Bleak District Electric's RecHead is a beautifully elegant Lo-Fi Cassette Tape style Saturator and Modulator

I first met Bleak District’s Phil Meredith at last year’s (2022) Birmingham Guitar Show - which I think was his first one. Since then I’ve bumped into Phil at several of these shows - including most recently at the inaugural London Synth and Pedal Expo around a month ago now.

Right from the start Phil’s Bleak District range was fully formed - utilising hyper stylised digital artworks of the Peak District Area where the brand gets its name from. I complemented Phil at the time for the uniformity of his design approach - while I noted some inoptimal knob choices at that time too!

Phil and I have had numerous in-depth conversations over this intervening period - about the most suitable knob choices for each of his pedals - and since that first meeting Phil’s choice of control knobs has elevated to a science and an art - all the latest releases are spot on in their looks and balance and use of the most appropriate knob type and colour to match the artwork. A great case in point is having the top knob red as on this RecHead pedal - where on the previous model they were all black - the red accent makes this pedal a lot more stylish and improves its appeal.

Phil’s most popular pedals tend to be relatively simple but with very significant range, and typically based on just a few elegant controls for maximum impact.

Controls - Sensitivity (Intensity of Modulation), Character (Saturation & Tone [Dark > Bright]), Tape Return (Output Level), Kill Dry = Wet Signal Only.

And so the pictured RecHead is a Cassette Tape style Saturator and Modulator - where the Sensitivity knob governs the degree of warble and wobble (Wow & Flutter). At its lowest level it has a very subtle Warble / Vibrato which rises quickly to around 9 o’c, and becomes increasingly wobbly after noon - with extreme settings delivering a sort of elastic swooshy ping - is the best way I can describe that (a wobbly extended pitch-shift).

Meanwhile the Character Knob adds Saturation and Brightness as you turn it clockwise. I tend to drop this control in tandem with raising the Sensitivity knob. The Tape Return is simply the Volume or Output Level.

For my preferences - I quite like it at its more elegant end - so with Sensitivity at just under 09:00 o’c and Character around 10 o’c. Generally for my taste the sweet spot on the Sensitivity Dial is from around 09:00 o’c to noon - after which it gets very sea-sick wobbly.

Typically you would set the dials in order of their appearance - where Character kind of fine-tunes the Modulation to a degree as well as adding saturation. So I would say - set your Modulation degree first (Sensitivity) and then adjust the other two controls to taste. 

I typically have Tape Return (Volume) set to around 2 o’c.

The RecHead runs the full range from subtle and elegant to wobbly and slightly dissonant - so you can choose which areas you are most at home in - it’s nice to have the extreme settings on tap for when you want to do something a little more experimental.

I see this mostly as a distinct sort of tape modulation really - while there are obviously a few different ways around this pedal. You can for instance start with a relatively high level of of the Character / Saturation knob and then adjust the other parameters to fit - instead of starting on Sensitivity.

In any case a really simple to dial in and highly satisfying pedal of this type - it pretty much works exactly how you would want it to - with fairly predicable and even tapers on each of the 3 dials.

The RecHead V2 is available for order for £129 and equivalent from the Bleak District Webstore, and also at my friend Jim Button’s Boost Guitar Pedals Store. The price is certainly very attractive and it’s well worth getting your hands on this pedal!