I recently bought another Sweet Honey Overdrive pedal.
What do I think of it? Read on for my First Impressions.
Table of Contents
- What Did You Buy?
- A Disclosure / Disclaimer
- Why Did You Buy It?
- My Rig Today
- How Does The New Hand-wired Sweet Honey Overdrive Sound?
- How Does The New Hand-wired Sweet Honey Overdrive Compare To The Original?
- Bonus Sounds – Through A (Hopefully) More Representative Amp
- Final Thoughts
What Did You Buy?
I bought a Mad Professor Sweet Honey Overdrive hand-wired 2025 edition (SHOD-HW-2025 for short).
- “Mad Professor” is the pedal manufacturer,
- “Sweet Honey Overdrive” is the name of the pedal family (SHOD for short),
- “hand-wired” indicates that the components were hand-soldered together (as opposed to being assembled in a factory by automation),
- “2025 edition” indicates the revision of this pedal (the SHOD-HW was first introduced in 2010).
Mad Professor’s Sweet Honey Overdrive is a low-to-medium gain overdrive, with fantastic touch-sensitive playing dynamics. It’s also designed to stack exceptionally well with other pedals (all of the 1st generation Mad Professor pedals do this – it was quite the novelty back when they launched).
Tone-wise, I consider it a tweed-tone pedal (even though it’s chasing the sound of a 1960’s Supro amp, not one of Fender’s legendary 1950’s amps). It’s got that rounded top-end and solid low-mids foundation that I look for out of a tweed-tone pedal.
I believe that the SHOD is the only tweed-tone pedal that has been in continuous, factory production long-term? It was first introduced in 2010, and is still made today.
The SHOD was originally designed by legendary pedal designer Bjorn Juhl. It’s a cousin of his legendary BJFe Honey Bee pedal family – and (in my opinion) it’s the better pedal.
I bought mine direct from Mad Professor in October 2025.
A Disclosure / Disclaimer
I have no relationship at all with Mad Professor – but the company has featured this blog on their website in the past.
The old Mad Professor website’s page for the Big Tweedy Drive once featured a quote from me. They took the quote directly from this blog post. They never asked me for a quote, never told me that they’d done it, and no money or other compensation ever changed hands.
I paid full price for this SHOD-HW-2025. I ordered it through the regular online store exactly like anyone else would. The folks at Mad Professor would have had no idea at all that the order was going to be featured on this blog.
The pedal is not a “review” unit in any way, shape or form, and this is not a sponsored review at all. (I don’t do sponsored reviews.)
Why Did You Buy It?
When I saw that Mad Professor was releasing a new version of this pedal, there was no way I was going to miss out on one.
I’ve owned the original hand-wired Mad Professor Sweet Honey Overdrive (SHOD-HW for short) since 2014. Pair it with my Klon KTR and my PRS McCarty 594, and I’m sorted. No matter how much gear I try (and fall in love with), it’s the signal chain that I always come back to.
I want to see how this 2025 model compares. Does this new edition sound any different? And if it does, what do I think of the tonal differences?
If this new version somehow sounds even better, that’ll be awesome. If it doesn’t, at least I’ll have a great backup for my current #1 drive pedal. (Or, like with my Klon KTR, I can keep one with my favourite settings, and use the other when I want to explore different settings.)
And, either way, it’s a pedal that belongs in my little tweed-tone pedal collection.
My Rig Today
Signal Chain
Today, I’m playing:
- Deadnote (my 100% stock PRS McCarty 594),
- into the Axe-FX 3 (for the tuner),
- out to my pedalboard,
- back into the Axe-FX 3 (for virtual amp, cab, delay and reverb),
- out to my audio interface,
- and into my DAW.
This rig is unapologetically optimised for my Sweet Honey Overdrive pedal.
Guitars
For guitars, I’m using my PRS McCarty 594 (aka Deadnote). It’s slightly brighter than a Les Paul, and puts out less low-end. I think it’s the perfect guitar to use with the SHOD. I’m playing in the middle pickup position.
There’ll be a guest appearance from Jody (my white guard Fender Telecaster) too. First time on the blog!
Pedals
On the pedalboard, I have the Arc Effects Klone v2, the SHOD-HW-2025, and the o.g. SHOW-HW. Each pedal’s in a separate loop of my trusty Gigrig G2, so that none of the pedals can affect the signal at all when they’re not being used.
When I’m using a guitar that has humbuckers, I always boost the SHOD with a Klon klone of some kind. I’ve gone with the Arc Effects Klone v2 because it has that it factor that many Klon klones lack (imho). (It’s also on the board because I still don’t have a box for it to live in 😂) I’m running it in the classic clean boost configuration, with the output a little above unity gain to help drive the SHOD pedals.
I have two versions of the hardwired Sweet Honey Overdrive on the board today:
- the 2025 edition (aka the SHOD-HW-2025); this is the pedal that I’ve just bought
- the original edition (aka the SHOD-HW); this is the pedal that I’ve been using since 2014.
I’ve got the knobs on my SHOD-HW set to where I always set them (Drive and Focus around little bit before 2 o’clock, Level set to unity gain or there about).
I ended up setting the knobs on the SHOD-HW-2025 to pretty much the exact same settings. That wasn’t deliberate. I dialled in the new pedal by ear, and only then compared it to the settings that I’ve been using on my original SHOD-HW for over a decade.
Turns out, I think the sweet spot (for my taste) is in the same place on both pedals.
Amp & Cab
The Axe-FX 3 is running my own “HTB 15 Vintage” preset. This new preset chases the sound that I’ve been building around the Sweet Honey Overdrive since 2015. (Yes, I did the PRS naming thing.) It features my favourite Celestion A-Type and Celestion Blue speaker pairing, and every choice in that preset was made to make the Sweet Honey Overdrive sound the way that I want.
That’s great for me, but not much help to anyone else (who else uses that speaker pairing, for example?!?)
I started this blog to help my friends with their questions about guitar gear. So, at the end of the blog post, I’ve included some audio demos from my new “HTB 25 Modern” preset. This preset chases (my idea of) the typical sound of a modern pedal platform amp, complete with a Celestion V30 speaker.
I will publish a detailed look at each of these new presets soon!
No Post-Processing
All the delay and reverb that you hear in the audio demos is coming from the Axe-FX 3.
I don’t apply any processing in my DAW (aka post-processing). I will have level-matched the audio demos before publishing them.
How Does The New Hand-wired Sweet Honey Overdrive Sound?
With Humbuckers
Let’s go straight to my go-to setup: dual humbuckers, Klon klone clean boost, and an amp & cab setup for tweed-tones.
This is my preferred rhythm tone: rounded top-end, a mid-range that’s quite filled out, and a solid low-mids foundation.
I can’t put my finger on exactly why this tone suits me. Maybe it’s just a little more relaxed and laid back, compared to the classic Marshall tones that I grew up with? Whatever the reason, this is home for me.
In the room, it sounded plenty bright enough, but the recording’s come out a little darker than I expected. That’s easy to fix by choosing a slightly brighter impulse response. I’ll tweak that after I’ve finished this blog post.
Just goes to show how important it is to record a guitar tone and listen back!
With A Telecaster Bridge Pickup
Let’s switch over to Jody – my Road Worn 60s Telecaster. I’m on the bridge pickup, with the tone rolled back a little. Everything else is exactly the same.
I’ve thrown this in to show you that the SHOD’s sweet spot for humbuckers is not the sweet spot setting for a Telecaster.
Towards the end of this blog post, I’ll include an audio example of the SHOD-HW-2025 with the settings that I’d choose for Jody.
How Does The New Hand-wired Sweet Honey Overdrive Compare To The Original?
They Sound Very Close (Especially With Tired Ears!)
When the SHOD-HW-2025 arrived mid-October, I plugged it in, and went “that sounds like I expect it to.” I didn’t hear any surprises (good or bad) at the time.
So imagine my surprise when I compared both versions for this blog post:
In the room – with fresh ears – the SHOD-HW-2025 is a little brighter, with noticeably more clarity and less mud.
After a couple of hours of recording and listening back to demos, my ears are struggling to hear the differences. To my somewhat fatigued ears, both pedals now sound incredibly similar.
It’s possible that any sound differences are down to parts tolerances rather than circuit changes. The Focus control isn’t a simple tone pot, for example, so I imagine it wouldn’t take much of a difference in the parts ratings for that to be audible.
Also, my o.g. SHOD-HW is at least 11 years old. Some of the electronics components in there may have drifted a bit since it was first made? (I don’t know if 11 years is too soon for that process to begin.)
(Update: any differences between these two pedals can be eliminated by a low cut around 80 Hz after the pedal, and making fine adjustments to the Focus knob. So yeah, unless Mad Professor confirm otherwise, I think both pedals are the same circuit, and the differences are down to parts tolerances and/or drift over time.)
I’m Meh About The Artwork Change
The new SHOD-HW-2025 comes with new artwork on the front of the case. The new artwork is there to make it more obvious that this is a hand-wired edition of the pedal.
(In the old days, the only way to tell whether a Mad Professor pedal was hand-wired or not was to look at the power jack. PCB pedals have a power jack that’s flush to the body; hand-wired pedals have a power jack that sticks out of the body slightly.)
I don’t mind the new artwork. The honeycomb motif is very appropriate!
I’m just so used to the original look, I’m probably always going to prefer it.
The Power Jack Is In A Much Better Position
If there’s one complaint I have about every BJFe-designed pedal I’ve ever tried, it’s that the power jack is in a very awkward place. It’s always right next to an input or output jack. That’s fine if the pedal’s on a slatted board of some kind, where you can run power up from underneath. It’s a pain otherwise.
The new SHOD-HW-2025 moves the power jack to the top of the pedal, just like a Boss pedal 😍 🥳. That’s such a nice improvement.
The Top-Mounted Jacks Are In A Better Position
The other thing that’s moved are the input and output jacks. The SHOD-HW-2025 has top-mounted jacks 🥳
It is nice to be able to smush pedals together on a more compact board. It’s a tidier look, for sure, and has some practical benefits.
As a home hobbyist, it doesn’t make much difference to me.
The New Input / Output Jacks Are Easier To Plug Cables Into
As someone who swaps pedals on and off my practice board a lot, I’m definitely grateful that the new SHOD-HW-2025 comes with much better input / output jacks.
On my old pedal, the input / output jacks need quite a bit of force to plug in a cable. You’d think I’d be used to it after 11 years, but even today (while setting the board for this blog post), I got caught out by it. I’m not going to admit how long it took me to figure out that my SHOD-HW wasn’t working because the input jack wasn’t properly seated.
No such problems with the new SHOD-HW-2025.
The New LED Is Much Easier To See
My old SHOD-HW’s power-on LED is so dim, I have to cup my hand over it to tell if it’s on or not. Here at home, with the normal lights on in the room, I really can’t see the LED otherwise.
No such problems with the new SHOD-HW-2025 🥳
Bonus Sounds – Through A (Hopefully) More Representative Amp
Chasing A More Modern Pedal Platform Amp
To finish off, let’s switch over to a different Axe-FX 3 preset.
I’ve built a new “HTB 25 Modern” preset. It chases the sound of a typical modern clean channel, and I’ve paired it with a Celestion V30 speaker to try and capture what a modern, somewhat affordable home hobbyist amp might be like.
The other thing about this new preset is that I built it using other guitars and other pedals as the reference sounds. It wasn’t built for my beloved SHOD, and it wasn’t tested with my beloved SHOD either.
I’m hoping that it’ll give you a better idea of what pedals might sound like through your own rig.
Humbuckers
First up, here’s both hand-wired versions of the pedal. I’m back playing Deadnote (my PRS McCarty 594).
Don’t they both sound great?
To my ears, they’re very very close to each other in sound. I can’t consistently hear a difference between the two pedals. I think that’s because this preset is EQ’d a bit differently to the HTB 15 Vintage that I used earlier, and because of the Celestion V30 speakers.
With A Telecaster
To finish off, let’s go back to my Telecaster and dial in the SHOD-HW-2025 for single-coil sounds. Here, I’ve turned the Drive up to maximum, and turned the Focus control to 9 o’clock.
There isn’t a lot of gain to be had out of the SHOD. You’ve either got to hit it with a boost, or with hotter pickups. Or, use it as the boost into a second overdrive pedal (like the Mad Professor Little Green Wonder).
Final Thoughts
Is the new SHOD-HW-2025 an improvement over the o.g. SHOD-HW?
I think the SHOD-HW-2025 that I received is a fantastic example of this pedal circuit. It has all the sounds that I know and love, with much-improved ergonomics (top-mounted audio jacks and especially that top-mounted power jack).
Is there enough improvement for me to make it my #1 drive pedal?
Tone-wise, I think the two pedals are so close. It only takes a little bit of low-cut EQ at 80 Hz, and I can’t tell the pedals apart. With that tweak, they sound the same, and they certainly feel the same.
I guess that means that I have twins as my #1 drive pedal 😁