Electronic Audio Experiments Halberd

The Electronic Audio Experiments Halberd is a discrete transistor overdrive circuit designed, in the maker's words, "for the greatest possible dynamic range and note clarity"¹. Where most overdrives lean on op amps or JFETs doing amp-style breakup, the Halberd gets its character from over a dozen transistors working together, and EAE places it deliberately apart from both camps: "a medium-gain device with the harmonic fullness and grind of a much higher-gain pedal, one that stands apart from both the brazen buzz of op amp distortion and the smooth breakup of JFET amp emulations alike"². The original version, released in Fall 2019, was built in a BB-type enclosure and used a NOS germanium transistor in one of its gain stages¹. The current version 2 arrived in August 2021 with a smaller 125B-type enclosure and a revised circuit, and the pedal is listed at $249.00, currently marked Temporarily Unavailable¹.

A discrete transistor overdrive with medium gain and heavy grind

The Halberd's circuit is built from discrete transistors rather than a clipping op amp, and Delicious Audio described the original design as "based on a circuit blending silicon and germanium transistors"³. That blend is what gives the pedal its position in EAE's drive lineup: more grind than a clean boost or light drive, but with the dynamic range and note clarity of a medium-gain pedal. RockBoard's PedalPedia entry, carrying the maker's own description, sums up the character as coming from "over a dozen transistors working in harmony"².

The pedal is also flexible about what you plug into it. EAE says it is "equally at home on guitar, bass, and synthesizer"¹, which puts it alongside bass pedals rather than being a guitar-only drive. The Depth control is a big part of that, as covered below.

The controls: Pre, Depth, Tone and the Voice switch

The Halberd has three knobs and a three-position Voice switch. The knobs were renamed in V2: the V1 Low control became Depth, and the V1 High control became Tone¹. A Post control sets the overall output level, and Delicious Audio noted that this output "is buffered for full transparency at all signal levels"³.

The structure is worth noticing. Depth is an adjustable low frequency shelving filter at the input, before the clipping stages, and Pre sets the overall signal gain, controlling how hard everything hits those stages. Tone is an adjustable high shelf cut at the output, after the drive. That gives you two separate places to manage the extremes of your signal, which is why the same pedal can work for a bass player wanting full lows and a guitarist wanting a tight, aggressive midrange push¹.

The Voice switch: Clang, Standard and Deep

The Voice switch is where the Halberd's three personalities live¹:

• Clang (up): increases gain in the upper midrange, for an aggressive sound and a sharp attack.
• Standard (middle): moderate gain with a gentle mid push; identical to Halberd V1.
• Deep (down): a full range gain boost with woolly saturation and a fuzzy note attack.

Because Pre and Depth interact with the Voice setting, the same knob positions behave differently in each mode. Deep's full range boost with a fuzzy attack sits closest to fuzz territory, while Clang's upper-midrange focus is the most aggressive and cutting of the three¹.

Power and connections

The Halberd runs on 9V DC from a 2.1mm center negative barrel jack and draws 50mA when engaged¹. That current draw is a V2 improvement: V1 drew approximately 180mA, and the August 2021 revision cut that to 50mA¹. There is no battery option; EAE states that its pedals do not accept batteries¹.

Bypass switching is silent electronic switching with a Class A JFET buffer¹. In V2 the bypass was converted to a fully electronic CMOS switch¹. Input impedance is 1MΩ at 1 kHz and output impedance is under 1KΩ at 1 kHz¹.

Versions and finishes

The Halberd's history is a series of documented revisions¹:

The pedal has also appeared in several finishes over its run¹:

• Standard: new for late 2025, terra cotta powder coat with black print.
• Black: black texture with light gray print, updated in 2025 to a black wrinkle powder coat.
• Green Dragon: green metallic with light gray print.
• Rust Never Sleeps: brown/orange texture with light gray print, discontinued in November 2025.
• Acid Etch: hand-finished using hydrochloric acid with a toner transfer mask; application and technique vary between batches and individual units.

All Halberd pedals come with EAE's standard warranty¹.

Players and availability

In Premier Guitar's rig rundown of Mammoth WVH, the band's Jon Jourdan was shown using an Electronic Audio Experiments Halberd for live performances of "Stone"⁴.

The maker's product page currently lists the Halberd as Temporarily Unavailable, with no reason or return date given¹. The page still carries the $249.00 price and the current specifications, and the pedal's revision history, most recently version 2.5 in January 2025, suggests an active product line rather than a discontinued one¹.

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