Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
New fully formed Manchester Pedal Brand Gigahearts delivers a fabulous take on the Jan Ray & Timmy Format - the January Dynamic Overdrive
This variant leans quite heavily into the Jan Ray side of things - with a warm, smooth, rich, dark and somewhat dense / compressed and sustaining core texture - which significantly enhances the output of Single-Coil pickups in particular. You will find that it’s mostly Single-Coil players that favour this format as it beautifully adds body to those tones, and slightly softens the highs - for a very elegant smooth and warm tonality.
I would file it with the Scott Henderson TWA SH9 and Michael Landau Vemuram Butter Machine - which are both further enhancements of the Maxon SD-9 Sonic Distortion. Also obviously the Pete Honoré ThorpyFX The Dane Overdrive + Low End Boost, and the Bondi Del Mar Overdrive. All those are designed to give more body and sustain to Single-Coil outputs - while some of that group are quite a bit bassier and denser than this January.
Gigahearts’ Ian loves a good anagram and pun - and labels his pedals in a really creative manner - albeit I think that since he labelled his Highs as ’Tops’ - he should really have had the consistency to label the Lows as ’Trunks’ also - that would have been a nice way to do it - but it’s a very minor thing really - but where I can’t help but observe the consistency and continuity of a pedal design.
I feel that this is my favourite of Ian’s enclosure designs to date - with that frosty blue winter scene - it works really well. A beautifully coloured enclosure too - elegantly punctuated with those striking Lovetone style knobs! Ian is a huge fan of Lovetone - and owns the entire range of those legendary pedals! Dan Coggins will be pleased!
Controls - Tops, Push, Output, Lows (Trunks!), Clip : Asymmetrical Schottky diodes - Twangy! / 2 Pairs of Symmetrical Silicon Diodes - Least Compressed, 1 Pair of Symmetrical Silicon Diodes - Moderately Compressed, Gain.
The way I set this pedal up heavily illustrates the nature of its output. For Ian - his favourite Clipping is the Bitey / Twangy Asymmetrical Shcottky - which is also the most compressed for me, while I typically prefer the 2 Symmetrical Silicon options - particularly the Least Compressed middle option!
I then tend to have Tops set fairly high - at either 3 or 4 o'c, Output is at circa 1:30 o'c, with just a hair of 'Push' at circa 8 o'c, Lows are wound all the way back, and Gain is mostly set at around Noon. The Mini Push knob adds further Saturation and Sustain - but also quite significantly ramps up compression - so I use that fairly minimally / sparingly.
The most telling control here is the Lows (Trunks!) - which I have wound all the way back - which is also what I tend to do with the other adjacent pedals mentioned in the above intro too. While with the Del Mar I'm never able to fully dial out enough Bass frequencies. Here for the January it sounds about right for me with the Lows dialled al the way back!! I mostly play Hunbuckers as I'm sure you're familiar with by now!
Ian particularly likes the January with his Strat guitar - per the below main demo - which is of course entirely understandable - as it so elegantly adds in that extra body and density which so perfectly enhances Single-Coil outputs. If you're a Strat or Tele player you will find a lot to love about this pedal. While for Humbucker players you generally have to dial out all the extra body and weight!
The January sounds at its most balanced and natural on the middle clipping option for me - which is what I prefer - while I also quite like the right-side option, but Left can be a little bit too much for me.
This pedal is beautifully engineered inside and out - which so many delightful and deft touches. This is a fantastic introduction to this new Gigahearts brand - where it's so evident how much thought and attention to detail has gone into the pedal, and indeed the fully formed Gigahearts range of 6 killer pedals. I will be picking them off one-by-one - where Ian gets to choose the next one I review. I picked out the January as my first - as I felt that had the most striking artwork - and I immediately knew what I wanted to do with my visual.
The January is a really high quality smooth overdrive - available at an incredibly decent price of just £125 on the Gigahearts Webstore. If you were thinking of getting a Jan Ray - there are several reasons why you might go for one of these instead. Of course the price difference is fairly extreme - with the brass-enclosed Vemuram Jan Ray typicaly going for £349 in the UK.
Overall the Gigahearts January Overdrive is a beautifully engineered and designed take on the Jan Ray and Timmy formats - with a very high quality execution and striking design. I feel that a lot of Single-Coil players in particular are going to really love this!
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