Pocket Rocket Mk. V
“Good old Pocket Rocket. Nothing beats that.”
– Bart S.
Two germanium transistors, three knobs.
What can go wrong?
You’re looking at the fifth iteration of the Pocket Rocket. This one differs from the previous version not only in its looks, but also in how it works internally. Just a bit. Compared to mk. IV, this version offers more gain, more output volume and a more defined bias control.
Overall, the Pocket Rocket can be used as a boost, an overdrive and a fuzz. At its heart, there’s still two New Old Stock germanium transistor stages. These germanium transistors came from a cardboard box, sealed in the 80’s. Sometimes even late 70’s. I unboxed them myself, I think there’s some mojo magic in that, and I think that mojo magic has found its way into these pedals.
Now, in spite of having more gain to offer, this newer version can also do what the previous ones excelled at – delivering the beautiful, warm, full, edge-of-breakup, almost clean tones. It just takes a bit more care around the gain knob to find them. Just as its predecessors, the newest Pocket Rocket reacts beautifully to your picking dynamics and changes in the guitar’s output volume. You can easily go clean even with higher gain settings by simply rolling off some guitar volume or with subtler picking.
The bias control has been improved. In comparison to the previous version, this one allows to dig deeper into the square wavish, dying battery fuzz territory. With the bias control all the way to the left, your pedal will lose some gain and volume, but will get you some extra thick grit. Compensate with more gain, and you’re ready for that super choppy fuzz. Turn the bias knob to the right, and things will get way smoother, with more gain on tap.
Demo video:
