Section for the review of Atomic Pedals..

Please State Model and Gear You Use....

Gibson w/P-90's

Vox AC-15/30

A really great overdrive. The Hot Cake is a very flexible pedal that can go from smooth clean boost to full-tilt, almost fuzztone distortion. I tend to use the gain halfway up with the level boosting a bit to push the AC's over the "top" ( no pun intended ). In this mode there is no need to switch the pedal on/off, just back up your gtr. volume and it is nice & clean, sweeter than the clean when the pedal is disengaged. Works equally as well for leads and rhythm, maintains clarity while getting a creamy tone. Has a presence knob which is useful if you plan on turning up the drive as the pedal gets darker in this position. While this is a cool sound for the pedal, it can get lost in a live situation as the bottom expands and the upper mids diminish - though great for recording. Supposedly one of the best overdrives for EL-84 amplifiers, I cannot disagree, I love it, but never tried it with any other amp.

Love my Hot Cake. A very refined, smooth overdrive. So refined that I have to work on my technique more - it will expose flawed playing. The pedal is flexible in many different ways. It can be a great clean boost to be used with other overdrives - level set about 3/4 full, drive backed off. My personal fave is the singing overdrive. Very amp like to my ears. The magic in this pedal is its eq. When you kick it in, there is absolutely no change in your guitars' natural tone - bass, mids, treble - everything is there. The presence knob on mine is very useful. For Robben Ford sounding stuff I will back the presence knob way down (counterclockwise). If I want to go blues ala SRV, I flip to my neck pickup and crank the presence knob which actually brings out more high mids for a cool nasally, neck pickup tone. Very sweet. Like cubba65 said, these work great with EL84 amps (mine is a Carvin Bel Air), I imagine it would sound superb with anything that is voiced British - Marshall, Hiwatt, Matchless, etc.
Damn good pedal.

Guitars
Fender Stratocaster w/ Texas Special Pickups
Ibanez AX320HBP w/ SD '59 pickups

Amps
Marshall JCM601
Peavey Classic 30

I use this pedal as a booster with the level between 2:00 and 5:00 (usualy 3:00), gain at 10:00 and presence at 10:30. Sometimes I turn the presence up to 2:00 when using the neck pickup on the strat to cut through some of the "mud".

What I get is a natural sounding overdrive, rich with harmonics and with no loss of low-end. It's also a fairly quiet pedal. It doesn't add any additional noise to the signal nor does it suck the highs off when bypassed. It's not true bypass, but personally I think TB is over-hyped.

As others have mentioned it does get "fuzzy" when the gain is tuned up past about 1:00. To me it doesn't sound like a true fuzz pedal but it isn't any less musical.

Cubba65 is right about it liking EL84 amps. It sounds very good with my Classic 30, but where I think it really shines is with my JCM601. This may be because the Marshall is a better sounding amp overall and has a better speaker, but it really shines with this EL34 powered amp. As far as I can tell beckanon is right on with his theory that it works well with Brit amps.

Amp:
Rivera M-60
71' Marshall Super Lead

Guitars:
1994 Gibson Les Paul Standard stock PU's
Kramer Pacer Custom w/Duncan 59
American Standard Strat w/Texas Specials

I run my HC about the same as. Level maxed, Presence around 12 oclock and gain around 9-10 oclock. It pushes the front of my amp which is already at a medium gain setting ( similiar to a 70's Marshall) I leave it on all of the time.

It also stays on most of the time in my clean channel.

It really brings the amp to life, gives it a good kick in the butt. I use a 2nd Hotcake for more gain sometimes and run it after my main HC.



Buy a new pedal. Boost your amp and the economy!