Joe Halliday's Hello Sailor Effects returns to port for some perpetual shore leave - The Enduring Legend and Legacy in 7 Parts

Being something of an almost lifetime sailor and mariner, Joe has always been inspired by the various symbols, totems and insignias of maritime life - none more so than the WWII US servicemen tattoos - in particularly sported by navy personnel in the 40's and 50's - in many ways icons of classic Americana.

Each of the tattoos has an intrinsic symbolism and meaning - and a wide variety of tattoos has evolved - featuring all manner of sailing and maritime paraphernalia, pinups, animal totems and other cultural icons.

The famed tattooist Norman Keith Collins - aka 'Sailor Jerry' is kind of the godfather of that movement - where from his Honolulu, Hawaii base he significantly expanded the colour palette and symbolism of this art.

Sailor Jerry was obviously a significant influence and inspiration for Joe - and I've included some of his classic designs above.

Joe also notes : 

"The shell back turtle tattoo design (as above) is actually on my left quad. The shell back symbolises having 'Crosssed the line'. This is an ancient ceremony Royal Navy ships perform when crossing the Equator. I do believe it's the oldest recognised Naval tradition."

Chief Petty Officer Joseph Halliday - Joe to his friends! Has been raised up through the ranks of the navy through hard graft and diligent service over a career totalling nearly 21 years. He's been awarded numerous medals, orders of merit and promotions throughout his career, culminating in his being awarded the rank of Chief Petty Officer - which is as high a position as a Mechanical Engineer can attain in the Royal Navy.

Joe is now senior enough to be head of this own team / section while he still has to share a 2-up / 2-down cabin with 3 other colleagues. He does though benefit from a really cool and fairly spacious workspace - where while he's on duty he effects oversight over various repairs and maintenance of the ship's mechanical parts, while when off-duty he is able to use the same spaces to assemble his now much celebrated pedals - but has to hunt down which ever work-surface is free at that time!

Joe is principally in charge of the ship's refrigeration and cooling systems - which includes a variety of weapons cooling systems, while he also oversees hydraulics and fluid dynamics for the ship. His role as a Chief Petty Officer chiefly involves coordinating and supervising those specialist maintenance services - where Joe no longer needs to get particularly hands on day-to-day - except for certain urgent emergencies.

Joe has been 'at sea' typically from 3 to 9 months at a time - dependent on the nature and scope of the mission / tour - while he also gets plenty of opportunities for shore leave - which expeditions he uses to scour for interesting parts and components that he can make use of for his various builds.

Joe's missions and patrols have taken him up the East coast of Africa and onto the Persian Gulf most often, while  he also patrols UK waters occasionally and up into the Arctic. When I last spoke to him while on duty - he was somewhere north of Norway - likely on a similar latitude to the Svalbard Islands. Generally the naval tours consist of partrols, combined naval exercises with NATO allies, and escorting a variety of strategically important vessels.

Joe often mused that he was lucky to be back on dry land again for good, as his general placement on the lower decks meant that he was unlikely to be able to escape if any  ordnance / torpedo etc, hit the ship. So spare a thought for all those engineers on ships' lower decks who risk life and limb in service of their country!

Apart from his excellent extended 'workspace' - Joe also has access to some amazing hangar spaces - where there is enough ambient noise from the various ship's engines and mechanical processes - that he can play his guitar as loud as he wants to without annoying anyone!

Joe and some of his shipmates formed a covers band I believe was called the 'Black Dukes' while they were serving on the 'Monmouth'. A famous milestone for that band was the takeover of an Irish Pub in Valencia - where they were promised they could play - as long as they managed to fill the venue - and lo-and-behold - 2 coach loads of fellow shipmates laid siege to the Pub for the night!. The band played a variety of its influences - including a fair amount of contemporary Britpop of that time - and including a significant dose of Oasis! The pub owners proclaimed they made so much on the night that they could have shuttered the pub and gone on holiday for the rest of the year.

Joe himself often talks about major musical moments and influences in his life - including The Eagles' 'Greatest Hits', 'Don't look back in anger' by Oasis, 'Dreaming of you' by The Coral, hearing the Live version of 'Alright Now' by Free, and hearing Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) play 'Brown Sugar' for the first time. Obviously the 'Free' experience led to Joe's much praised Kossoff Drive - and the pictures of several of Joe's guitar heroes have appeared on his many pedals - including Brian May, Billy Gibbons, and of course Paul Kossoff. Joe's own self-made Flying-V guitar is nicely labelled with a cool  'Gibbons' decal - as a further tribute to that legendary axe-man!

Building pedals during off-duty downtime onboard a Type-23 Frigate is no easy matter, especially when you don't have your own dedicated work-space!

I didn't realise until fairly recently that in later years in the Navy - Joe was always in a supervisory role / capacity, which meant that he did not have his own dedicated work space. I always assumed he would have a dedicated bench somewhere where he would by day be examining and maintaining various mechanical ships parts - but that turns out to not be the case at all.

In fact typically Joe would set off with his Toolkit in one hand and one or two parts bins in the other - and then scan the ship's lower decks for any available surface area that he could pull up a chair to and work on some pedals. It obviously needed to be close to a power outlet for his Soldering Iron - so pretty much whenever Joe needed to make a pedal or two - he would need to venture out to seek whatever space was available at that time.

Over the years he has ended up assembling pedals in some of the most unorthodox of places - while it all seems to have work out very well in the long-term. Just another layer of complexity which makes the HSE legacy / saga all that more compelling! I would imagine parts of the ship could get pretty bitterly cold when doing tours up near the Arctic, while the opposite was surely true for the T-23's usual patch in and around the Persian Gulf!

One of the more unusual locations for pedal-assembly - at a Command Console no less!

This I believe is the machining of one of those large Gun Shells - for what would become a very unique Broadside Underdrive or Rangemaster - obviously requiring some healthy pedalboard real-estate!

Joe is very well known for salvaging parts from old military equipment for use in his pedals - and here is an excellent example of that.

Joe's one essential tool - actual soldering iron just out of shot!

Joe's lucky cap - which accompanied him on all his tours and presided over a lot of pedal builds. Interesting to see the various gauges and junction boxes in the frame - which I'm sure Joe is considering as suitable enclosure types for future pedals!

While Joe makes all manner of effects and has taken on several custom commissions over the years - by and large the mainstay of his builds tend to fall into 3 categories - where the vast majority happen to fall into Joe's favourite Treble Booster / Range Master category, Fuzz Face style Fuzzes, and 3 main Drive types - as listed below.

While Joe makes a variety of Fuzzes - including several Tone Bender types, he mainly makes 2-Transistor Fuzz Faces.

The very original ones were called Doll Faces, then BilgeRats, Fuzz Bangers, and Joe's most recent evolution - the 'Abbey Road' Fuzz. Which naming convention came from a Markus Reeves comment where he said the fuzz sounded kind of 'Voxy'  where Joe then connected that to the Beatles - and hence 'Abbey Road'.

There's also the very recent Xenomorph Fuzz - which started as a custom build for Stu Caldwell - aka rnrmf guitarworks (sic). Stu then decided to re-house the circuit in a smaller enclosure (original was 1590-BB) where the new one is distinctly compact and pedalboard-friendly. The Xenomorph is as close to a 'standard' HSE pedal that there ever will be - as all other HSE pedals are one-offs. With the Xenomorph - people will be able to buy the exactly the same HSE circuit for the first time. 

Here follows the naming evolution of Joe's main Fuzz Face types :

[Fuzz Face Types]

• Doll Face / Dual Doll Face
• BilgeRat
• Fuzz Banger
• Abbey Road Fuzz
• Xenomorph Fuzz - collaboration with rnrmf guitarworks (sic)

I was hoping that the Xenomorph demo would have dropped by now - so I could have published my review - but we're still waiting for the final version from Jaron Jay - while there is a sweet teaser up now on the rnrmf guitarworks Instagram - www.instagram.com/p/CvNzuRtM0aF/

The Xenomorph was my very first HSE pedal - even though indeed a collaboration - but great for several reasons - including its compact pedalboard-friendly dimensions - where Joe mostly tends to favour slightly larger enclosures - so that he has more freedom to load in those chunky vintage parts he keeps uncovering. Joe is actually in the process of making me another compact fuzz - just a classic 3-knob one with an external bias - more along the lines of an Abbey Road fuzz - hand-wired with a selection of over-sized parts! So very much looking forward to that - while there seems to be some sort of delay on the arrival of the enclosures - all will be revealed soon enough - and I will for sure update the Essentials segments below as further HSE pedals get added to the reference collection. 2 are in already, the 3rd is in progress, and then I need Joe to make a Rangemaster and Anchor Drive that I particularly like the look of - no doubt doing some further wrangling on knob choices!

Rangemaster Treble Boosters are Joe's absolute speciality and favourite circuits, and the one category he has made the most of by a country mile. They variously comes with anything from a single knob to as many as 6 or 7 controls including dual footswitches - sometimes Dual Rangemasters, Rangemaster + Boost, or a Rangemaster with extended feature set including Silicon and Germanium transistor switching and various input cap refinements.

The Rangemasters come in all shapes and sizes - and the majority of pedal pictures featured in this article are indeed one or another kind of Rangemaster.

Generally they mostly fit into 4 categories - as follows :

• Rangemaster
• Dual Rangemaster
• Rangemaster + Boost
• FullRange

The final category in some ways is the most expansive as there are in effect 3 different styles of Overdrive here, plus a combination - where I'm particularly keen to get my hands on a FreeRange, and an Anchor Drive. Readers will know that I'm a huge fan of Fuzzy-Drive pedals - and anything that roughly fits that category is probably a shoe-in for me. UPDATE - amazing looking sort of Sky Blue Burst Alice FreeRange is in the collection - as references in the below Essentials segment!

As I run a neutral pedal platform setup - I will never have need for a Broadside Underdrive - which is a fantastic concept nonetheless - if you need a pedal to tame your amp output somewhat. That can be used very clevery in a rig setup - where you can get vastly different outputs without adjusting the core amp settings. I would advise you not necessarily to get the gun shell edition for those purposes - as that will pretty much eat up most of your pedalboard real-estate!

Here are the HSE Drive options :

• Kossoff Drive
• FreeRange (Kossoff Drive + Rangemaster)
• Anchor Drive (Transparent > Fuzzy Drive)
• Broadside Underdrive (Amp Tamer)

The above Junction Box enclosure is a fantastic example of Joe's ingenuity and M.O. - where he picks up and adapts all manner of weird and wonderful parts to be used as pedal enclosures. Lots of discarded ship materials - electrical boxes, old gauge enclosures and at times he or an associate even fabricates the parts - as in the below V-Rangemaster example.

I feel that Joe has a similar philosophy to Fiona and Aisha Loe of Loe Sounds - in upcycling and re-using a wide variety of parts - including harvesting components from larger faulty and replaced ship's electronic boards. Every shore leave ends up in an adventure - where Joe scours local markets for suitable odds and ends. And he makes extensive use of several internet resources too - for instance in ordering in a variety of decals and other adornments.

The general process for most of his pedals involves using transfer stickers - based on Joe's many cultural inspirations - famous icons, pinups, classic Disney cartoon characters - Bowie and Princess Leia, and all manner of military paraphernalia. Where Joe has used replica medals and beret pins and badges to decorate several of his pedals. I so like the use of the anchor decal - that I recommended Joe use that on all his pedals - turns out that was salvaged  / absorbed from a navy beret - I feel that the anchor decal could be a really great brand identifier for Joe in general - so hopefully he can explore that at some stage.

Once the transparent graphic transfers are set in place on the pedals - they are sealed in position by a couple of coats of nitrocellulose lacquer - which paint mellow-yellows and ages with time. Generally the majority of paints Joe likes to use are of the vintage nitrocellulose variety - which age and discolour with time.

He also likes to wrap his pedals in various materials - including loads of rarely seen varieties of tolex. In fact a silk Kimono Joe bought in Japan for a fancy dress occasion - was actually mainly acquired with a view to cut that into sizeable squares and wrap it around a pedal or few.

Joe tends to make no more than half a dozen pedals at a time - often just 2 or 3 - while all go up for sale on this HSE Reverb.Com Store as soon as they're ready. The last batch was actually a combination of 2 really - and around 12 pedals went up at the same time.

In building pedals in this manner, Joe never gets bored - and in fact enjoys the therapy of each of those hand-building steps - including testing HFe and Leakage values of transistors - which can be fun doing so in smaller batches - while utterly tedious for a long and extended run.

So each time Joe settles down to make pedals he's typically inspired by a recent event or discovery - and that then goes into that one and only batch. Joe never makes 2 pedals exactly the same - some may look similar - but there are variances throughout in parts and knobs and graphics and colours - that's part of the allure of the brand - and also why I found it so difficult initially to pin the inner workings of the brand.

In this section I've tried to draw on as many unique and odd-shaped and special occasion builds as I could find. As always - it's often a matter of being able to find suitably high quality pictures - in a format that I can manipulate to my editorial preferences - there's certainly a lot of variety in the following list! :

Rangemaster made from 4.5" cannon round fired from the frigate 'Kent' during 'Operation Fortis'

I've determined for me that there are 5 essential Hello Sailor Effects that I just have to own to be fully representative of Joe's output. At the time of writing I already have circa 3 of these - as mostly pictured here now or soon will be! And when I acquire the final two, I will update / replace those pictures with my own specific varieties.

So far the Xenomorph and Alice FreeRange have landed and there will be reviews of those coming up soon after this article. My sort of compact Abbey Road fuzz is currently a work in progress - where Joe is still waiting for those enclosure to land.

The Anchor Drive should be a fairly straightforward decision as it's a fairly classic 3-knob topology - so no fussing about which version of circuit to get just how good looking the particular enclosure is (for me preferences of course), while I still need to decide exactly what manner of Rangemaster is best for me!

Note that currently the only way to get hold of Hello Sailor Effects is to follow Joe's HSE Instagram - and hit his Reverb.com Store as soon as he announce a new batch is up :

reverb.com/uk/shop/hello-sailor-effects

You can then decide whether those batch varieties are to your own preferences and liking - or else whether you should wait it out for further batch options. If you see something you like though you need to be very quick - as it will very soon be gone - and there will never be another quite like it!

This most recent of Joe's Rangemasters (above and below here) seem pretty eminently suitable for my preferences - those particular ones have switchable input/output caps, gain control, gain control lift and a Silicon / Germanium switch. So Dual Rangemaster types but with some unique aspects. I of course want as fully-featured a Dual Rangemaster as possible!

Both those examples of course got snapped up immediately which is the only frustrating thing about HSE pedal acquisition is that there's a real lottery in getting the batch notifications in a timely fashion and being able to react quick enough to secure the one you like. Then again - there is always another cool one just around the corner!

I definitely think that this will most probably be the format of my own Rangemaster - I'll need to see what Joe has up is sleeve next!

My very first Hello Sailor Effect - actually a collaboration between Joe and Stuart Caldwell of rnrmf guitarworks - who makes these. While the circuit is a proper Joe Haliday design - which was originally placed in a significantly bigger box as below - and then adapted and standardised by Stu for more general release! I've already noted the main point of differences in the above Fuzzes segment.

As mentioned there I had hoped that the demo would have dropped already, but all we have so far is a teaser on Stu's Instagram Page - www.instagram.com/p/CvNzuRtM0aF/

Of course when the full-length one lands - I will add to this feature as well as my long delayed glowing first-hand review!

The very original big box Xenomorph Fuzz that Joe made for rnrmf guitarworks' Stuart Caldwell. Which Stu then rehoused in a smaller enclosure that then became the template for this only standard release of a HSE pedal - as a collaboration of course!

My second HSE pedal is one of the finest of its type. The quite superb 'Alice' FreeRange - which beautifully combines Kossoff Drive and Rangemaster in a relatively compact enclosure. I had some say in the knob choices, while otherwise this was all Joe! Using some really cool components on this build too, and sounds fantastic!

Of course there is an imminent review coming up for this one too - albeit you will need to refer to Pete's demo below for representative sound examples!

For the Anchor Drive it's really just about syncing with Joe's creativity and hopefully landing on a most aesthetically pleasing candidate - actually not unlike the above excellent example. This choice is rather more straightforward than the Rangemaster - as there are just 3 controls here - 2 different circuit gain knobs, and a universal output volume!

There's another cool example of an Anchor Drive in the top HSE Mainstays segment - I would be quite happy with either of those varieties - there are aspects of each I like - while I kind of want an anchor decal in their too!

As Joe has been mostly at Sea for the majority of his adult life - opportunities to network and go to gigs have been fairly few and far between - while there have been some significant moments either side of Covid, and since Joe returned permanently to land.

Where also very recently his lovely wife gifted him a visit to one of those That Pedal Show Experience Days - where he was delighted to meet his main T-shirt suppliers these many years at last - as well as have a proper go on all those priceless guitars and amps. Dan and Mick remember Joe very fondly for his quite superb Rangemaster that both were so take with - as in the video references below!

I would love to know where That Pedal Show are on the scale of a Josh Scott pedal archive - he's obviously well in the lead at over 4,000 now, me just on a relatively paltry 1,063, currently - and I would imagine TPS would have a few more than that - while they do seem to give a lot of them away to Patreons - so possibly not quite as many as some of us would assume!