KHDK Ghoul Jr Mini Overdrive

The KHDK Ghoul Jr is a mini overdrive pedal from KHDK, the pedal company linked to Metallica's Kirk Hammett. KHDK calls it "a hyper powerful overdrive circuit coiled inside a micro-sized box," and describes it as "the evil little brother of our Ghoul Screamer, featuring its most used settings in half the size and twice the gain"¹. It was the company's first mini pedal when it launched in November 2017².

Because it is housed in a mini format, it leaves more space on your effects board than a full-size overdrive³. MusicRadar's Michael Astley-Brown reported that, derived from the Ghoul Screamer, the Jr "spans tones from fuzzy treble boost to creamy gain"².

What it is and what it does

The Ghoul Jr is an overdrive pedal in a compact enclosure, built around the circuit of KHDK's larger Ghoul Screamer. Gearnews described it plainly: "This is a mini version of the KHDK Ghoul Screamer overdrive," with a circuit that is like the bigger original, offering "half the size and twice the gain"³. KHDK's own announcement, carried by Guitar World, said the pedal delivers "massive overdrive with a bonus dose of gain that, incredibly, goes past 11"⁴.

Guitar World's reviewer Paul Riario called it "explosive overdrive from KHDK Electronics, fiendishly called the Ghoul Jr," adding that "this brand-new mini pedal comes pretty damn close to blowing your doors off in tone"⁵.

On where the pedal fits, KHDK's announcement said it "is best used as a guitarist's main overdrive, for boosting an already overridden amp or to bring out the best of its neighbors on a pedalboard"⁴. That covers the three classic overdrive jobs: a standalone drive, an amp boost, and a pedalboard front end for other drives.

Controls

The Ghoul Jr carries three knobs and two switches, a stripped-down control set compared with the Ghoul Screamer's five toggles⁵²⁶.

MusicRadar noted that "Drive, volume and tone controls, along with voice and style switches, handle tonal tweaks"². Gearnews observed that despite the mini enclosure, "it manages to squeeze on three controls labelled Drive, Volume and Tone"³.

In Pete Thorn's demo video for the pedal, he described its range: it "can do Tube Screamer stuff but also way more teeth and aggressive, from bassy and more compressed traditional overdrive to really vicious and cutting"⁷. Thorn called it "a terrific little overdrive pedal"⁷.

The Ghoul Jr Mini Overdrive carried a manufacturer's recommended retail price of EUR 159 at launch³.

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Bypass and power

The Ghoul Jr is true bypass. KHDK lists the bypass mode as true bypass, with the footswitch engaging the pedal to on or true bypass mode¹. Gearnews noted that being true bypass, "it will not mess with your tone when not engaged in the signal chain"³.

The Ghoul Screamer lineage and the Kirk Hammett signature

The Ghoul Jr traces back to the Ghoul Screamer, KHDK's full-size overdrive. Premier Guitar reported at the Screamer's 2015 launch that it was "conceived by guitar legend Kirk Hammett and designed by KHDK laboratories"⁸, and in 2017 listed the Ghoul Screamer among "two Kirk Hammett signature overdrives, 'Ghoul Screamer' and 'Dark Blood'"⁹. MusicRadar's Mike Astley-Brown describes KHDK as the company of "Kirk Hammett and his KHDK partner David Karon"¹⁰.

The Screamer itself is a Tube Screamer-style circuit. Pedal of the Day called it "a supercharged take on a certain classic green 'Screamer' pedal, but with more options," with Volume, Tone and Drive controls plus five toggle switches, including a Body switch that "gives your mids a much-appreciated boost" and two final switches "offering varying degrees of clipping, adding in more compression and sustain"⁶.

The Ghoul Jr takes the most used of those settings and puts them in the smaller box with more gain¹. Where the Screamer gives you five toggles to control every aspect of the overdrive⁶, the Jr keeps two, Voice and Style⁵.

The Ghoul Jr is itself a Kirk Hammett signature pedal. MusicRadar's launch report ran under the headline "KHDK unleashes Kirk Hammett signature Ghoul Jr Overdrive mini pedal," and described it as the company's first mini pedal².

Videos

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Questions