaker phone which I hate but He's a great Guy.

I'm very happy with this pedal. I'd probably get another if it were stolen or lost. I've tried a lot of pedals this past year or so. I'll probably try more but I plan on keeping this pedal. When I was looking at this I was also looking at the Menatone Fish Factory and chose this one because of the bass and mid control and because I trust David Barber's ability and ear to build a great pedal.

My Tone Pump is the older, 3-knob version with a bass trim pot on the inside. I found it easy enough to find the best tones. As with any stomp box, amp or any sound system for that matter, the key is to never assume that the controls SHOULD be set within a certain range. It's like guys who automatically set any graphic EQ they've ever used to that obvious scooped-mid v-shape, regardless of what it sounds like to their ears. Close your eyes and really listen, if it sounds good it doesn't matter whether the knobs point up, down or sideways.

Fantastic! This is easily the best sounding overdrive tone I've ever heard from a pedal in front of my Fender amps, and I've tried quite a few. It's not just 'boutique' hype, this thing completely blows away any kind of mass-market Ibanez, Boss, MXR or DOD, not to mention anything I've heard in a multi-effects rack or floorboard unit. Also, it's not that I'm biased against digital effects processing and modeling. I love the conveinence of patches and I have no trouble with LCDs and menu systems, etc. I WISH I could find one that sounds as good as a real, overdriven tube amp.

Well... It's very well built overall. I bought mine used and sure enough one night recently at a pub gig I stomped on it for a lead and broke a footswitch. It turned out to be a 3PDT, the kind of switch that allows for true-bypass with an LED. This part is not real easy to find, I checked all the local electronics suppliers and repair shops with no luck. I wound up ordering a replacement from torresengineering.com (it has the 'Fulltone' brand on it). This new switch looks to be much heavier-duty than the old one, so all is well again. The worst of it was that I had to get through two weekends using the overdrive from my Boss GT-5. Yuck! This pedal has definitely spoiled me.

Actually... I e-mailed Dave Barber soon after I broke that switch, asking where I could get a replacement. After a couple days I tried emailing the other addresses I found on barberelectronics.com. I never did get a reply from any of them. Not so good. I'd be all pissed off, except I'm a Network Administrator during the week and I support email servers and end user clients, so I understand the global spam problem in intimate detail. I have clients that are so badly buried with spam on a daily basis that they can't even use email at all anymore (without resorting to spam blockers and filters, which often delete legit email).

Anyway, I never actually tried CALLING them, so I guess that's my own fault.

Overall, I love this pedal and can hardly imagine playing guitar without it. I've had it close to a year now, so I've had lots of time to get past the first-impression stage. I just obtained a used Direct Drive which I'm anxious to put through it's paces too.

While I'm here I'm gonna rant about one thing I DON'T like about Barber and MOST other 'boutique' pedals out there. Why, why WHY do they all come in a flat-topped metal box with the knobs exposed, right in front of your toe where you can easily KICK them and step on them in the heat of a live performance? More times than I can remember, I've kicked knobs with my toe and rotated them way out of whack, usually just as I'm going for a big solo or something. ACKKK! I pulled off all the knobs on my Tone Pump and placed rubber washers underneath, then tightened the knobs back down so that they have a lot more resistance to turning. This has helped, but not solved the problem. I've also thought about building some kind of physical cage around the knobs, but haven't tried that yet.

It would be a lot better if they could just come up with a good case design instead of just using off-the-shelf Hammond boxes. For my money, BOSS pedals have the best case design ever. They're small, have a big foot pedal, NEVER seem to break, tool-less battery change and yes, the knobs are recessed away from your foot like they aught to be. Perfection!

This is NOT, in my opinion, an easy pedal to get to know, but that goes for most of the Barber stuff I've owned over the years. Yes, you can probably get some usable tones quickly, but to really get the pedal to sing takes some time and some tweaking. The "owners manual" is really a one-sheet piece of paper which gives some basic advice. It's pretty worthless, IMHO. You would think if you're spending something like $240 on a pedal, they'd take the time to write a decent manual.

Well, for all my bitching about ease of use, the sucky instruction sheet, etc, it's all worth it when it comes to the tone! I'm playing an Am. Std. Tele through a Traynor Custom Valve 40, and with the right tweaking, I'm able to get my rig to sound like a '52 Esquire through a '59 Bassman! This didn't come overnight, however. It took quite a while to get the hang of the top settings (those controlled by the exterior knobs). Then, once I got those to a point where I could'nt improve on them any more, I opened up the unit and began adjusting the internal pots for presence and midrange. It was in here where I finally got to tweak up the tone I've been searching 30+ years for (I wouldn't suggest you open her up, however, until you've had the unit a while. Too many variables at first, IMO). It's a two channel pedal, which allows to set the volume and overdrive independently for each channel. I like to set channel 1 as a crunch channel, and beef up the volume and distortion on channel2 for use as a lead channel. The exterior "bass" knob does a nice job of allowing you to set the bass response (too many pedals drop the bass frequencies when engaged). The pedal is very "volume-knob-sensitive", and cleans up nicely when you turn down the volume. The tone? Well, the tone is to die for. Great bottom, gut-thumping mids, and shimmery highs, all without sounding too metallic or ice-picky. I own or have owned them all, and nothing comes close to the Tone Pump. In fact, I traded in my Barber Direct Drive (which I really never warmed up to) plus cash for this pedal, and I'm so glad I did!

Never had a problem with any of my Barber pedals. No back-ups.

I've always gotten quick and helpful responses from this company, both email and phone.

I, like many, have been on the tone quest for most of my adult life. Most pedals I have owned have satisfied the urge for a little while, only to fade within a few months. This pedal truly is different. At first I was disappointed. I expected immediate godlike tone, but didn't get it. It took some time to get to know the pedal, it's external knobs and internal pots. It was work. But it was well worth it. It truly is a great overdrie pedal. Just take the time to learn it right.

Two channel overdrive- 6 knobs and two stomp switches, 2 led's.
Has seperate volume and drive knobs for each channel, and seperate bass and treble (tone) knobs. The bass (bias) knob is especially useful.

Sounds like a tubescreamer but without any clean signal mixed back into the output. Good volume output also. Nice tone controls. Youll want to use this with a really good amp.

This thing is built to military specs, and it shows. Its a brick shithouse! Best parts available- alpha pots, switchcraft jacks, etc.

Barber burst upon the scene just a few years ago like some friggin' Knight in Shining Armour! Hes the real deal, hes not like the rest of the phoney "boutique" pedal makers out there who build garbage in their bedrooms from cheap Radio Shack parts. Dave Barber is the real deal. His stuff is built as good as it sounds- hes a real pro. I like Dave Barber's pedals better than Fulltone ( I have a Soulbender). Fuller's stuff is sort of mass-produced these days and sounds kind of sterile compared to pedals from Barber and MJM.

My Tone Pump is a keeper! Its expensive but the sound is very pure. Strats and Pauls into tube amps is my style. Man, this pedal looks as good as it sounds. Wow! I own about two doezen gain pedals from Big Muffs and ProCo Vintage Rats to the new maxon OD-820 Overdrive Pro pedal, so I can say that this 6-knob Tone Pump is really something special.

Two channel overdrive- You have to be a two-year old blind deaf and dumb rhesus monkey if you cant figure this one out- seperate volume and drive knobs for each channel, and bass and treble knobs that function as a shared equilization for both channels.

I like this pedal for its very low gain subtle "amp on the verge of breakup" sounds, but it sounds very dark through my Marshall amp- it needs to be played through a very loud amp at concert levels, or through a brighter amp like a Fender. Its not a bedroom practice device- it needs to be going through a loud amp before its tones open up. High gain tones on overdrive pedals dont interest me- they are for idiots who essentially masterbate over their instrument by performing shredding tactics using high gain tones. When I see a shredder I yawn while running away as fast as possible.

This pedal is built very well. A-1 baby, all the way Jose! Im never selling my Tone Pump- I can wail with this sucker!

Decent support- handbuilt down in Maryland or somewhere one at a time with great care. Real pro stuff- thats why I bought it- I aint no wannabe, brother.

I play blues and dig low gain tones- straight into an amp doesnt cut it as most modern amps sound like poop- too clean- so the pedal roughs up my clean sound slightly giving me an edge and addition sustain and body to my beloved tone. Ive been playimng since most of you switched from Pampers to the real thing so I know tone and I recognize superior craftmanship- there are many boutique pretenders out there, quite a few to be precise, bur dave Barber aint one of them. Hes the Real McCoy, the true goods. This pedal is expensive, so dont buy it if you suck on guitar and are looking for a quick fix for your lousy tone- you need to have acquired good tone through years of hard practice before you are good enough to appreciate electronics of this magnitude. Just to give you all an idea of the level of technique and soul I am talking about here- try listening to Ronnie Earl instead of some dumb dumpy modern rock band.

A cinch to use. Just adjust the knobs to your liking.

Sounds clear, lots of sustain and harmonics. Two channels allow you to preset one for rhythm and one for lead. Its about as noisy as any other boutique overdrive, but the tone is rich and full, complex and fat. Can do the old Clapton bluesbreaker sound, or a mild Gary Moore. It does the tubescreamer thing very well.

Well built unit.

Friendly responses to my questions, and quickly too.

I own four other overdrives but this may become my main unit because it has 2 channels and sounds so clear. Pushes my amp's front end, bringing out the amp's reverb very naturally. I use it with a Gibson Les Paul Standard.