Menatone Howie

I just purchased a 2008 version which is the circuit board construction. Bass,Mid,Treble, Volume / Gain for the clean channel and Volume / Gain for the overdrive circuit. 80 / 90's eq voicing.

Boy was I ever dissapointed with this pedal. I was hoping for a really smooth and punchy sound. What I heard is a very colored sound with harsh and flabby overtones. If this is what a $10,000 amp sounds like...I have a bridge to sell you.

I own a Fuchs ODS 50 which is similar to the Dumble sound. The Barber Burn Unit II is closer to the Fuchs sound. The Howie is NO WHERE even close. It sounds like a cranked old Fender with the bass turned up...very tubby and incoherent. Maybe somethings wrong with mine but its going back to the store.

Any setting above 1 pm on the gain and it sounds horrible and spitty.

In all fairness, I own two other Menatone pedals; a Top Boost In A Can and a Kar Krash. Both this pedals absolutely rock. Very organic and tube sounding with tons more usable overdrive. The Kar Krash sounds way closer to the Fuchs smooth overdrive sound...but a bit different in voicing.

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Only purchase from a store that has a good return policy. I'm hoping that maybe i just got a dud and perhaps something is wrong. Either way, you need to have an out because this pedal just sounded bad to me.

If you want the Dumble/Fuchs smooth organic overdrive either by a Menatone Kar Krash or a Barber Burn Unit II (or the cheaper Small Fry). This of course is based on my experiance with these pedals. I'm sure there are others out there.

It's an overdirve pedal that says it all, no manual required just ears

Once I grabbed the Mid control no problem . This pedal sound like any good tube screamer but has a bit more drive

Built like a birick outhouse as tghey say where I come from

No idea, if it goes wrong I'll call the dealer

I've been playing for 35 years all kinds of music from wedding bands to good old heads down rock.
I've had all kinds of pedals and rack gear but this one is a keeper on my "old fashioned" pedalboard
The joke is my wife bought it for me because it's got my name on it.

Five knobs - Volume & Gain and EQ for Treble-Mid-Bass. It isn't difficult to dial in a good sound IF you don't push the gain. Many people play pedals thinking the gain must be pinned - for those with this mindset, they will be very disappointed with this pedal.

This is a pro box. If used correctly, the pedal gives natural sounding non-grainy distortion to fatten your tone and firm up the mids and bass. The gain is unusable above 11:00/12:00 - there is just too much and it sounds unnatural. If you moderate the gain and keep it around 9:00, the pedal adds fat and grease to the mix and makes your amp sing.

Obviously, no pedal is going to make anybody sound like Robben Ford. Even if you were to get an Overdrive Special, you aren't likely to develop his tone signature either. The pedal firms up the lower register and adds harmonics, plain & simple.

A pedal's weakest part is the footswitch. I have heard a few knocks about early Menatone pedals developing switch problems - that is to be expected - it is the nature of the beast. The guts of the pedal are expertly configured, the designer appears to be a stickler for quality.

Here's the rub. Brian Mena is a genius effects builder & designer. He is very difficult to get ahold of - maybe the web site that has been under construction for a VERY LONG TIME will help.

When you do get ahold of him, he appears to have few people skills - not as bad as Mike Fuller, but similar in that he comes off as aloof, which is interpreted as arrogance.

I have no idea how helpful he would be for people other than myself. That depends on individual personalitys and individual expectations of how he should treat a potential customer. Don't expect much and you will be happy with what you get.

There is a need for this pedal. Most pedals remove bass and lower mids and simply enhance treble & upper mids. This pedal adds what the signal is generally missing. It also adds tons of complexity and harmonic content.

The pedal is a winner if you don't get too agressive with the gain knob. Although not a fantastic value, it is among the best for what it does.

4 knobs and a foot stomp affair, how hard can that be

Howie claims to give you that Howard 10.000$ amp Dumble sound. Well, that would be the day... Fattens & softens your sound though like it Howard-dimples every note in syrup before sending it to your amp. Sounds good right? But there's a drawback, the price is tube tone, all covered up in Howies mix of honey and plastic. Like playing with strings of silk instead of metal. But then again, you wont notice that in the heath of the battle, what only remains is a big luxery hassel free lead sound. And it's nice to see something that's not based on a tubescreamer.

Guitars: Tokai springy sound, tele 73/83, LPjunior, Danelectro U2
Amps: Vox AC-15, Fender pro junior, H&K crunchmaster, Fender Bassman silverscreen, Dynacord Rex
Effects: Dunlop wha, Fender tube reverb, Sun fuzzface, fulltone fulldrive, Aramat Green Machine

I have put this thing trough a couple of amps with various guitars and cant help it to think this thing has the wrong name, Mr Menna should have called this "top boost in a can" cuz it has written AC30 all over. Trying different menatones all together, i think they dont differ that much from each other, only different voicings.
Is it easy to get a instant good sound? Yes and No. See, it's not your typical TS9 clone with the easy and groovy mid hump that sounds always good (and always the same) with singlecoils, humbuckies, fenders and Marshalls. Nooo... instead it has a very big low bottom, a very pronounced presence and lacks the mid hump and a the high topped brightness. It makes a big difference. Every time a swapped a spanky tellie for a LPjunior or a strat, I found myself walking to the amp and fiddle the bass and trebble knobs. Never happend before with a ts9. This thing has a sweet spot and you better find it cuz it can sound like a cheap transistor. Just like a Marshall with the preamp on 10 and the master on 1.

So, no mid hump but how does it sound? Well, first of all the Howie sounds much better with vol on at least 12 o'clock what is much more output then the bypass signal so be carefull not to distort the preamp tubes of the amp or you have no clean sound at all. With the gain on 9 o'clock you get a pretty clean sound, almost the same as the original sound but a tad more "boutique" clean like it's candy coated with sugar on top. Nice. The more gain is added, crunch will enter the low strings, the mid-presence will sound silky and smooth and on top of that a sizzle will appear like an AC30's blizzard of nails. Very early London top boost, I could almost smell the slamming el 84's. But you will be walking to your amp all the time as you turn up the gain (well, I did) Once set for a good lead sound, I was very surprised to see that turning down the volume of the guitar gave the same result as riding power tubes. Of course, not every guitar can do this.. in my experience a tele and a LPjunior work much better this way than a stratocaster or a Les Paul Custom.
The Robben Ford sound seemed not on tap. However, adding a tube overdrive (Ibanez Tube King) next in line gave me that big authority "Blue Moon" sound. Whauw. To bad I dont have Mr Fords talent.

dont know, seems like it good manufactured

very simple.. gain/volume and bass/mid/treble. tone nobs dont do much but it is very interactive, reacts on amp settings and guitar. swap your guitar for different sounds.. not your average stomp box

some people get it, some dont. I am in the middle. as for dumble.. well, with the right guitar and amp it can make a very good impression (listen to the Chapin samples) of a Steely Dan lick. but I also could make a very impressive raw tele/tweed sound with it. it doesn't like my strat though, to much sizzle going on, better results there with a fulldrive. Bought the Howie because I was looking for a backup for my chandler tubedriver, still found nothing that could even come close, but the Howie doesn't try to, it has its own thing going: Raw complicated crunch with sizzle on top

reliability? we'll see

heard very good stories about the owner but never dealt with him

Mine didn't come with a manual but you don't need one. It's pretty simple, gain, bass, treble, volume and a mid knobs, so it should be pretty straight forward. But, dialing in the right setting can get a bit tedious as the gain knob is quite touchy at the lowest settings which is how I'm using mine. So, find that perfect melt in your mouth setting then change your amp volume and DOOOH!!, time to strart tweaking again, and again, and again, and....

My setup is: 61 SG reissue w/57 Humbuckers>Fulltone Deluxe Clyde wah>Analogman Beano Boost (Rangemaster-type germanium treble booster)>MENATONE HOWIE>Tonebone Classic dist.>Fulltone Fat Boost>Analogman Clone Clone Chorus>Boss tuner>SIB Echodrive>Vox AC15TBX with Blue Alnico speaker.
First, you need to know that I almost always have my treble booster on as I'm playing humbuckers thru a Vox and it really gives my tone that extra little treble tweak that I absolutely love. So, after trying many OD's (vintage Ibanez TS, Maxon OD808 modded with the JRC4558D chip, Fulldrive II, AC booster, Vox Valvetone, Sparkle drive, King of the Brits, Blue Collar,and a couple of others) this is by far the best one for my HumB's>Beano>Vox combo. All the other TS types I tried tended to sound like shit with that particular combo (well, the BC was pretty nice, too). The Howie is very smooth, open, big and I guess just the most real sounding. With the gain set as low as I can get it, it drives my Vox into a lush, creamy, just breaking up tone that is killer. It also gets along well with my other effects. But, as you begin to increase gain, yikes!!, it can get really over the top and muddy. Now, at lower gain settings, you can roll of the guitar volume and it adds a little clairity while still maintaining a nice overdriven tone . So I use this as my light range OD for chords and some soloing. It's perfect for that middle American type Bodeans/Mellancamp/SonVolt open chord strumming or some Pete Anderson country chicken pickin' or even some late 60's Beatle stuff (nails the Beatles) but the gain control can't really handle much more than that, hence the 8 rating (8.5 really). If you could crank the gain and still maintain some bite and clairity I'd have given it a 10 for sure. So, I leave the heavy stuff to my Tonebone. The Menatone Blue Collar is very similar but a little thinner and not quite as smooth nor is it as open sounding as the Howie but you may want to A/B the two if you're considering one or the other. Now as far as the "Dumble in a box" thing, whatever. I buy equipment based on how it sounds with my stuff and nothing else. Also, if you're playing the Howie through something other than a Vox tube amp with a treble booster and humbuckers and you don't get the same results I did, please don't swear at me on the internet.

Don't know, only had it for a week but it looks like you bust rocks with it so I not too concerned.

Haven't had to go there yet.

Overall I like it a helluva lot. I wish I could crank the gain a little more without it getting so muddy. But for what I'm using it for, a lightly overdriven channel between between clean and heavy, it's real nice. So again I'll give it an 8.5. If lost or stolen I'd probably buy it again but only after making sure it was still the best thing on the market for my particular set up. Cuz there's always something else that I just gotta try.....

Still trying one out.
Chain, you mentioned that your lead guitarist
has great ears for tone, and got your Howie pedal to sound like Robben's. Could you email me and let me know what are you settings are for this? I'm playing thru a Custom Shop Fender 100 watt Duel Proffesional 2x12 (celestians) with a Fender Tele and Strat. I would greatly appreciate it!

I'm in the middle of checking it out. Theres another hand made pedal out there I just came across yesterday at this high end guitar shop, I think its called "Rumble". I didnt get a chance to try it out because I just bought the AC Booster as I'm writing this. If I'm not happy with this one, then I'll go back and exchange it for
the Rumble pedal.

Dont know yet.

Still gotta get into it before an honest opinion.

5 knob pedal-pretty simple to use...no manual with this.

it's a pretty fat,singing distortion when the knobs are all set 'normal'(around the 12:00 area)-i have a 'sorta blakfaced' 70's deluxe reverb that is a good match with this,and it also worked out rather well with an older SS practice amp (little speaker,probaby 8") i bring to some duo/trio gigs.... i'd say it's not the quietest i've heard,but there's a LOT of gain in there and no one notices that kind of noise onstage,right? the actual tonal quality/fullness of this pedal is very high as with other Menatone stuff...the only other supposed 'Dumble-ish' OD i've compared it to is the BJF Baby Blue-a very nice pedal as well,but the Howie is quite a bit thicker/complex sounding to me,plus it has a lot more volume boost if needed...i guess it's not really a fair comparison,as they are totally different designs.

super nice construction-it's like a little PTP wired amp. I've had great luck with this and the other Menatone pedals i have.

helpful and easy going-answered some questions i had in a phone conversation a while back...

I do a few different things musically at the moment-most would fit loosely under the 'pop/rock' category'(a little jazz/R&B,as well)...i can see how others might not like the Howie so much,but it definitely has it's own thing happening-i traded my first one away,and missed it...the other OD's i use are a Blue Collar or KOB, and i usually play a Tele.

easy as it gets. just watch the volume on the pedal it can boost your signal like crazy.

i have tons of pedals i was looking for a creamy dist/ overdrive kinda like my tubescreamer just with more sustain. this is an alright pedal. can get ver muddy at high gain and very loud with the volume ar high levels. it has a grit that i could use but wasn't looking for.
listen to samples or try it out before you buy

seems durable but it's still new

haven't tried them and can't even find a web site for menatone. i can say the guy i bought it from was very nice at tone merchants Edward Yoon. 10 for him

io play all sorts of sounds and colors. it's good for the gritty sound a cross between a fuzzface and an overdrive. not was i was looking for but sound good maybe note worth the money and if i had a chance to buy and amp like the dumble if it sounded like this i would get a fender or marshall