Hudson Electronics, UK Broadcast AP

At the heart of the Broadcast-AP – as the name may suggest – is the same circuitry as the Broadcast. A class-A discrete, transformer-coupled circuit, designed to saturate in a unique way reminiscent of certain recording and broadcast consoles.

Hudson took the low-gain side of the standard Broadcast as the starting point. They exchanged the Germanium transistor for a Silicon and used an OEP transformer – the OEP transformer saturates and distorts less below 100Hz compared to the Triad transformer used in the standard Broadcast. These two changes together give the Broadcast-AP a darker, smoother, more powerful tone compared to the standard version. Greater weight in the lows, whilst retaining the open highs and upper-mids, giving the Broadcast a ‘3D’ effect.

Description

The control layout features both LEVEL and GAIN TRIM potentiometers and a switchable high-pass / low-cut filter – 100Hz @ 6dB/oct. The GAIN TRIM control has 12dB more gain than the low-gain side of standard Broadcast, allowing the Broadcast-AP to cover ground from clean boost through to medium gain overdrive tones. In addition, the gain of the pedal can be increased via an internal trimmer and – when pushed to the max – the sound becomes overloaded, broken and fuzzy. The high-pass / low-cut filter can help keep the low end together, especially when driving amps at higher gain and volume levels.

Features

• Pair of selected Silicon transistors
• OEP Transformer selected to give less THD on low frequencies
• BI Technologies potentiometers
• Lumberg jack sockets (rated for >5000 cycles)
• Heavy duty Alpha foot switches (rated for >30,000 cycles)

Individually hand-built on to a high-quality PCB, assembled, hand-wired, tested and packaged all by Michael Hudson

LEVEL – Controls the overall volume of the pedal.

GAIN TRIM – Controls the gain level of the Broadcast-AP.

LOW CUT (SWITCH) – Activates a low-cut filter which reduces the gain of the low frequencies. Position 1 (switch-down) the low-cut filter is out of the circuit, Position 2 (switch-up) the low-cut filter is engaged.

INTERNAL TRIMMERS – The Broadcast-AP features three internal trimmers – one to to increase the overall gain of the pedal and two to fine tune each of the positions of the LOW CUT switch. Full details of how to adjust these can be found here.

DC SOCKET – The Broadcast-AP requires a DC power supply unit (PSU) and can run at voltages between 9VDC and 24VDC; running the Broadcast-AP at voltages higher than 9VDC gives it more headroom, output level and clarity. This is great for use with higher output instruments (bass guitar, synth, studio line level equipment) or when using the Broadcast-AP as a clean pre-amp boost.

Specs

Please ensure your PSU can supply between 9VDC and 24VDC, a minimum current of 20mA and has a 2.1mm negative center barrel plug. Any other type may damage your pedal. If you plan on sharing the same PSU with other pedals, we recommend using a PSU with isolated outputs.