One Control Hooker’s Green Bass Machine

The Hooker’s Green made by One Control, but it was designed by Björn Juhl, the mind behind BJFe.
Since the Swedish genius made the Blueberry Bass Overdrive (3BOD), which is among the greatest pedals ever made for bassists, I have a soft spot for anything that has his initials on it.
Hooker’s Green is the name of a color, invented by and named after William Hooker, who mixed Prussian Blue and gamboge to create the hue which he used for painting leaves.
I’ve had that particular pedal on my list for a long while, but every time the fancy tickled me, the used market was empty and I could not pull the trigger, and the urge never felt strong enough to get a new one, knowing that one day, I’d look through my scope and one of them would appear right in my crosshairs. This day has finally arrived.

The Pedal is tiny, your average micro pedal format. What’s somewhat spectacular is that this one can be run using a 9V battery. It feels normal in terms of quality. Nothing to complain about and nothing to praise. The layout is very simple at first glance. Volume, Gain, Treble. Closer inspection yields another control, a bass knob that is hidden on the side and can only be adjusted with a screw driver.
So much for the outward appearance.

Here’s what the knobs do:
Volume is obvious. Noon is unity.
Gain is controlling the gain that is fed into the clipping chamber, but not the output volume. The pedal does pass signal with gain at zero and won’t get louder as you increase gain.
The hidden bass knob feels like it does a gentle cut and a less gentle boost somewhere below 100Hz.
The treble knob is also a gentle one. With very low gain it does next to nothing, but with raising gain it’s useful to shape the sizzle.

Here’s how it feels and sounds:
With the Volume knob at noon, you can set any of the other knobs into any given position and it won’t sound bad. It’s a pedal that is unable to completely mess up your sound. Nice.
The general theme is a bit darker than I personally like, at least when you use it for a low gain sound.
As I said, it passes signal with gain at zero, so you can actually hear what the EQ does, or so I thought.
I spent a good amount of time playing around with the treble knob, my ears firmly pressed into my trusty Sennheisers, trying to figure out what is happening. I said it’s subtle, but what exactly is it doing?
Well, even with the treble wide open the sound is a bit darker than with the pedal bypassed.
The bass knob gives the signal more of the stuff that kicks you in the chest, provided you’re playing a massive PA with big woofers. Raising the gain brings a hint of audible grit around 9 o’clock, and just a tiny bit past noon, the pedal seems to wake up. The darker sound signature is gone and there is overdrive happening on every note. It does not push back, nor does it egg you on, it just hangs there, vibing with whatever you do. While playing in that region, having lively, audible grind in the signal chain, I realize that the treble knob did wake up, too. It’s made for manipulating the nature of the drive.
With the treble wide open, we’re just hovering on the ground between organic drive and metallic clank.
The pedal has a lot of bite, even a sharp one, but not ear piercing at all. It’s sharp fangs, most of them made from enamel – but one or two of the canines probably are stainless steel.
Turning back takes off the sting a bit, the metallic note disappears and it becomes more of a mean, organic drive sound. However, the treble knob is quite gentle in the way it works. It feels like the treble knob on my four knob BBBOD. Don’t expect a muffled sound with it all the way down and ear piercing levels of treble with it fully engaged.
All in all, I liked the character of the drive, but the general voice is a bit too dark for my tonal preferences.
It’s touch sensitive and works very well. If you’re looking for a small pedal that does solid overdrive and is very easy to set, the Hooker’s Green might be right up your alley. Given that they run for less than €100 on the used market, it’s also not a pedal that will break the bank.

This is a snippet played with a P-Bass and pick. Treble all the way up and drive at 3/4.

Here’s a demonstration of the treble knob. First pass is clean, second with the drive and treble at max, third with the treble at minimum.