Hello Sailor Effects' Dr Boogie is a really unique even tempered take on the Dual Rec format

So this second batch of Joe’s Dr. Boogies is slightly different to his original example in the accompanying circuit build video below.

Joe isn’t particularly a high gain player - and didn’t particularly enjoy the all-too-easy feedback squeals that can emanate from this circuit. This is why so many high gain distortion pedals have built-in noise gates - because those circuit squeal too easily, while Noise Gates are also for the Djent / Chug crowd who use the Noise Gate in a very specific manner!

I myself genuinely like High Gain and feature such pedals on my site a fair amount - including my Full Metal Racket rundowns. So I’m not personally averse to feedback squeals and sometimes tempering those can give you a reductive experience of that circuit. While Joe has maintained all the essentials here - where the sole casualty is a little loss of bite and wiriness - but if you have a decent EQ - you can easily restore most of that bite. I’m using my Audiostorm Tone Lord mostly for those purposes - when I want to spike the circuit a little bit more but mostly I don’t feel I need anything extra - there’s plenty of gain and range onboard.

Controls - Level, Presence, Gain, Bass, Mids, Treble.

The crave / curve of the EQ’s is not particularly pronounced - but every knob does its job with a fair degree of bandwidth.

You can imagine this as a Dual Rec - but in a suit! Not quite the snarling dog any more - just a little more even tempered and refined - but still with that core flavour. I would imagine some metalhead purists might be a little put out - like they were for Boss’s HM-2W - which lowered the noise floor and took out a fraction of the noisy snarl from that pedal too - but it mostly sounds exactly like the origina and is still highly viscerall. That said - some players seek out an abundance of feedback and squeals - and this is then not the ideal pedal for them.

Most of the work is being done by Joe’s preferred type of JFET - the J113’s which give the circuit its more refined output.

I like it best with Level, Gain, Bass, and Mids Maxed, Presence @ 3 o’c, and Treble @ 9 o’c - that sounds pretty killer to me.

If I need to spike it further - I have several boosts in my circuit that I can ramp it up with - including the Thorpy Heavy Water, Audiostorm Tone Lord 2, and Strymon Sunset. The vast majority of the time the Dr Boogie doesn’t need any extra help. It’s a superbly well behaved high gain distortion -one that’s evidently been to finishing school.

It very much has the stamp of Joe’s personality about it - and I’ve so far loved everything Joe has made for me. I think he made this Styracosaurus variant with me in mind - and wasn’t in the slightest bit surprised when I claimed it for myself. I also picked up a really cool CV7001 Vox Bender in a Leia Rebel-Rebel livery - which I also love - that review will come up next week.

This is my 11th Hello Sailor Effects Pedal - and I love how my Dirty Dozen capsule collection has come together. Joe has obviously figured out what I like - and he keeps coming up with the goods. I am finally satisfied that my HSE Collection is fully rounded now! While I’m far from completion obviously!

My unit was priced @ £260 at Saturday’s Brighton Guitar Show - there were a few other units in that batch, and I believe only the Blue one remains!

Near enough all of Joe’s Pedals are unique one-offs - as you can see by my below collection.

Actually there look to be 2 units currently in stock - one for £300, and the other for £260, no one bought the gorgeous looking Fluorescent UFO Edition of Treble Booster - and there’s incredibly still one of the Brian May style Treble Boosters available - but surely not for long!

As of writing this - those are all still available on the HSE Webstore.

A lot of Joe’s videos are more about the circuit build than promoting those actual pedals - while they are always excellent sound samplers, but not necessarily always the best demos for those pedals. 

Note that if you want more bite in the circuit you can also adjust all those internal trim-pots - while messing around  with those isn’t always advised. I get plenty out of the circuit already - and prefer to use external rescues to adjust the attack of this pedal.

This / My Dr Boogie is great, but not quite as you know it! One for the more refined gentlemen and ladies among you!