Between the custom shop, the ‘78 Overdrive, some super top secret new developments and just the general growth we’ve seen in the past few months, it’s been busy over here!
This post I wanted to dive into the ‘78 Overdrive a bit, and why I wanted to design an overdrive in general.
So first and foremost, the pedal is constructed with 100% new old stock parts, which in itself isn’t anything special, but it really comes down to the parts used.
Starting with the resistors, we opted for a batch of ISKRA resistors dated to 1988. For those of you familiar with the British high gain amps of the 60’s and 70’s, this might be ringing some alarm bells for you. Personally, I felt it was only right to use these for the pedal, since they were used in the amps that influenced it’s tonal signature. These are not easy to find, and once this batch is up, I’ll be switching to another brand yet to be determined.
I used a batch of Matsushita Japanese film capacitors, dated to 1974. So far I haven’t seen these used in another pedal, and to me the sound they offer when paired with everything else is just hairy enough for this pedal. The high end is tamed with two vintage polystyrene capacitors, and one glass capacitor.
All of these vintage parts are powered by a JRC4580D opamp, offering up to 12dB of gain to push your favourite amplifier! This one is super responsive, and is instant Dio/VH tones into a pushed amp!!!
Here are some photos of the development stage!
