What is it? Bogner Wessex Overdrive from Amplifier Transformer series. Made in USA late 2014 at esarliest. Bogner started to build boutique guitar amplifiers way back in 1989 by revising and modding the classic Fender Blackface schematics. Those amps have been quite highly praised specimen. Company released their first pedals in 2012 and the sky…
Tag: Overdrive
EHX Germanium4 Big Muff XO
What is it? Electro-Harmonix Germanium4 Big Muff Pi. Made in NYC, USA in 1013. Buzzword. Much like “cloud services” or “streamline” in some other contexts. For pedals it’s usually “Germanium”. Next and the biggest single question – how come this unit has nothing more to do with a Big Muff than its name.. Since late…
Fender Yngwie Malmsteen signature overdrive
I know it’s been a while since my previous post, but i’ve never been away completely. Just swamped with other aspects in life. Like renovating a house to host my build desk and small recording studio and living quarters for the whole family etc… What is it? Fender Yngwie Malmsteen signature Overdrive. Made in china,…
Danelectro CO-1 Drive
What is it? Danelectro CO-1 Drive from Cool Cat series. Made in china, late 00’s. Last one i had missing from my Cool Cat series collection. Pretty rare specimen actually. Finally found one from polish auction site and a friend delivered it. I’ve seen only couple of units on sale, mostly in US and with…
DOD FX53 Classic Tube
What is it? DOD FX53 Classic Tube from DOD’s FX series. Made in USA, 1991. A unit that’s been mostly put down by the misconception about its design for decades. I know i was under the wrong impression for a long time too. The name may point to the direction of all the different tubescreamers…
Arion MTE-1 Tubulator
What is it? Arion MTE-1 Tubulator. Made in Sri Lanka, around early 00’s A Tubulator? Yes. Can anyone guess what the base circuit design is? By the name and three controls, Level, Tone and gain, which is named as Dist, there should not be that many questions. There is a schematic up at Matsumin’s page…
Vox V810 Valve Tone
What is it? Vox V810 Valve Tone. Made in china, early 00’s. The brand name is sometimes so big and trustworthy that anything released under that brand will become a collector’s item and a classic. Were the title warranted or not. I’m more than certain this is the case with Vox. In the early 00’s,…
Excalibur TS-4558 Tone Screamer
What is it? Excalibur Overdrive TS-4558 Tone Screamer. Made in china as an OEM for german brand Excalibur, around 2007. As i got a bit burned with my not-doing-my-homework and hoping for something decent from the delay sold side by side with this one, i must say that my enthusiasm was not very high to…
DOD FX101 Grind – Rectifying Overdrive
What is it? DOD FX101 Grind – Rectyfying Overdrive with EHO (Even Harmonic Overdrive). From FX-series, made in USA between 1996 and 1999. I was under the impression that the circuit found here would be exactly the same as for FX100 Even Harmonic Overdrive with just very slight changes. Reason for this belief is due…
Digitech XTD Tone Driver
What is it? Digitech XTD Tone Driver Overdrive from X-series. Made in china around late 00’s. Usable and quite frankly, decent sounding cheaper drive pedals are pretty common nowadays. This is one of those that you can score as used for peanuts. Or next to peanuts at least. Got the unit for cheap and after…