Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
ThorpyFX's 'Greater' Kudu Drive is billed as a 'More Better' tone-enhancing stacking overdrive, while for me it's also amazing on its own!
The Kudu is a really cool circuit developed by Dan Coggins as a smart multi-clipping tone-enhancer - created to make everything it touches sound better. Thorpy and Dan have run the pedal into a vast array of pedals and amps - and the pedal never fails to improve the texture and tonality of the device that it pushes.
There’s no less than 12 Diodes onboard - while 6 of those are for power management. Which leaves 2 x 2N4148 Silicon Diodes for Soft Clipping, 2 x Red LED’s for Hard Clipping, and 2 x magical secret sauce Schottky’s for the amazing Soft+ clipping mode - which sounds extraordinary and incredibly Germanium-like. I’m getting similar vibes to the clipping brilliance of Thorpy’s ’The J’ Preamp. The Kudu really sounds exceptional for me on the Soft+ Clipping Mode!
Controls - Level, Bite (Tone + Sparkle + Sizzle), Drive, Clip : Soft (2 x 2N4148 Si) / Hard (2 x Red LED’s) / Soft+ (2 x Germanium-sounding Schottky Si’s).
As mentioned - the clipping on this pedal is fantastic - and each mode yields a slightly different result - which is then further tweaked by the magic ’Bite’ control. I somehow just landed on all dials @ 3 o’c and got one of my favourite overdrive sounds ever!
And while the idea is mostly to improve the other pedals following in the wake of this Kudu - for me my favourite result to date - is the pedal on its own on Soft+ clipping - with all the 3’s! You get amazing harmonics and texture - it’s genuinely reminding me of the clipping joy I experience with ’The J’ - where I waxed somewhat lyrically about that pedal last year - one of Thorpy’s finest for sure. And for me - this Kudu is yet another upper echelon one.
It’s supposedly a modified version of something or other - at least in part - but I can’t quite put my finger on it - it’s worth the price of admission alone for just the Soft+ clipping!
Thorpy swears there's nothing else quite like it into the front of his favourite Amp - so seemingly an all-rounder! I of course deploy a Clean Pedal Platform - so I can mostly just reference the considerable stacking prowess of this pedal - which is of course superb. While I'm still just mostly blown away by the Soft+ clipping mode. In fact I so like the tone with that on and all the dials at 3 - I might just as well weld the pedal to those settings!
Artwork-wise it's another one of Thorpy's best looking ones - with that beautifully vibrant and colourful watercolour painting of a pair of Greater Kudus in their typical woodland / scrubland Southern-African habitat. My favourite looking Thorpy pedal to date is the All-Purple Dane, where the Hanami used to occupy the second place - while I think the Kudu might just have pipped that now!
Much like my favourite Thorpy Heavy Water 3-in-1 Boost - the Kudu is seemingly a multi purpose animal too - great for boosting and stacking upstream and downstream, and absolutely spectacular on its own too - on the Soft+ Schottky / Germanium-stye clipping mode. One of the very best Schottky pairings I've ever come across.
I have so many favourite Thorpy overdrives now - and this one is yet another upper echelon tone machine for me!
This is going to be a particularly strong week for Overdrives - as I'm launching several this week across the wide world!- and all of them have been quite brilliant - each in their own way. And the ThorpyFX Kudu is definitely elevated among that number.
I'm not always the biggest fan of 3-knob overdrives - they can often be a little underwhelming - but whatever Dan has done to / for this one - and especially on the magic Soft + diodes setting - makes for a very special pedal indeed!
The (Greater) Kudu goes for £209 and equivalent and is available right now on the ThorpyFX Webstore, and imminently at international dealers! I think a lot of you are going to be very pleasantly surprised by the potent prowess of this one!
Thorpy has written a blog about the Kudu - for further insights! Wish that I had had that in advance!
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