Hamstead Soundworks

From an amp rebuild to a pedal maker

The company's story begins with an amplifier rather than a pedal. Jim Bird asked Peter Hamstead to replicate an old modified guitar amplifier, and, in the maker's words, "Looking at whether he could replicate it, Peter soon found that he could better it"¹. That project grew into a company making both amps and pedals, with Peter Hamstead as the designer of its pedal circuits, including the all-analog Subspace and Subspace GE³⁴.

The company's origin sits in an amplifier project rather than a pedal: Jim Bird asked Peter Hamstead to replicate an old modified guitar amplifier, and, in the maker's own words, "Looking at whether he could replicate it, Peter soon found that he could better it"¹. That amp work grew into Hamstead Soundworks, a small team based in South Cambridgeshire, Great Britain that builds all of its products in the UK¹. The range now covers both amps and pedals, with the Subspace among its drive offerings¹, and the team behind it includes Peter, Brian, Jim, Ben, James, and Frankie¹.

The pedal range

Hand-built pedals for the road

Hamstead presents its products as built to last. On its artists page the maker writes¹¹:

Individual pedals carry the same emphasis. The Subspace drive was "extensively tested with a large range of familiar basses, guitars and amplifiers" before release³, and the Subspace, Ascent and Comet are each described by the maker as designed and built in Great Britain³⁹⁷. The Comet is "a meticulously voiced overdrive pedal that opens up a whole world of tones from a simple control set"⁷, while the Zenith combines "a powerful EQ, Boost, and Compressor delivered in one compact and incredibly flexible package"⁸.

The Redwing modulation pedal stands apart from the drives. It was developed in collaboration with Dan and Mick of That Pedal Show, and its maker states plainly what it leaves out²¹⁰¹²:

Its circuit is built around Bucket Brigade Devices, the delay-line chips at the heart of many classic compact modulation effects since the first compact pedals and studio units¹⁰, and it includes a Control input for an expression pedal with direct control over modulation speed². Guitar World's reviewers, Trevor Curwen and Daniel Steinhardt, found that with judicious tweaking it "could be a viable substitute" for vintage 1970s pedals including the EHX Electric Mistress and Deluxe and the Boss CE-1 and CE-2².

The people behind Hamstead

The company names its team as Peter, Brian, Jim, Ben, James, and Frankie, based in South Cambridgeshire¹. Peter Hamstead designs the pedals³⁴, and Jim Bird is the co-founder whose amplifier request started the business¹. Guitar World describes the Redwing as "designed by Peter Hamstead of the British boutique amp and pedal company that bears his name"². The company also publishes a newsletter, The Lab Report¹.

Manuals and support

Hamstead keeps a manuals page on its site: "Here you will find the user manuals for all of our products"¹³. The Zenith's manual goes further than a printed sheet, with the maker promising it "will include written guides and tutorials, example settings, and videos"¹⁴. One thing owners of used pedals should check: the Odyssey changed at serial number 681, with different power requirements and a different manual before and after that point, and the maker hosts separate documentation for earlier units¹⁵.

The range (20)

News

Questions