Kirk Hammett’s pedal company KHDK Electronics has announced the DARK BLOOD Overdrive pedal, although from the description – “Richly articulate and deep, Dark Blood can provide the main tone into your clean amp and is ideal as a fly rig and a backup to an amp or modeling rig. With its high gain and aggressive, uncompromising dynamics, this is the ultimate pedal for gain-freaks, designed both for palm muting riffs and searing high gain solos.” – it sounds a hell of a lot more like a distortion pedal to me. But Kirk wouldn’t be the first to call a distortion pedal overdrive – the MXR EVH 5150 pedal is for sure a distortion pedal (some use it as a preamp even) but it’s labeled overdrive.
That’s 5 pedals from Kirk’s company so far, and not yet a wah-wah… we’ll keep you updated.
Here’s the press release with all the info:
(New York, NY) – KHDK Electronics is proud to announce the latest addition to its award-winning line of hand-built guitar pedals: Kirk Hammett’s signature Dark Blood Overdrive. Dubbed KHDK’s most evil pedal to date, Dark Blood delivers an angry, merciless amp-like distortion, with tube-like, mid-heavy tone boasting extra high gain. The pedal’s unique power is its distinctly amp-like sound, richly articulate and deep. The Dark Bloodmakes its debut on the new Metallica album, HARD-WIRED…TO SELF-DESTRUCT, due out on November 18th. To purchase the Dark Blood, please click here to find your favorite dealer: www.khdkelectronics.com/retail. For a limited edition of 100 pieces of Anodized Dark Blood, hand-signed by Kirk Hammett, visit the The Guitar Guru Network. To hear Dark Blood in action, take an exclusive first look at the video produced by Chicago Music Exchange.
Of the Dark Blood, Kirk Hammett commented: “This is the ultimate pedal for gain freaks. I plugged it in and the name “Dark Blood” came to me right away. At that moment, I knew this pedal was going on the new album.” KHDK Co-founder David Karon added, “Everybody who hears the Dark Blood is blown away by how amp-like it sounds and how much power hides in this stompbox. We used an image of the human heart in deep red lineart on the pedal to reflect this incredible life-giving power contained within a small unit.”
With its high gain and aggressive, uncompromising dynamics, Dark Blood is designed both for palm-muting riffs and searing high gain solos and built to provide the main tone into a clean amp, as well as serve as a fly rig and a backup to an amp or modeling rig. A unique feature of Dark Blood is its “Doom” setting which controls the pre-distortion equalization, determining the amount of low-end grunt. This control moves from a tight bass to a long sustain, delivering a liquid, solo-ready tone. “Gate” controls background noise and only allows clean, gain-rich signal to pass through the circuit, while “Gain” controls the overall gain; a lower setting creates a pick-sensitive tone with excellent dynamics, while a higher setting brings a massively overdriven tone.
Dark Blood is built on KHDK’s original circuit combining solid state and mosfet technology. In classic metal fashion, a treble booster was added to the front end of the circuit to push the guitar tone to the limit. Like all of KHDK’s pedals, Dark Blood is hand-built by a family-run manufacturer in Paducah, Kentucky.
Dark Blood release marks the one year anniversary of the launch of KHDK Electronics, founded by legendary Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett and industry vet David Karon. Working with world-renowned musicians to develop their products, KHDK stands for an exclusive lifestyle brand which caters to artists who are not afraid to push the envelope. KHDK has relentlessly refined and polished their vision with painstaking detail. From conception to prototype, each product has been crafted by engineer Antonin Salva.
KHDK co-founder Kirk Hammett needs no introduction. As lead guitarist for Metallica for more than three decades, Hammett has sold hundreds of millions of albums, toured the world many times over and has been awarded multiple Grammy Awards and is regularly listed as one of the greatest rock guitarists of all time. KHDK co-founder David Karon has had decades of experience creating iconic products for the biggest names in music. With KHDK, he gives artists an independent platform for turning their creative visions into reality and delivering the highest class of stage and audio gear.
