JHS Pedals founder Josh Scott’s gear recommendations carry some serious weight. Indeed, previous nods – not least his somewhat infamous tip-off on DigiTech’s Bad Monkey – have seen used prices rocket at alarming rates. Recently, though, Scott dedicated a new livestream to a distortion pedal he says is “the most cool and unique distortion device I've seen in decades.”
And it’s not some out-of-production obscurity, either. It’s a pedal that was only announced in January and is available for an obtainable price of around $200-250: namely, the Korg Nu:Tekt Harmonic Distortion.
The box is the brainchild of Fumio Mieda, the Japanese pedal designer behind the Shin-ei Uni-Vibe and, as we explained when the HD-S launched earlier this year, is a build-your-own-pedal kit that features three different, cascading distortion circuits.
“It’s super, super fascinating,” enthuses Scott. “They’re made to be built by you. You don’t have to solder. You don’t have to know how to do anything, you just have to pop them together.”
Of course, while he makes special mention of the excellent sticker set that’s included (“Who doesn’t want a Fumio Mieda sticker?”), it’s not just the novelty factor that has Scott interested, more the tone and topology of the circuit.
“This thing immediately caught my attention,” says Scott. “I’ve seen everything. I mean, literally, at this point… Very often when you see the claim of an ‘original’ effect, it’s like [pauses] ‘Is it?’ This feels so different.”
As Scott explains, the HD-S has three harmonic trim pots that can be adjusted to change the sound of the distortion stages. They’re designed to be ‘set and forget’ but you just need a screwdriver to tweak them.
“They all interact,” notes Scott. “The pedal has a sound. You’re not going to go from Bluesbreaker to Metal Zone, that’s not going to happen. It has a distortion characteristic… I would put it somewhere between a killer DS-1, a little bit of RAT, all the way to a Univox Superfuzz – and that’s insane. I know what I’m saying is insane, but it’s the interaction here.”
Scott – in his typically, informative, laconic manner – explains the benefit of the circuit, including the wide sweep of actually-useable sounds available from the Tone control before concluding, “I can say in all honesty… this is the most cool and unique distortion device I've seen in decades, like, historically – [and it’s] designed by Fumio Mieda – I mean, just super cool.”
Alongside, the HD-S, Korg also launched the TR-S Power Tube Reactor, which uses its Nutube tech to emulate the feel of a tube amp, earlier this year, while the first pedal in the range – the Nu:Tekt OD-S overdrive pedal – arrived in 2020.
For more information on the Nu:Tekt HD-S, head to Korg.
