J. Rockett Audio Designs El Hombre

After the Catalinbread Tribute Parametric Overdrive a couple days ago, we’re honored to get to share in the release of another brand new drive pedal today, this time coming to you from J. Rockett Audio Designs. Based on the classic tones of a bearded Texas legend, El Hombre is the ideal overdrive for those feeling the blues or ready to rock all night. Capturing the nuances and touch sensitivity of an amplifier, El Hombre can go from mild to wild with the turn of the gain knob showing its versatility with each guitar plugged into it. From added harmonics to chewy sag, El Hombre has it all.

More from J. Rockett:

“The El Hombre was sort of a happy accident if you will. We were heavily listening to early ZZ Top records at the time such as ZZ Top’s (First Album), Tres Hombres and Fandango. This was right around the time we lost Eddie Van Halen (R.I.P). We had learned how influenced Van Halen was by ZZ Top and we were truly listening to the music to hear those influences. It was quite remarkable how you can hear similarities not only in the guitar but in the backing vocals and the overall vibe of the music. We starting thinking how back then the options for equipment were so limited and guitar players used what they could. Making a mark for yourself as a player depended on your hands, your skills and your musicality and not so much your gear since it was so limited.

In the process we had been working on many new designs for overdrive circuits. One morning we decided to start sifting through some older designs that we were slated as Van Halen pedals. One popped out as simply amazing in terms of how natural it sounded but it also had a strange familiarity. We finally realized that an older design we had done was the magic bullet for those early ZZ Top tones. We ended up tweaking it a bit more and found it can do all of the ZZ Top tones from past to present. We have found that the El Hombre is incredibly balanced, inspiring and motivating in which to play just about any style. Anyone who knows us knows that we have almost too many OD’s in the mix, but this pedal is so good none of us could deny the fact that it needed to hit the market ahead of some newer designs. Of course, there was Tres Hombres, but this pedal was aimed right at Billy Gibbons and his tone, so of course that is where “El Hombre” came from. We would love to pass this pedal along as a ZZ Top drive but it is much more than that. Give it a try with any style of guitar playing and we are confident you will be happy!”

“The El Hombre is simple in format but complex in its abilities. The tone section is very effective allowing you to alter the drive style simply by adjusting the “Bite” control. When you bring the Bite control up (Clockwise) it becomes more aggressive, turn it down (counter clockwise) making it smoother and more reminiscent of Dumble tones. Please experiment because there is a myriad of sounds in such a simple pedal. Push the volume up and bring the gain back for some amazing blues tones, push the gain and drop the volume for the smooth Carleton/Ford sounds. Bring the “Bite” control up and get wide open Plexi sounds. We are confident that this pedal can achieve any tone you need which is why we love it so much.”

Sometimes, all you need are three knobs to create an absolute wall of sound, and that fact is evidenced by the J. Rockett El Hombre Overdrive. Nice and small in size, but big and loud in stature, you can cover so much ground with this guy, and it plays nicely with other drives and boosts as well, making it a key addition to any rig. Thanks to J. Rockett Audio Designs for letting us be a part of this release – you can hear it in action in our Full Demo Video below, then head to their website for more info and to snag an El Hombre for yourself!

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