The This Heavy Earth Bad Trip is an analog pedal that works as both a booster and a distortion, sitting in the wider world of Distortion Pedals and Boost Pedals. RockBoard's PedalPedia describes its design goal as "more gain, loads more output, thick to tight low end, and of course it needed a clean blend for those of us who prefer that for gain stacking and the bassist out there"1.
What it does
The design started as a Rat style distortion, a circuit layout the maker then pushed toward higher gain and output1. A clean blend is built in, which lets you mix unaffected signal back in under the gain, a setup the maker points to for gain stacking and for bass players1.
The pedal's two main settings work against each other in a useful way. The tight control shapes the low end, and RockBoard's PedalPedia describes the range of use plainly: "Drop the gain to zero, turn up the tight control, and use it as a boost or do just the opposite for massive doom"1. In other words, gain down and tight up turns the Bad Trip into a clean-ish boost, while the opposite settings deliver a heavy, low-end-forward distortion.
Where it sits in the range
The Bad Trip is one of several heavy-leaning pedals from This Heavy Earth covered on this site, including the Flesh Rot V2, the CHVRCHBVRNER, the CRUSTIFIXION v2, the Slaughter and the Widower High-Gain Distortion. Its clean blend and boost-to-doom range give it a distinct role among them for players who stack gain or play bass1.
Videos
Metalhead Productions
Truck Driver Shawn
J Cruz Project | Guitar Content Creator
Sources (1)
- Bad Trip by This Heavy Earth, RockBoard PedalPedia, 2026
