Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
60 Cycle Hum Collaborates with BIG EAR pedals on novel 9-Footswitch Whac-A 9-Stage Cascaded Boosts Pedal
Key Points
60 Cycle Hum and BIG EAR pedals collaborated on a novel 9‑Footswitch Whac‑A 9‑Stage Cascaded Boosts pedal, with Jordan Clayton (Pine Box Customs) designing the circuit and PCB from Ryan Burke’s idea.
The unit contains nine equal, slight individual clean‑type boosts (one per footswitch). Engaging more switches cascades boosts—first three are subtle, clarity appears after four, and all nine yield a moderate, low‑gain overdrive with added top‑end sparkle. Controls: Boost Boost Boost Boost Boost Boost Boost Boost Boost.
Novelty build: side‑mounted jacks, gold sparkle enclosure, limited to 60 units and sold via the BIG EAR pedals Webstore. As of 2026-07-13, the price was £250.
As Ryan Burke freely admits in the below video - this is all based on a somewhat zany idea he had one day to create a pedal which was covered in multiple footswitches and with no further controls or frills. This idea was then taken up by Grant Wilson of BIG EAR pedals - who roped in Jordan Clayton from Pine Box Customs to design the circuit and PCB layout.
The basis of this pedal is 9 equal but slight individual boost circuits - one per Footswitch - where you ramp up the level of boost - by hitting further Footswitches - which in turn adds more of those Boosts into the mix. You don’t really get a particularly noticeable boost until 4 are cascaded together - the first 3 are very subtle really - but definitely add sparkle.
The Boost type is closest to clean - while it seems to add a lot of brightness and sparkle to the top end. With all 9 Footswitches engaged you get a moderate Overdrive - largely sitting in Low Gain territory.
In terms of practicalities - this is a novelty pedal really. Its very nature, size and side-mounted jacks makes it all rather impractical. There are far more elegant ways to deliver a multi-stage boost. While the Whac-A certainly has its own kind of charm.
Controls - Boost Boost Boost Boost Boost Boost Boost Boost Boost
Only 60 units are planned so far - available of course from the BIG EAR pedals Webstore for $250.
The pedal is both Whacky and Whac-A-Mole-y and I feel will have fairly specialist appeal. It's beautifully made with a fetching gold sparkle enclosure. While it's not really that practical or useful within most live and studio situations. I see this along similar lines to Rainger FX's Liquid Analyser Overdrive. Both serve a certain purpose but really aren't particularly purposefully useful in most scenarios.
Me personally I'm will a little on the fence here - this is a beautifully made pedal - but I'm really not sure how much use I would get out of it.
Will be interesting to hear your opinions on the subject. Any of you conceding getting one. With only 60 up for grabs I'm sure they will still be snapped up pretty quickly.
Demo / Introduction
