Horrothia's Flagship Berkeley Late 60's Liquid Leslie Vibe Sounds as Gorgeous as it Looks!
I’ve previously detailed my journey with Horrothia - following the evolution of the brand, and the continual improvements made to each pedal format along the way. The Berkeley is so far the culmination and high watermark of that evolution where everything is just perfectly appointed and placed. The knob choice, the large lenticular lens, the red chorus / vibrato rocker switch, and the precision selected fonts, and spacing and positioning of every element - in fact even including how the facia plate outline circles around the rivets!
I’ve said a few times now, that Tom Oakes is all about ’Tasteful’ - where each of his pedals has a distinctive elegance to it, as well as a very identifiable form factor. The others look pretty great - but this Berkeley really is the star of the show - as is reflected in its pricing too.
For both the Triage and this Berkeley I needed to pop off the back plate to access the key trimmer pot on each one - the Preamp Level for the Triage, and the Voicing trimmer here for the Berkeley - which gives you more ’Flavour’ meaning more ’Throb’. I usually crank up both those trimmers and notch them back a touch to meet my preferences. Out of the box it all sounds very elegant and of course ’tasteful’ - while if like me you want even more flavour - more ’Throb’ etc., then the internal ’Voicing’ trimmer control needs to be cranked a little more.
Controls - Intensity, Mode : Chorus / Vibrato, Volume, Rate; Internal Trimmers for - Phase Cancel, Input Impedance, and Voicing (More Throb CW).
This pedal really could not be easier to control - and I deploy it rather like I would a one-knob fuzz - in loading up as much texture as I can (within reason), and then using the 'Intensity' knob and Guitar Volume to ameliorate things further if and as required. In fact typically the Intensity is @ 10 o'c, Rate @ around 8 o'c, and Volume of course on Max!
I'm rather kind of spoilt for choice for high quality Uni-Vibes these days, where this one really delivers the goods superbly every which way and looks great doing it. I've had various dialogues with Tom about whether the Rate knob needed to switch with the Volume for easier 'Toe' manipulation - while I can work it just fine as is - without ever needing to bend down and adjust by hand! So I am personally totally satisfied as is!
Everything about this pedal just screams quality - down to that really satisfying clunk of the military-spec Arcade style footswitch. I don't often say it, but this pedal really is a joy to deploy - super easy to dial in - and it even has a clever start-up mode selector - where you can set it up for Vintage-style (Preamp always on), by holding down the footswitch on power-up. I tend to prefer it in more practical True Bypass Mode for my preferences. The main LED changes to RED when the pedal is in Vintage Bypass Mode - while for True Bypass Mode, the LED is OFF.
The Berkeley is a relatively pricey proposition at £370 and equivalent but then this genre of pedal always seems to command high prices - and both the King Tone 1968 Vibe, and Cornerstone Aquarium for instance are at $500 / €500 respectively (but sort of dual channel and with more controls) which equates to £500 over here - meaning that actually the Berkeley is somewhat fairly cost effective as such! Available to order right now courtesy of the Horrothia Reverb Store.
Demos
12 Degrees of Saturation 2023 Compact Edition
