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Audio Kitchen - The Big Trees Review - A Journey Of Autumnal Joy...

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WazmeisterWazmeister Frets: 9534
edited April 2020 in FX
I'm not sure where I first saw The Big Trees; some years ago, I recorded with a band at a studio near Amersham, and it may have been there... wherever it was, I fell in love with the looks of it straight away...

I mean, just look at it... it's gorgeous, crazy, simple, beautiful, zany and inspirational all in one package
I could, might and should build a whole board around the looks alone. My wife said right away, "...it's very you darling..."

I love the artwork and simple design of this.

In this crazy Coronavirus period, my only infection has (fortunately) been the long standing one of GAS. And in this period, my mind has turned to finally, actually, really trying my hand at recording after all these years.

Dan's "My Home Practice Gear" on That Pedal Show was an influence; in the episode shown The Big Trees made an appearance, and it sounded mega, imho. I love the immediacy of some amps; my two amps now are the;

- 3rd Power Woolly Coats MKII

- Matchless Nighthawk

There is no hiding with these two amps; they reveal all that you play, and I prefer that...

1.) So, What Exactly IS The Big Trees ?

From the Audio Kitchen website;

The Big Trees (TBTs) is an all valve, Class A amp which doubles as an incredibly versatile preamp, perfectly at home live and in the studio.

The 2.5W amp, built around ECC82 and ECC83 pre-amp and single EL84 output valves, generates harmonic-rich tone, sculpted by its Baxandall-based EQ, and ‘EL84 headroom control’. The Line output (incorporating a valve line driver stage) is either post power- amp stage, or discreet all-valve clean stage for empyreal DI tone.


In Waz language, The Big Trees is;

1.) A 2.5w Amp

2.) A Pre-Amp Tone Shaper Pedal


Having sold some gear, I decided to look into availability.

Brilliant - Andertons (generally my first pedal choice) sold them.... Damn - all sold out.

Late that night, I jumped onto the Audio Kitchen website, and filled in the simple enquiry form...

Steve got in touch with me early the following morning, and said that some were available. Now, these are hand-made and not cheap. Ever the one to take a leap, and loving a risk and challenge, I placed the order. 

A word about the Big Trees designer Steve Crow. What a lovely chap he is. We exchanged several emails, full of humour, full of the kind of creative character you would expect to be behind this. Not too serious, never pressured - he even signs his emails Beard Cultivator and Electronics Tickler !

And faster than fast, closer than close... the following morning it arrived nice and early...





2.) Straight Out Of The Box...


Straight out of the box, it was a joy to behold. Wonderfully designed, weighty and cool as...

First port of call was to plug it straight into the 3rd Power amp.  
My initial fear of noise from a pedal/amp like this evaporated. It was a quiet as...

I started with the clean channel (green light), which bypasses the Amp section. 

It reminded me a a great pre-amp - maybe like the API Tranzformer GT. Superb EQ, nice smooth compression (?). I dunno, whatever it added was lovely. I mean, really lovely. I got to unity pretty easily; no need to read the manual here. Simple Waz likes that.

You see, this is no ordinary amp/pedal. Underneath those 'trees' are housed 3 valves. Real uns;  a ECC82, a ECC83 and a EL84. 
We ain't messing about here; no siree, this is the real deal.

And they sound warm, deeper, wider, filling the sound.

Talking of sound, I'll quote Sound On Sound here, who are much better at revising than moi;

"In Clean mode, the signal bypasses the amp circuitry and is fed to the buffered line output, which utilises the ECC83. In Amp mode, the tone stack and gain controls come into play, working much as you might expect.

The Dirt control merits a little more explanation: this switch allows you to progressively reduce the headroom in the EL84 output section, increasing distortion and compression, without things becoming unmanageably loud. At the line output this loss is compensated, allowing you to maintain gain structure regardless of settings. The line output level controls greatly expand the functionality, with the ability to tailor exactly how hard you're hitting things downstream."

Here is the brilliant review here from Sound On Sound;

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/audio-kitchen-big-trees




3. All The Leaves Are Brown...


So, next up was switching into the (red light) amp side. Here the EQ, gain and dirt click into place. Again, wonderful. And now, the scene changed. Aggressive, gnarly tones burst into view. I could set up edge-of-breakup - like some vintage amp shaking the cigarette smoke off the tweed.

All of this through the 3rd Power. So, I switched over to the Matchless. Blinking flip - this is a bit special. The Matchless can be very picky with pedals - no with this one. Hand in hand with the Big Trees, jumping off the cliff...

Love it.

I'm so excited by this. I want to own it. I want to incorporate it into my rig, to shape it, to grow it.

I've yet to use it with my UAD Apollo, or into a 1x12. But I think I know the outcome.

What probably impressed me most, was the ease I could switch from the clean to the amp channel. I could set unity straight away, and let the warmth flood in.

I know I tend to be positive, but this is a game changer.

Only thing left to do, is to put some coloured knobs on it, and life (as we know it) will be pretty much complete....




Feedback here - http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/57555/
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