I’ve struggled to keep up with Catalinbread and Pettyjohn recently - who have been fast and furious with small batch limited editions of late - with one or two new pedals often appearing within just a week or two of each other. This is not the typical small batch of old - where each batch of 8 or 10 used to be just continuations of a specific pedal.

This time around - everyone is making special and custom and limited editions in tiny quantities - in part to inflate FOMA and add urgency to a purchasing decision. These are indeed different to what Keeley is doing - as they are releasing a lot of of custom colour editions - but - if those prove to be popular they then release more - as they’ve done with several purple variants.

While for Catalinbread it’s currently been all about small finite batches - so when those are gone - they’re gone! From a pedal blog perspective those are tricky to keep up with and tricky to justify to the readership. And are often just a case of new money for old rope as such - with no changes to the core circuits - but rather just ’skin jobs’ or essentially different wrappers / wraps!

Pettyjohn has wholly abandoned a regular release cycles seemingly - which can also currently be seen by the fact that there are only 2 x 3rd Generation Pedals listed on the site - this PreDrive³, alongside the significantly larger 4-in-1 PettyDrive³ - which covers 4 previous compact editions in the one large enclosure - the Chime, Iron, Gold, and Lift (I have the first 3 of those!). Compared to previous editions - I felt the PettyDrive³ was somewhat undermined by its knob choices - that could have been done so much better.

So in comparisons I actually really like what they have done with their PreDrive³ circuit. That mix of knobs looks pretty cool - on top of that wood facia. I’m always a sucker for a well-done wood facia!

This units covers a very extensive EQ  / Filter seciton - alongside a Buffer and Boost. Where the Boost can be ramped up to an Overdrive - by flicking up the top switch!

Controls - Level, Drive/Clean Gain Switch, Buffer Level, Large Boost Control, Lo-Cut : 1kHz > 20Hz, Hi-Cut : 1kHz > 20kHz, Lows } ±, 75Hz / 250Hz / 120Hz, Inductor Mids } ±, 540Hz / 1.5kHz / 780Hz, Highs } ±, 3kHz / 8kHz / 5kHz, Boost [Blue] Footswitch, Hybrid LED, Buffer [White] Footswitch.

Ports - TS Input, 9V-15V DC [-] 200mA, TS Output.

The PreDrive³ is an incredibly well made and potent device - and as usual you get extra cost mods. The Stock unit is $499 from the Pettyjohn Electronics Webstore. Then the Deluxe EQ Mod add a further $100, and the Max Mojo Mod adds a further $169. Which together take you to quite a loft $668. Those Mods typically just mean slightly superior / more Mojo / Rare Vintage NOS Components. Part of me likes that there are options, and part of me hates it!

It does though mean that you can kind of choose how much you spend - but you’re already spending a lot!

That combination of essential Channel Strip functionality is incredibly potent - as mentioned.

This is the perfect start to a pedal-chain / signal-chain  - that sets up your signal chain for maximum audio fidelity. It’s a little Stella Artois in some ways - in that it’s very much Reassuringly Expensive. You kind of know what you’re getting with Pettyjohn - while there is an obvious cost to that quality!

They’ve moved away from their recognisable early very disintive enclosures - and seem to be feeling their way forward these days.

This PreDrive³ looks fairly iconic to me - where I didn’t get that vibe from the previous PettyDrive³ release.

Let’s hope Pettyjohn are fully back on track now - this is very strong release!

This would be great to own - while it’s still rather a nice-to-have for me than an essential - at least at this current time!

There is no demo available yet - while this is largely a known quantity now in its 3rd Generation. 

As we don’t have a 3rd generation video - I will rely on Shan Tubbs’ excellent demo of the V2 Generation from around 5 years ago - as below!