Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
SoundLad Liverpool's Scran 2 Britpop Overdrive is an incredible dual-voiced Overdrive - spanning over 2 decades of tone and wholly delivering the sounds of the Britpop and Indie Sleaze eras
The MK1 Scran first emerged in 2021 - designed to replicate the sound of the Britpop era - with classic British sounds straddling Marshall and Voxy tones, but capable of much more besides - including that typical Britpop jangle too. ’Let’s Play All’ Maestro Matt Webster first coined the phrase ’Oasis in a Box’ - which is why we have the Cool Britannia Edition of this pedal - but the original remit was much broader - and was meant to cover off most of the key Britpop Bands / Sounds of that era - not just solely Oasis.
The original pedal had a somewhat odd naming convention - where the controls were labelled Thick, Soft, Toast, HP (Sauce), Cheese, and Beans. The only one carried over to the new variant is ’Thick’ - which controls the Bass Input into the circuit. There were some issues with the first edition - where it didn’t always play nice with other pedals and whose position on the board was originally sometwhat more sensitive. Note that the Gain 1 knob deliberately has that scratchy thing when you move it - it’s a mojo tone thing - and is retained for the MK2 version therefore!
During 2024, SoundLad Marc was experimenting with this same circuit - and looking to achieve the signature tones of The Strokes’ guitarist Albert Hammond Junior - particularly the tones of ’is This It’. That resulted in his bypassing the Thick control, and introducing a discrete Tube Screamer circuit into the mix - controlled by Gain 1 for that now ’00’ Mode.
So we get very different voicings across those two modes - with the Screamer obviously adding more mids and sizzle to the ’00’ Indie Sleaze Voicing.
This is such a smart circuit - which includes input and output buffers and power filtering, on top of its 2 Transformers, Discrete Screamer circuit, and custom Inductor EQ / Treble roll-off - which Marc designed.
One of the Transformers is involved in the Gain Saturation of the pedal, where Gain 2 is essentially the Output Gain for the pedal, and Gain 1 is the Preamp, with the Screamer further adding sizzle to the ’OO’ Indie Sleaze voicing. The second Transformer is used as a Pickup Simulator - so you can position the Scran 2 anywhere in your signal chain! In tandem with the Transformer you also have a Pickup Type Switch - ↑ Up for Single Coils, and ↓ Down for Humbuckers. This function is further serviced by the ’Ω’ Ohms Trimmer - that in turn simulates different instrument cable lengths which result in increased degrees of high frequencies roll-off.
I have the pedal positioned in the middle of my board - along with my other drive pedals - and it sounds spectacular there without the Pickup Simulator egaged - so I’ve not felt the need to make use of that - but you have all those functions at your disposal should you decide you need them!
Generally Gain 1 is Preamp Gain, and Gain 2 is Output Gain - while in the '00' Sleaze Mode it controls the Discrete Screamer circuit also.
I'm going to talk about core voicings first - before I cover off all the controls.
For the Britpop side - I use 2 main voicings - a Treble Booster style voicing - which is achieved with the Thick control wound all the way back same as with Gain 2, and then Gain 1 and Tone are fully cranked to Max, with Volume at 3 o'c - that is my 'Bright' Treble Booster style Voicing.
I then have my regular Britpop Voicing - which involves Thick @ Noon, Gain 1 @ Noon, Gain 2 @ c. 10 o'c, and with Tone and Volume @ 3 o'c. That gives me a nicely rounded Full Fat Brit Flavour.
For the '00' Indie Sleaze Voicing I deploy a somewhat sizzling Mids-forward voicing. Note that 'Thick' is bypassed from this voicing, and we have and additional Screamer in tandem with the Preamp and Output Gain. My settings are therefore Gain 1 @ 3 o'c, Gain 2 @ 9 o'c, and Tone and Volume at 3 o'clock as before!
So there are 3 quite distinct core voicings covered here - a Bright Treble Booster-y one, a Full-Fat Full-Frequency-Range one, and finally a Mids-Forward one - so you already have incredible variety and versatility with just those 3 settings - but in-between and to the extremes settings yield even more variety! Note that I never felt the need to use the Pickup Simulator also - but when that is deployed smartly in combination - it yields even more variety! So you can be assured that this is an incredibly potent and versatile tone-machine!
Now to the full overview of the tone controls :
Controls - Thick : Bass Input, Gain 1 : Preamp + Screamer Gain ('00' Mode) [with Thick FCCW, and Gain 1 @ Max you get Treble Booster tones for ythe '90' Mode], Gain 2 : Output Gain (More Lows and Mids typically / Hair, Warmth, and Sizzle], Tone : Custom Inductor which simulates High Frequency roll-off [CCW], MODE : ↑ Up is '00' Indie Sleaze / ↓ Down is Britpop, and Volume is Output Level (with plenty on-tap!).
Internal Controls - Pickup Simulator : ↓ On/Off ↑, Type : SC / HB, Ω OHMS Trimmer : High Frequency roll-off.
You generally get the measure of this drive pretty quickly - the two Mode voicings are quite distinct, but the mechanics of dialling them in are pretty similar.
The Union Jack was resplendent throughout the Britpop Era [mostly 1993-97] - which was part of a period in 90's UK history dubbed 'Cool Britannia' by several journalists at the time on both sides of the Atlantic. And where Vanity Fair featured the above iconic photoshoot of Patsy Kensit and Liam Gallagher - which very much marked that Cool Britannia period.
The Union Jack was seen everywhere - including on Noel Gollagher's Epiphone Sheraton Guitar, and was for a time even wrapped up in the Oasis logo. There was roaring trade in everything featuring the Union Jack - including for linens and bedspreads - obviously partly inspired by the above Cool Briannia photo!
The Indie Sleaze era is normally recorded as being from the time of the release of The Strokes 'Is This It' [2001]. And then spanned most of the 2000's - with its influence still being felt to this very day!
There are 2 versions of this Scran 2 pedal therefore - one that harks back to 'Cool Britannia', and one that is more influenced by the 'Indie Sleaze' era, as pictured below :
In the second visual above, and immediately below - Marc and I tried to showcase some of the key bands most associated with those two movements - for Britpop the 2 main influences were of course Oasis and Blur, and for Indie Sleaze - most of those bands were kinda trying to emulate the direction set by the Strokes debut 'Is This It' album - which is the leading influence for that era - I'm sure your band list won't be exactly the same as ours - in fact Marc and I had to compromise a little on the Indie Sleaze side as we wanted slightly different bands represented - I feel we reached a happy accord in the end. You can of course substitute your own favourite Britpop and Indie Sleaze bands into the mix - if we've left out some of your favourites!
So the two editions of Scran 2 are Cool Britannia - which is heavily influenced by one band [very obvious to its fans!], while the Indie Sleaze artwork is a little more abstract and not attributed to any one band - both versions go for £129 on the SoundLad Liverpool Webstore - which is incredibly value!
In the origin story there is a whole other bit about the use of J201 and J202 JFETs which are a big part of the circuit's evolution - and the transition between the two involved a lot of additional calibration work - which is interesting to some, but too much technical detail for others. All you need to know is that Marc has spent hundreds of man-hours on perfecting this circuit - and he seems to have hit every marker! There are more technical notes available on the SoundLad Liverpool Website - should you want to read into that further.
This is a wide-ranging, vibrant, and lively overdrive - and when using just one of the gain channels (Gain 1) your guitar volume control can roll off a lot of that gain - while it's more complex when you're using both Gain controls and when they're relatively highly cranked.
Apart from some initial confusion I had on naming convention and control topology workflow, I found his pedal very easy to navigate. It sounds superb in so many different ways and contexts - and has such a wide range of output. You can really feel those Transformers in your playing - they make everything more lively, more dynamic, and more visceral and vibrant!
There are so many smart engineering decisions here, and smart execution - with perfect artworks and knob-choices. This pedal is overall a total triumph - it has the range and depth to please almost everyone - I can't see how anyone would not love to have this on their board - particularly if they favour those two tone eras. This pedal is every way perfectly formed - and of course I love it!
I have two SoundLad Liverpool pedals now - this and the Hungry Beaver Multi-Muff- and both are exceptional and incredible value - every home should have one!
Demos
