KHDK Ghoul Jr.

The KHDK Ghoul Jr is a mini overdrive pedal from KHDK, the company co-founded by Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett and David Karon¹. KHDK describes it as "a hyper powerful overdrive circuit coiled inside a micro-sized box"², a condensed version of the company's Ghoul Screamer that keeps the most used settings of the bigger pedal in half the size and, in the maker's words, twice the gain². It was unveiled in November 2017, in celebration of Hammett's birthday on November 18³, as KHDK's first mini pedal⁴.

KHDK says the pedal "delivers massive overdrive with a wide range of colors from fuzzy vintage treble boost to creamy, liquid tone"², and positions it as a main overdrive, a boost for an already overdriven amp, or a pedal that brings out the best of its neighbors on a pedalboard³. The haunting ghoulish face on the enclosure was hand-drawn by San Francisco tattoo artist Tim Lehi².

Controls and switching

Despite the small box, the Ghoul Jr carries three knobs and two three-way mini-toggle switches, labeled Voice and Style⁴⁵. A pair of green LEDs indicates when the pedal is active¹, and the footswitch engages the pedal to on or true bypass mode².

The Style switch's down position is the pedal's headline feature: a brand new full-on mode, not carried over from the Ghoul Screamer, that KHDK says brings an even more powerful cut-through sound so the pedal never gets lost in the mix²³. Hammett's own instruction for it was blunt: "Flick the Style switch down and wreak havoc"³.

Power and bypass

The pedal is true bypass, so it does not color the tone when disengaged in the signal chain²⁵. Input and output are standard 1/4" mono/TS jacks², and the enclosure measures 92 mm wide by 38 mm deep by 28 mm high², small enough to leave more space on a pedalboard than a standard-size box⁵.

Ghoul Screamer lineage and the Kirk Hammett signature

The Ghoul Jr is derived from the Ghoul Screamer, KHDK's first signature overdrive for Hammett¹⁷. The Screamer was conceived by Hammett and designed by KHDK laboratories as a multipurpose stomp box for "true gearheads"⁸, built on a Tube Screamer-style circuit that KHDK describes as "an iconic circuit pushed to perfection" and equipped with five switches⁶. Reviewers placed it squarely in that lineage: Pedal of the Day called it "a supercharged take on a certain classic green 'Screamer' pedal, but with more options and a killer set of tones"⁹, and Performer Mag noted that a Tube Screamer-like pedal has long been part of Hammett's sound, used as a boost and EQ shaper in front of his scooped amp settings¹⁰.

The Screamer's five toggles cover controls the Jr condenses: Highs for more presence, Body for a mid boost, and two further switches offering varying degrees of clipping that add compression and sustain⁹. The Jr keeps the concept but reduces it to the Voice and Style toggles, and adds the full-on mode².

The Ghoul Jr itself is a Hammett signature pedal¹, and Pete Thorn's demo video credits the design to "my buddy Dave Caron and his friend Kirk Hammett"¹¹. At launch it was available for pre-order¹², priced at $149.95 on KHDK's product page²; Gearnews listed a European RRP of EUR 159 at the time of the announcement⁵.

What reviewers said

Guitar World's Paul Riario reviewed the Ghoul Jr in January 2018 and found it "an extremely transparent overdrive that's, oddly enough, sweetly voiced," excelling at creamy overdrive that cuts⁴². He found the most gain with both switches down, "in-your-face aggression," but preferred both switches in the center position, which made the overdrive "dynamically rich with harmonics that jump out"⁴. He also reported that the tone control did not color his amp's settings, so he did not use it⁴.

Thorn's demo covered both switches in detail: the Voice switch fine tunes the bass, with the up position more bassy for fatter low-gain tones and the down position enhancing mids for a searing, cutting, tight sound suited to low tuned parts¹¹. The Style switch fine tunes openness, headroom and compression, with the all-the-way-down position the most aggressive setting¹¹. He found it works boosting into a clean amp and into a semi crunchy amp, and that it keeps dirty amps tight¹¹, concluding that the pedal "doesn't sound mini" and recommending the makers highly¹¹.

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In Thorn's video, David Black from the Detroit band Seduced played a solo demonstrating the pedal¹¹. MusicRadar's launch coverage summed up the pedal's range as spanning "tones from fuzzy treble boost to creamy gain," usable as a standalone overdrive or for boosting an already overdriven amp¹.

Videos

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Questions