The CKK SH-1N Scream Honey Gold Edition Overdrive has Landed!
I am somewhat relieved and delighted to finally have a Scream Honey in my collection. And I’m very pleased to see how many of my loyal readers managed to get their hands on one too. It seems we were mostly after the Gold Edition - the Dark Gold Edition did not have as significant an appeal - but since all are sold out now there must have been an audience for those too.
I had thought this to be an Harmonic style of Overdrive which is not really the case - it is rather a Pristine, High-Headroom, Low Gain, Transparent and Amp-like minimally colouring overdrive! I would have thought it perfect for the likes of Chris Buck’s playing style.
Controls - Level, Tone, Drive, Hollow (Upper Mids Cut), Bold (High and Low Frequency Boost).
This Scream Honey is amazingly high fidelity while the tapers of its dials are relatively subtle. And the Hollow (High Mids Cut) and Bold (High and Low Frequency Boost) switches are very subtle indeed. I actually seem to prefer the pedal with neither of the tone-enhancer switches applied, while you need to have the Drive knob set fairly high to get any significant texture.
It has a sufficient degree of flexibility, and decent guitar volume cleanup - not quite as significant though as on my Modded Boss BD-2 favourite. What the Scream Honey does really well is those gorgeous uncoloured amp-like high headroom tones. This is quite a different pedal to its sibling Sinvertek N5+ 3D Gold. Both special editions were priced at circa $300 - and the N5+ 3D Gold is quite evidently the better value for its much greater versatility and range.
I can actually get fairly close to the Scream Honey with the N5+ Gold - with gain and other parameters turned right down. And while the Sinvertek can be exactly as pristine and uncoloured as the Scream Honey it also has the most incredible range of coloured and saturated tones in addition.
It is inevitable that the reality is a slight anti-climax after such an exhilarating chase against such massive odds. I'm actually really delighted with the SH-1N, but it's not really the pedal I expected. It nevertheless sounds amazing, and has been well worth the chase - for sure a future classic in the making. While it's never really going to challenge my overall favourite overdrives as listed in my recent 32 Key Compact Effects rundown - as I value range and versatility as much as core tonality.
So yes it's been well worth the chase and is overall reasonable value even at the higher rate, while the Sinvertek N5+ 3D Gold is even more impressive.
I know some of my readers use the SH-1N as a sort of Harmonic Booster, but for me it doesn't work nearly as well in that role as does the ThorpyFX Heavy Water on Germanium setting.
I would love to hear your views and insights here - and in particular those of you who took delivery of this special batch. My own CKK SH-1N Scream Honey Gold unit is #39 of 59, while my Sinvertek N5+ 3D Gold is #9 of 99.
