KHDK and Trivium team up for the limited edition In Waves clean boost

KHDK In Waves Clean Boost
(Image credit: KHDK)

KHDK Electronics and Florida metal stalwarts Trivium have buddied up on their second signature pedal. In Waves is a clean boost pedal that takes its name from the 2011 Trivium album, and is described as a powerful pre-EQ tone-shaping tool, designed to gussy up your electric guitar tone before it hits your amplifier.

Indeed, KHDK describes it as “the most insane clean boost” it has ever made, and it can play a key role if you are looking to nail the metal guitar tone of Corey Beaulieu and Matt Heafy. Like the Ascendancy overdrive, the In Waves arrives in a brightly coloured silk-screen printed enclosure, and is strictly limited to 333 units worldwide.

In Waves has controls for Boost, Bass and Treble, and has a Tight switch mini-toggle for keeping your low-end in check when operating in lower tunings with the gain cranked high. You don’t want it flabby. The pedal has been built and tested in the EU and ship with a certificate of authenticity signed by Beaulieu and Heafy. In Waves is true bypass, and can be operated with a 9V or 18V DC power supply. 

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Clean boost might not sound as sexy as a fuzz pedal but it is often the secret weapon of many a pedalboard, particularly when it offers EQ shaping, and will help make your guitar amp sing. 

KHDK Electronics is a guitar effects pedal company set up by Metallica’s Kirk Hammett and David Karon, and over the years it has made artist collaborations something of a specialty. 

Among others, it created signature overdrive/boost pedal for Behemoth’s Nergal, worked with Scott Ian on the Sgt D, a high-powered preamp/overdrive pedal to recreate Ian’s monstrous S.O.D./Anthrax tones, and on a second-generation JSL unit that put more clarity into the signal – you can watch Scott Ian demo that below. 

And maybe if you feel your pedalboard needs something more NSFW, KHDK also the world’s first “dickstortion” with Brian Posehn and Fall Out Boy's Joe Trohman.

The In Waves clean boost is available now, priced $249. See KHDK Electronics for more details.

Jonathan Horsley

Jonathan Horsley has been writing about guitars and guitar culture since 2005, playing them since 1990, and regularly contributes to MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitar World. He uses Jazz III nylon picks, 10s during the week, 9s at the weekend, and shamefully still struggles with rhythm figure one of Van Halen’s Panama.