I’ve come to realise something uncomfortable(perceived by some perhaps) about my pedalboard.
The most expensive pedal I own—the Hudson Broadcast-AP (Green Limited Edition)—is the one I’m selling.
And the two pedals I keep going back to?
Used VOX pedals I picked up for S$80 each.
That sounds backwards. But it isn’t.
The VOX pedals: where I actually play
My two VOX pedals—the Cooltron Bulldog and the Straight 6—share one thing in common:
They feel alive.
The Bulldog runs a 12AU7 tube in a clever low-voltage circuit that doesn’t choke the tube the way older “starved plate” designs did. The Straight 6 goes even further, running a 12AX7 at high voltage. On paper, that’s just engineering.
In practice, it means something else entirely.
They don’t just change my tone.
They change how I play.
they sag when I dig in
they respond to pick attack
they feel slightly unpredictable
There’s movement in the sound. There’s resistance. There’s interaction.
Sometimes it’s messy. Sometimes it’s not perfect.
That’s exactly why I keep coming back.
The Hudson Broadcast-AP: the “better” pedal
The Hudson is objectively impressive.
Class A discrete circuit
transformer-coupled design
silicon transistor-based
inspired by broadcast console saturation
It’s not trying to sound like an amp. It’s trying to sound like a recording chain.
And it does that very well.
the low end is tighter
the gain is smoother
the tone feels more “3D”
everything sits in a mix more easily
It’s controlled. Refined. Thoughtful.
If I were recording, or building tones for a mix, this would be the smarter tool.
So why am I selling it?
Because I don’t reach for it.
And that matters more than anything else.
When I plug in, I don’t think:
“Let me shape a controlled, mix-ready tone.”
I think:
“What happens if I hit this string a little harder?”
The VOX pedals answer that question.
The Hudson doesn’t ignore it—but she doesn’t encourage it either.
The real difference
It took me a while to understand this.
The VOX pedals give me:
amp-like feel
dynamic response
a bit of chaos
The Hudson gives me:
controlled saturation
tighter low end
refined tone shaping
In simple terms:
VOX makes me play
Hudson makes me think
And when I’m honest with myself, I know which one I choose every time.
The uncomfortable truth
The Hudson isn’t worse.
In many ways, she’s the more “correct” pedal.
She would probably:
sit better in a mix
handle low-end clarity better
behave more predictably in a full band context
But I don’t build music starting from control.
I build from interaction.
From feel.
From the slight imperfections that push me to respond differently.
The decision
So I’m letting the Hudson go.
Not because she isn’t good.
But because she’s too controlled for the way I make music.
One last thought
We often assume better gear should stay.
But sometimes, the gear that stays is simply:
the one that makes you want to play more
And for me, right now, that’s not the expensive one.
It’s the one that fights back a little.