Who: smallsound/bigsound
What: Mini
Price (MSRP/PAID): $159 / Loan
Battery: Yes
Power Supply: Yes 9V Center Neg (Boss Style)
Available from: Direct
Size: 4.5″ x 2.5″ x 2″ (tall)(jacks and knobs included)
Bypass:True
Review Date: 12/24/2012

Marketing:

the mini. sure, it could have been named the mini-fuck or any other name your sick mind can come up with that revolve around those two words… but we decided to keep it clean this time and make this a pedal for the masses.
technically speaking, the mini is a modified fuck overdrive. you get the same lovely JFET overdrive at the core, but without the grungy blown-amp-crackle that makes the fuck so unique. rather, it has been replaced with a very simple BIAS knob which allows the user to dial in saggy lo-fi gnar to clean chime-y hi-fi. an additional BASS knob has also been added to get even cleaner sparkle-y treble boost type tones or let the full (more bass than the fuck!) range pummel the JFETs for huge low end.
the mini is an excellent addition for fuck overdrive users who love the tone of the pedal and use it as an “always on” signal fattener – now you can have both worlds, with one in a smaller package!

Comments:

Had the chance to experience this pedal as a loaner, and as usual I was impressed with the design work brought to the table by the folk at smallsound/bigsound. It doesn’t seem that bass was in mind when the pedal was designed, but clearly there are some appointments that make it extremely usable on the low end. Playing with the bass/treb/bias you can dial into your clean sound and then decide where you want to go from there. It’s easy to make it go as a simple clean boost, but the level of control you can take in both the amount of dirt (it seems a very long taper) and the quality of that dirt are about as good as it gets.

Bottom Line:
High quality pedal with a small footprint that will fit many (many!) people perfectly on either bass or guitar!

Photo Gallery and Video:

As always, if you have any questions, leave a comment or let me know Note: A rating of 5 = acceptable and should be considered a ‘good’ basic score