Following in the wake of the very well received Noble Screamer (ODR-1 + TS808), and Muse Driver (AT / RK Modded BD-2), we now get 3 more in the same series - all at once.
The Blues Order covers Marshall Blues Breaker and Fulltone OCD voicings, the Angry Orange has EHX Civil War Muff and Boss DS-1 Distortion flavours, and the Super Rodent mixes up the Boss SD-1 Super OverDrive with ProCo Rat Distortion.
As before you get to mix or match the Tone Stack and Clipping Character of each ...
Coming hot on the heels of my recent Blues Driver rundown we have here another superb candidate for the ’Adjacent’ category. Of course ’Adjacent’ meaning in the ballpark of - not exact replication - often just synergetic happenstance. And the Buzzing Bugs BB04 is actually a unique overdrive circuit which did not really set out to replicate those dual genres - but whose profile just happens to fall into Blues Breaker and Blues Driver territory!
Controls - Volume, Gain, Tone, Body (Phat).
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Both these pedals materialised around the same time - in and around the recent NAMM Show - although the Herculean Deluxe has not been officially launched yet (21st February) - but there is plenty of coverage of it online already.
I thought it made sense to cover off both of these in a single post - as they are kind of competitors to each other - each with its own unique elements. And the Herculean DLX contains that very rare mix of Dumble and Bluesbreaker.
I like the look / sound of ...
I’ve long been a fan of Mad Professor’s gain pedals - which of course mostly owe a lot to Björn Juhl - bar the Simble Overdrive (Dumble) by Lassi Ukkonen. Which by coincidence happened to be my very first Mad Professor pedal several years ago - and in fact my very first Dumble style overdrive - of which I have several now.
So the Simble was my first Mad Professor - and the Custom Stone Grey Distortion the most recent - alongside the 20th Anniversary Royal Blue Overdrive. The Royal Blue came...
I’m delighted to report that my friend and yours Vitalii Bobrov - of Drunk Beaver fame - at last has a proper website / webstore for his pedals - DRUNK-BEAVER.ROCKS - where his full current range of 19 pedals can be purchased - of course when in stock.
All these pedals are made in relatively small batches (20 or so at a time) and when there is high demand as there often is - then stock clears out very quickly and then there is typically a wait of around 3-4 weeks before more stock is ready ...
So 2024 is off to a pretty spirted start! I treaded myself to 2 pedals right at the tail end of the year - the Poly VERBS puts in an appearance in this month’s selection - while the Reeves Electro BHS-D is running a touch late and will be part of the February selection instead.
This time of the year has to be mostly about NAMM - while I feel that a lot of builders kind of took away from NAMM and launched / showcased their new release in advance!
I’ve still to make it to NAMM - timing’s ...
Wow - what can I say! The original N5 MGAT-1 was already my favourite distortion of all time - so I initially thought that this was going to be a sort of sideways step from that with more specificity to reach certain key classic era Marshall tones more easily and more precisely - and it certainly does that. While Mr Wu has kind of blown me away again - as this is incredibly a further improvement over the already exceptional MGAT-1.
The MGAT-1 Golden Era seems a little bit more poised and ...
I’ve waxed lyrical for a long time about the potency of the Daily Driver - where I originally acquired it based on how close it came to the tone and timbre of the Pete Cornish CC-1. The CC-1 can replicate / reproduce the tones of the TS808, Timmy, Klon and Blues Breaker with ease - and this new Boost addition makes it even more versatile.
The original had those 4 key corner knobs - and a single toggle switch for More Hi-Cut / None / Some Hi-Cut. Those 5 controls gave the pedal an incredible...
The Old Blue Overdrive is a unique Bluesy circuit not based on any other, but giving you excellent coverage of the classic blues tones - including both Breaker and Driver. It has a similarly potent gain cleanup via guitar volume knob as the Blues Driver - and the combination of +/- gain structure voicing switch and Treble and Thickness controls give you a fantastic extended-range degree of output-shaping.
The [-] Vintage voicing mode is probably best for the subtler end of Blues Breaker ...
Readers will know how big a fan of the Bluesbreaker circuit I am - with an extensive reference / capsule collection of perennial favourites for that genre - including Singles : Drunk Beaver Inglorious Bastard, Jackson Audio Golden Boy, Snouse Blackbox Overdrive 2, Tsakalis Audioworks Six, VFE Blues King, and Wampler Pantheon among many others, as well as Doubles : Analog.Man King of Tone, Demiurge Teras, Keeley D&M Drive, King Tone Duellist, and VS Audio Royal Flush. And I still have a few ...