Hi folks, long time no update. We’ve been hard at work here in the new shop (which is almost not even “new” anymore!) and today we have finally released Halberd V2. As is customary with our new releases, I like to explain what makes them special! So if you’re interested, read on.
For newcomers: Halberd is a discrete transistor overdrive built around a gain cell originally developed as the preamp in our Sending delay, and later fleshed out into a whole new pedal. With a whopping 24V of internal headroom it has a ton of dynamic range, a unique response to your right hand attack, and a highly variable pair of tone controls.
In Summer 2020 we began revising all of our in-production pedals to a higher standard of manufacturability and reliability. Most of these changes were simple quality-of-life and manufacturability improvements, especially for the Longsword and Model feT which I felt were already sonically optimized.
But, while I had the Halberd files open to port into our new format, I saw a few places where small changes could go a long way. As much as I was already happy with the Halberd, I knew we could improve based on our manufacturing experiences and customer feedback.
Here’s what we changed:
Voice toggle
The most prominent change, and the one I’m personally the most excited about. The Voice toggle adds two new modes to the Halberd. The center position is “Standard”, the same sound you know and love from V1. The up position is “Clang”, which pushes gain in the upper mid frequencies for a tighter attack and sharper range of tones. The down position is “Deep”, which adds gain and low end fullness to achieve fuzzy sounds. For all the V1 users who wished there was more gain, this one’s for you.
Smaller enclosure
This was more of a “because we can” situation rather than a “because we should”. But who doesn’t love a more compact, pedalboard-friendly enclosure? Plus, Zach had the opportunity to deliver an excellent refresh of the graphics.
Optimized and ruggedized power supply
Like all of our models with sensitive internal power supply circuitry, we added a protection circuit to guard against over-voltage events and other power supply mishaps. We also beefed up the power regulation to improve the noise floor from V1. In addition, we reduced the power consumption. Halberd V1 draws a rather hefty 180mA - just out of the reach of the 9V outputs on many isolated power supplies. Halberd V2 now draws only 50mA when in use, which is still high for an overdrive but well within the limits of a good power supply.
Transparent electronic switching
We took advantage of the ultra-low noise bypass buffer in the Halberd to add electronic switching with a quiet and absolutely transparent CMOS switch. As a bonus, this switch draws significantly less current than the relay we used before, saving precious milliamps.
Evolution of the Halberd from V1 to V2 - prototyping is a messy business!
No more Germanium
Perhaps a little bit controversial, but bear with me.
Germanium transistors are chaotic things. Their specs wander all over the place, but the right one is a thing of beauty. This means careful selection criteria will make or break the noise floor and gain character. We built up a stockpile of high-gain, low-noise transistors for V1 production. But we were rejecting a surprising amount of transistors (ones that would be happy in a run-of-the-mill fuzz) so I knew we had to do something different.
Simply swapping out a silicon transistor does work, and it sounds great! There’s more edge, bite, sizzle. But I wanted to capture the smooth and even note decay of a germanium transistor. I spent many hours developing specialized filter stages to trim away the buzzy harmonics of the silicon transistor without sounding muffled. The end result is, in fact, even smoother than the original Halberd. Even at its most aggressively biting settings, the tone has the refined high end response of an already-mixed guitar track.
Some semantics:
You may notice that the tone controls are now labeled “Tone” (formerly “Hi”) and “Depth” (formerly “Lo”). I think these more qualitative labels better reflect what is going on under the hood. The Depth control isn’t just a bass control, it is like a second gain control affecting the lows. And while the Tone control does affect treble, you can get a highly effective bass boost by turning it counterclockwise and turning up Post.
Closing remarks
If you made it this far, thank you! I hope you found this deep dive informative and useful. Halberds are available now in our store and through our dealers!