Way Huge Green Rhino Mk V

The first assumption would be that this is yet another Tube Screamer Clone. The knob layout, the color and the word ‘Overdrive’ suggest that. To my ear, there are some similarities to the Tube Screamers I tried, but it is a Way Huge pedal, too – and Way Huge usually has a bit of their own stew cooking, even when they follow someone else’s recipe. Beyond the Tube Screamer typical controls, which consist of Level, Drive and Tone, there are two more knobs and a hidden switch.
The enclosure is the small Way Huge form factor, so it’s very pedalboard friendly, somewhere between a mini pedal and a standard 1590. Input, output and power connect to the top of the pedal. The whole thing is rather well designed. You can read knob positions easily, and there is ample room for the foot switch, the quality of everything feels solid.
The controls that Way Huge has put on the Green Rhino are not as straightforward as one might think, though. Level is obviously level. Drive controls the amount of overdrive in the signal – as usual with a Tube Screamer, the pedal will pass signal with Drive fully CCW. Going through the entire travel of the knob feels more linear than on the original, though. The Tone knob does not feel like an active treble control with boost and cut, it feels more like a passive knob with cut only. My ears could trick me on that, because it is brighter with the knob maxed, but that could simply be due to the added harmonics from the drive. The manual states that it cuts -20dB at 3kHz when fully CCW, nothing more.
The Freq knob is pretty straightforward. It’s an active EQ, capable of boosting and cutting. The frequency for this can be selected with the hidden switch, which sits on the inside of the pedal. You get to choose between 100Hz and 500Hz. Both good frequencies for bass players to manipulate.
The Curve knob has a bit of an opaque description, too. It can be used to reign in the top end, should it get too harsh. It seems like this is another passive treble control, but while the Tone knob is centered at 3kHz, the Curve knob seems to work a lot higher in the spectrum – playing my passive bass with flats, I don’t get much use out of this knob.
Since I work with a mellow clean sound, I always appreciate when a drive pedal can add a little around the top, I found my personal best results with both tone Tone and Curve knob maxed out.

I tried setting the Green Rhino and the Rodenberg LDP side by side, since both pedals are descendants of the Tube Screamer. While the LDP was designed for bass use, the Green Rhino does not get the official sign of approval for bass use from Way Huge (but their website is somewhat lacking in technical details). However, it comes with a knob that does EQ at 100Hz, so there’s that.
Setting both pedals to ‘neutral’ with tone at noon and all the switches and extra knobs to their respective ‘off’ position, both pedals sound shockingly similar. I would describe their tone simply as “Tube Screamer (808) without the loss of the bottom end”. Experimenting with the Tone knob with the Drive at zero has the Green Rhino sound a little bit darker. Playing through a cabinet, there is not much difference, but using headphones, you can hear some added sharpness to the uppermost regions from the LPD, where the Green Rhino gets somewhat bright, but does not really keep up. Trying the entire range of the Drive knob, they start at the same level and end at roughly the same level, but the Rhino feels a bit more linear than the LDP (and the Tube Screamer). However, I was able to set a sound on one pedal and replicate it on the other – except for the top end when I maxed out the tone knob on the LDP. The sound ranges from clean(ish) boost to solid overdrive, with the amount of grit I’m getting perfectly even across the entire fretboard. Neither does the circuit get overwhelmed by the lows, nor do the higher registers trigger more dirt. Moving on and using all components offered, I activated the Deep switch on the LDP and also used the 100Hz knob on the Green Rhino. The Deep switch seems to be well balanced. Since the TS circuit strongly favors the upper mids for the dirt, you get some boost there and the Deep switch offsets that nicely and negates the feeling that the bass drops out a bit on the higher settings. The 100Hz knob on the Rhino can do roughly the same, but there’s much more of that low end boost on tap. Riding the 100Hz knob higher brings a thunderous sound. Imagine a Grey Rhino galloping towards you – full tilt, horn low (If you were asking yourself the same question: Yes, Rhinos can gallop. People who have seen it found the experience frightening -Three tons of armored flesh moving at that speed).
There certainly is no need for a clean blend on the Rhino, there is more than enough low end available.

Of course, there is the option to flip the internal switch, shifting the frequency for the EQ to 500Hz, which is an interesting frequency in itself. Cut hard and create a beautiful mid scooped tone that sounds wonderfully crisp and full bodied in your bedroom, but is the bass signal in the mix becomes as buoyant as a brick. When you push that frequency hard, you’re riding the honk-bus to honk city, honking its honking horn all the while. Honk honk. Pushing that frequency a little bit can give a lot of articulation in a dense mix – but ultimately, the cost is not worth it. Since it’s only possible to manipulate either 500 or 100 Hz, opting for 500 means that 100 stays flat, and that low boost feels a bit too valuable to sacrifice for the access to the 500Hz band.
The Green Rhino Mk IV does not come with a Curve control and has the knobs for 100Hz and 500Hz – so if you value both equally and find yourself in a similar situation than me, It could be a better choice to go for the older version instead of the current Mk V. I know I’d prefer that to a knob that does nothing because my sound is too dark for it to have an effect.

However, when you put the Green Rhino in its preferred habitat – playing with ripping guitars, it has an effect on the mix. The settings I used are quite simple. I set level to get unity and dimed everything else, with the switch on the inside set to 100Hz. Think of a very large specimen of a full grown grizzly bear. A male one, a little bit past his prime with a graying muzzle. Now take that bear and imagine him being in a really foul mood. The bear equivalent to a human that got news yesterday, news that made that human so angry that the only short term remedy was getting black out drunk, but the mid term effect is a thoroughly installed hangover, on top of the anger that has not subsided, but gets fanned on because it now rests in a body that shows poisoning effects and aches. Keep the picture of that foul tempered bear in mind. Now imagine a professional grade grater. Those things that feel entirely too sharp, so when you use it to grate cheese, you will not go all the way to the end because then your pasta will get a topping of human skin and flesh on top of the Parmesan. Use that grater to demolish a hand full of Jamaican scotch bonnet chilis, so that it is dripping with the red-hot juice of those. Now take that grater to the bear and slowly drag it over the scrotum.
The noise that bear will make is what the Green Rhino adds to your bass signal. It’s an angry roar, with spittle forming bubbles on the vocal cords before being ejected violently by the sheer force of that primal mix of a scream, a howl and a growl. Earth shaking thunder, the unstoppable power of a large and heavy beast in full battle array, charging. It’s too angry to drown in a mix. It fights claw and tooth against anything the guitars want to claim in its sonic territory. What a mean creature. I love it.

It does not have an artificial flavor like the Way Huge Pork Loin (or the Pork side of the Pork&Pickle). It feels natural. It does not have the metallic clanky trademark bite of the Darkglass products, either. It’s sitting in a sweet spot, low enough to pass under the guitars’ sizzle, still sounding like something big and sturdy getting ripped.
I really anticipated that I would sell the Green Rhino quickly. I found a good deal on one and wanted to give it a spin, then toss it back on the market – but for the moment, I will hold on to it, because it’s too much fun.