Why Do People Hate This? Kirk Hammet's KHDK DARK BLOOD pedal

[@BrankoSimic696]

Not impresed with pedal(for the price) but that Kelly is melting my eyes!

[@TaylorDanley]

She's a beaut!

[@adrianamorphous]

Same!!

[@franckamec4156]

Yes this pedal suck...

[@metalfather8139]

every kirk pedal has a secret wah wah screw setting inside....

[@TaylorDanley]

😂😂😂

[@joeyvanostrand3655]

KHDK are a GREAT pedal company. They made my Steel Panther pedals and they are pretty kick ass.

[@petechristopoulos8304]

Steel Panther lol

[@Ronny1031]

If that pedal was less than $100, I'd be much more forgiving of its issues, but for that msrp, hell no. It should have been called the St. Anger pedal.

[@TaylorDanley]

😂 I feel like they really missed a great marketing opportunity there

[@zAvAvAz]

i am think it is awesome if kirk hammett uses it. Regardless of noise or mudd it still has great note separation ironically. Seems like a great candidate for effects loop snd parametric EQ setup with 4 cable noise gate. i am really think it shines on the recording hugely. Very modern club basher sound.

[@doganemreilgar]

I got this pedal and kick's ass!!!

[@Tsubocheeg]

Almost 5 minutes of talking before actually playing Maybe thats why I Like Ola's reviews.They like 5 min

[@yikelu]

I have a collector's edition (Kirk signed, different color) that I rarely ever use because it is a collector's edition. But you got me curious so I pulled it out of the box and plugged it in. Sounds good! Mine wasn't as dark as what I heard from your demo, and I had than enough gain for rhythm work with the Doom control low. Doom is a pre-distortion bass control, so you turn it up if you want a fuzzier/squishier distortion e.g. for leads or doomy metal; I like keeping it low (9 o clock) for modern-ish metal. I found I wanted the gain at 5-7 on the high setting. I do agree that it's pretty noisy though, the gate is almost a necessity, and even then I would probably add a dedicated 4 cable gate for good measure.

[@NoiZeTribe4Life]

Im no pedal expert yet but it really sounds base no matter what u do. Sounds like it needs a lot of post-EQ'g

[@davemahan1993]

I’m glad I saw this review. It’s way too noisy and flubby for that price point. I could see this seeming like a good idea to someone like Kirk Hammett who is used to having people record his sound and take care of the post eq for him. It needs a boost to give it any sort of clarity, and don’t get me started on the noise level. I don’t want to pick on Kirk, but he is clearly out of touch with his statements about this being the most amp like pedal on the market. I’m not terribly surprised since he also said this company was going to be the first one that was started by an actual guitarist. No hate on the guy at all, I just doubt he is aware of the options that are out there for amp like distortion/preamp pedals.

[@ilovegreenock]

The music is always top quality on these gear reviews!

[@babayagaslobbedaknobba]

I honestly can't tell if it's the pedal, or the review itself...

[@djxxeess]

1:16 is DEFINITELY the reason why I clicked on this vid. You're the man Taylor LMFAO!!! Well played

[@TaylorDanley]

🙌😂

[@lexingtRick]

12:48 Has a good intro, the bass makes it splatter on the floor or wall, darkblood splat. It's in Major so it wasn't dark. But I think it darkened it.

[@TrevorScanlan]

Is the muted or sludgy tone to have your guitar sit back behind another guitarist? James is the rhythm guitarist but kirk usually just supports the rhythm guitar unless he is soloing

[@TrevorScanlan]

When you hear their isolated tracks they do sound odd a lot of the time because they are eq'd to support eachother

[@matthewhart5824]

It not very impressive. Kirk Hammets name and endorsement is really the only justification for the price tag. He doesn’t use a pedal board live, he uses a fractal audio axe-fx, same with James. The only pedal he uses is his wah and the tech is back stage operating that. And while writing this comment there is an annoying 4 minute long ad playing and is in mandarin. Wth youtube ads?

[@TaylorDanley]

😂 maybe you use a vpn? And yeah, weird that he said they used it on the album (death magnetic I think).. I'm like 🙄 right.. they probably humored Kirk and reamped the guitars with a real amp when he left the room

[@demokraatti]

I made a decision to stay as far as I can from Kirk’s stuff after he demoed his signature amp. After seeing this video I know that I made the right decision.

[@TaylorDanley]

You mean the randall that Mike Fortin designed? I've always wanted to try that amp..

[@demokraatti]

@@TaylorDanley Yes that’s the one.

[@troyraywalker]

It was my first tube head. I still have that thing hanging around. Surprisingly versatile and sounds good in a mix. But recently a Laney AOR100 8- knob has pushed it off my favorite top 3 amps. The kh103 is a decent amp for sure hasn't really let me down except for it doesn't take dirt pedals well (fuzz/distortion).

[@lexingtRick]

The vibe-distortion seems to be there. But what about through a mic? You recs were direct I could guess.

[@noctule1313]

How many ppl who commented neg on this pedal actually owns one this pedal is good n heavy n sounds awesome i agree without a good noise gate it’s noisy but with one it’s hard to beat

[@6oundStudio]

yo this slo mo was sick

[@TaylorDanley]

Thanks! 🙌🤘

[@apoplexiamusic]

This pedal kinda seems hard to make sound good, doesn't it? Edit: once boosted and tweaked it sounded better.

[@needsLITHIUM]

That initial tone at roughly the 5 minute mark might be good for mixing/blending/dubbing with a really trebly, over-distorted & nasty tone for some tasty lo-fi black metal or crust/grind type tones, depending on what you do with it, js.

[@cooperosorio6888]

I’m a lil sad that mine won’t work. Not sure what the issue is, but nothing happens at all when I plug into it. I think it has an electronic issue.

[@SaintsCheat]

Thanks for playing the clean reference tone.

[@xx_ikkunaverho_xx3018]

That mask in the background really stares in to your soul

[@idontwantaname9750]

I think it sounds great.

[@instrumentalist28]

My joyo uzi sounds better :/ ......but the khdk ghoul screamer is one of my top favorite od pedals for tone tightening

[@TaylorDanley]

🤔🤔🤔 that sounds cool, I'll have to check one out

[@burnoutzzz]

It should always be put through an fx loop lol. And needs an eq pedal in a frowny face setup boosting the mids.

[@eljulogaming7515]

I'm not sure this pedal works well in the fx loop.

[@furiouzzzz]

hey it is not a pedal it is your set up all sound horribly muddy, had watched w few reviews of this pedal all sounded great except yours

[@deadgoon7460]

Do a video of the REV1+ on your bottom shelve. Not enough demos of those and they sound killer and are reasonably priced on the used market.

[@TaylorDanley]

I've made a bunch of videos with it, but yeah. Probably deserves it's own video

[@riffsnoleads]

no click on the switch? I would feel so unsatisfied every time I step on it. edit: this pedal sounds like a Rat circuit or maybe a DS-1 but just not as good as either. The price point is this pedals biggest failing, I could just get a Rat for $90 or less and sound cooler. In the mix at the end, it sounded pretty good tho, a very grainy/earthy tone. No one conditioned to hypersaturated super mid modern distortion will like it but it does the thing okay enough, but again, the price makes it not worth it.

[@TaylorDanley]

It's definitely got some smooth cool sounding clipping going on, but I wouldnt say its amp like at all lol. And the non latching switches... yeah, some people love them, some hate them 🤷‍♂️

[@pedro.gabriiel__]

Yes, it chugs

[@TrevorScanlan]

(Belch)

[@tobins6800]

Ya know I'd say save about 200, get a behringer gdi-21.

[@DJCD92162095]

I guess the gate from this pedal is fit to Kirk’s active pickups, which is quieter than your DiMarzio pickups, if I didn’t mistaken...? But this is overpriced!

[@dq7860]

It's all about Kirk

[@RickDrift]

whos the guy in the background?

[@9hk38f]

Like all KHDK signature products. Pretty freaking cool! But not worth the price. I was dumb enough to get the LCFR. I should sell it.

[@maynardburger]

You can get a 'usable' tone with almost anything, especially in recording if you're double tracking. This sounds like relative ass though, and there's no saving it with an overdrive or anything. That worthless noise gate is also inexcusable in a pedal this price.

[@Razrback]

I think a lot of those petals are geared towards newbies that are like kirk hamett have to have it

[@ArticLight14]

Surprised it doesn’t sound like a wahhhhh

[@TaylorDanley]

😂😂

[@jorgea.9988]

Curiously KHDK doesn't have any wah pedal because of the deal between Kirk and Dunlop. 😆

[@SunRise-tf2fw]

Put the pedal in the loop of ns, not before or after. Will be better

[@DeviantGuitars]

Over $200 and it requires 2 other pedals to make it sound good 🧐

[@TaylorDanley]

😂

[@aidenmcclendon5457]

Yuppp, rather pick up a Revv G3 or friedman be od for the same price...

[@teemoleague907]

I like the mesa scooped clone, sounds like early metalcore.

[@Robmars83]

I paid 170 but I made some money on it ;)

[@TaylorDanley]

👌👌👌

[@Alexholbert]

Great Guitar Skills Man, but honestly the Pedal sounds like really wet MUD. Like if Kirk and his whole Rig fell into a gapping all engulfing wet MUD Hole. Just Subscribed to the Channel, Good luck to you!!

[@pimvanvugt673]

I just want to say that the slowmotion shots in the demo are very cool

[@TaylorDanley]

Thanks! 🙌

[@standodge5536]

Yikes. Glad I researched this pedal before buying it. There’s way too much dialing it in and needing a gate to suppress all the noise. Thanks for an honest review. I’ll pass.

[@IndependenceGuitar]

That seems like a pretty terrible pedal for that much money... but i have to admit it doesn’t sound absolutely terrible as distortion pedals go. I kind of expected a metal zone or crate solid state sounding distortion. But it actually kind of reminds me of my H&K vortex black distortion. It’s a solid state amp that reacts to gain stages more like a valve amplifier and gives a not too terrible tone. I wouldn’t use it normally, but if you have to, it can give a decent usable sound.

[@metalfather8139]

hmmmm kinda sounds like dark blood.

[@CodenameCuervo]

Great for Grindcore!!!

[@cranialtyrant]

Sounds like the Six Feet Under - 13 Album Deathklaat

[@DarrenWaters75]

It sounds like a Dual Rec to me. Probably based off of his amp, I could see that being the reason it's mushy and scooped sounding.

[@TaylorDanley]

Yeah, reminded me of an uberschall, but for the same reasons

[@dantrag2890]

Yeah, I'll give your $25 for it.

[@Locallybuiltauto]

I have 2 of these and they are great

[@zelek1325]

I miss my mahn who always uses the Hotone Ampero

[@TaylorDanley]

I'll have to do something with the Ampero here soon

[@ManuSDP]

@@TaylorDanley reamping with the Ampero tutorial please!!

[@matthewarant7491]

Sound’s like a line6 spider v 30 amp. Way over priced for that muffled sound.

[@needsLITHIUM]

Also, it seems like the volume actually affects the output tone. After you turned up the gate and the volume, it was noticeably less muddy - but it still sounded bog peat and shit. LMAO. At the end you mentioned how the knobs on either side of the pedal seemed tied together. Adding gain added bass, and adding bass added gain, etc. Shit is kinda weird, but it didn't sound half bad at the end of the day.

[@Erisblackstone]

It sounds good but it's just overpriced! Had one that sat in my guitar department for YEARS until a Metallica superfan bought it at MSRP

[@TaylorDanley]

What was full MSRP at the time? 270?

[@kow294]

Jesus, that mask on the background freaks me out...

[@TaylorDanley]

😂🙌

[@21stcenturymetal31]

To pricey for that pedal. I have cheaper pedals that sound way better. However great video and playing as always.

[@TaylorDanley]

Thanks 🙌

[@21stcenturymetal31]

@@The_Invisible_Self Wow your late to the party. This was over a year ago. Should have asked me then.

[@apstech4618]

Horrid. Get a REVV G3 and G4

[@shayanu1208]

killer video \m/

[@TaylorDanley]

🤘

[@MP-vg3js]

people hate it? who and why? Gojira used it at one time so it must be pretty damn good

[@eduardoprieto5267]

I've seen Metallica live and James tone was scary good but, Kirk's tone was thin and horrible. You are full of it today buddy if you think kirk knows about tone.

[@hawaiiskaterdad]

I'll subscribe if you do a pedal shoot out with this, vs mesa throttle box, vs metal zone, vs sans amp, vs tube screamer, vs ... What about tube pedals with boost? Are they worth it? I want mega 6l6 gain, feel and sound cause I can afford but cant use a 4x12 with mesa dual rec in my tiny apartment to practice!

[@peachmelba1000]

Why is Wednesday Adams just staring at us?

[@dq7860]

If it was half price it'd be a pretty good pedal, absolute ass for how it actually is priced though.

[@danymalsound]

Great playing and huge Metallica fan, but that pedal is just ass : /

[@TaylorDanley]

🙌

[@Brad143]

Wow Kelly

[@thedanksavatron7782]

Muddy Mudskipper 🐡 🐴 No sir , I don't like it!

[@TaylorDanley]

😂😂

[@adrianamorphous]

Kirk Hammett knows about as much about guitar tone as I do and that's not saying a lot. Anyway I've always wanted to check out this pedal but the price tag always deterred me. I think there are much better things at that price point

[@jcalzada74]

Yeah like a decent used amp🤣

[@adrianamorphous]

@@jcalzada74 I meant pedals but yeah

[@NefariousDreary]

Not bad but not worth the price. It would be strong if it didn't sound so muffled

[@needsLITHIUM]

As I said in my other comment, this pedal sounds like it would be best used for a good blending tone, paired with an actual amp, as the actual usable tones you can get from it are decidedly limited. Run it with an intentionally slightly shitty tone in conjunction with a tube amp or two for quad tracked or layered re-amped guitars, like the way some death metal bands use an MT-2, or the way some Swedish scene death metal bands used an HM-2 back in the days of Whoracle, Colony, Trigger EP, etc. Seems overpriced for that application, tbf, but if that's the sound you want or like, then for you, the juice might be worth the squeeze. YMMV.

[@raybrickles7667]

230 is a KSR eros sooooo... .

[@aaronsmithey4044]

No, not Uberschall. I wanted to like it, if only because so many people hate it. Turns out the collective nay sayers are right this time. It's not great.

[@TheGazza83]

I really wanted to like this pedal, but damn, it sounds very underwhelming.

[@davidbeauvais1364]

All KHDK pedals are noisey the ghoul screamer is fucking noisey too

[@TaylorDanley]

Good to know!

[@juliandelrio]

To me it's overpriced! For sure!

[@jorgea.9988]

The lack of a Mid Control make me sick...

[@TaylorDanley]

It's kind of weird right? Like you're a guitar player, and guitar tone resides in the mid range, but no... none for you...

[@ofir_likes_beer]

Because it sounds bad

[@Ledmetacdc]

Love your videos but I can never tell if you like what you're hearing. The face you make while playing always looks like you're concerned it sounds like shit lol.

[@TaylorDanley]

😂😂 me either... 😪😪😪 Honestly though, I usually just say whether I like it or not 🤷‍♂️

[@shadyburnike264]

SMASH THAT LIKE..LETS GO..15000 SUBS..The pedal and kirk suck..sorry

[@TaylorDanley]

Thanks for the enthusiasm 😂

[@salahbaker4089]

Name one Hammet tone....

[@KPGuitarStudios]

Turn down the suck! 🤣 Kirk... Man... Sorry, your idea of good tone is pretty much toilet water... This thing blows. This makes a great PSA for people to tell them to run not walk away from this thing. Cool review man 🤘

[@KPGuitarStudios]

To clarify though, Taylor did a great job of dialing this thing in. Right at the end it does sound really good. Just seeing a pedal give you good tone on one possible needle in a haystack setting is pretty disappointing. Kirk Hammett fail :P

[@panagotispatrik515]

Not good for the price....

[@peachmelba1000]

A 20 second slo-mo shot of plugging the pedal in = trying too hard. Cut the fat.

[@kiillabytez]

Take the Kirk Hammett name off the pedal and you'll save $200 and that's exactly what this crappy pedal is worth.

[@Cpmnk]

I never liked kirk, everytime i hear him play ot sounds sh*t, james on the otherhand is an amazing player

[@peachmelba1000]

That pedal is a piece of junk.

[@sinramirez9738]

Your literally paying for the graphics on the pedal this pedal was a disappointment.

[@billhillard]

So, you need a second pedal to try to make the first pedal not sound like crap? Call me old fashioned, but I like plugging my guitar into an amp and then I am done. Also, we did not get to hear the clean tone and the rhythms that you recorded in the mix are amazingly sloppy. It was also tough to really hear the guitar tone, like something was just not crisp, or lacking transparency in the conversion of the guitar sound to the video. Unsure what. Sounds like you went direct into a board and did not mic it. Hard to say. Does not sound good. In a word -- sterile.