PART II

Focusing on the specifics, I used an Egnater Rebel-30 amp on a clean channel, an Ibanez JS2400 guitar and an Eastwood Airline ’59. The former guitar is more a virtuoso/rock instrumental axe, the same used by Joe Satriani, whereas the latter guitar’s tone and output resembles more a vintage guitar that originally was not designed for hard rock and ‘beyond.’ Nonetheless, although I got more ‘punch’ from my Ibanez, the Eastwood certainly would not give rockers any complaints as it sounded far more full-bodied as a result of the SuperDrive. Tonal characteristics were different with each guitar, and how it responded with the amp, but when tweaking the SuperDrive you achieve similar outcomes.
As I increased the drive, and particularly in combination with the presence, there was a sizzling distortion that suggests a bit of fuzz in the mix, and yet the tone remained edgy and vibrant. The earthy crunchiness may have made me think there was some element of fuzz when there wasn’t – it was difficult to tell since the drive was more three-dimensional than what I was used to. There was less sizzle when the tone switch was flipped to the ‘beef’ side, thus sounding fatter but less edgy – suggesting possible settings for both heavy rhythms with a biting lead. (However, and I’ll address this soon, rolling back the guitar’s volume control alters tonal qualities quite significantly, and so flipping a switch for different results is not necessary always.)

As I turned the drive down, to about 9 o’clock, while the guitar and pedals’ volume remained the same, the result was a very rich sounding ‘clean’ (not super clean, but only modest grit)… you could play cords, but the result was a thicker and richer tone while maintaining the clarity.

Then I put the drive up full and the pedal’s volume half way. As I turned down the pedal’s volume knob I did not experience a sudden volume drop. In fact, the difference between setting it at 9 o’clock and 5 o’clock (full tilt) was only about 10-20% difference, like a boost of sorts and while enhancing or reducing the edginess of the drive accordingly.

With the drive and presence turned down to about 9 o’clock, you hear a modest degree of distortion with a hint of sizzle in the mix, ideal for some heavy blues playing and softer rock, and almost reminiscent of Smoke on the Water when power-chording on my JS2400.

The pedal is very responsive to the guitar’s volume knob. I set the pedal’s volume and drive half-way, but reduced my guitars’ volume by nearly ¾ - the volume of the music remained nearly the same (perhaps a 10% drop), and that is partly due to good electronics in the guitars – but the interesting thing is that the tone changed significantly. For example, when I turned the drive up full and presence at about 11 o’clock, you would think that the drive and brightness response would be very high, but with the guitar volume set at only half-way or a bit less I could get an extremely smooth sounding distortion through my neck pickup on my Ibanez, similar to that of David Gilmour. Thus, even with the pedal pushing hard, you can achieve unusually smooth drive just by lowering the guitar’s volume – shifting from dirty and raunchy to warm and mellow in no time flat. Very nice!

After several hours playing with the SuperDrive, I preferred it on the amp’s clean channel, since the pedal alone has so much potential aggression. However, for those grittier guitar parts, you do achieve a more ‘raw’ biting tone as you tweak an amp’s gain channel. And what I should point out is the amp I use, the Engater Rebel-30, offers EL84 (British) and 6v6 (American) mixes – all of one and none of the other, or a mix of both tube types in any ratio desired. Not all amps offer this customization, and I’m certain some readers may be interested in how the tone alters between the two tube types and how the pedal handles these tube variations.

Not much can be said, but WOW! As stated previously, the SuperDrive is like an extension of your amp, sounding not only very natural and ‘authentic,’ but able to enhance what exists already in the equipment. EL84 tubes tend to have a fatter sound with more mids and the SuperDrive boosts those characteristics (although it does not add to increasing the mids). The 6V6 tubes have a sharper and clearer sizzle and, again, the SuperDrive boosts those characteristics while sustaining a smooth and creamy tone. It was as though I had a ‘super’ gain/distortion built directly into the amp and not a pedal sitting on the floor (the Egnater’s gain is sufficient for softer rock and blues, but lacks that huge distortion sound, whereas the SuperDrive acted as my Frankenstein gain channel).

Something that impressed me further was how the SuperDrive responded with my Wah pedal (Vox’s Big Bad Wah). I have a few other speciality boutique pedals (fuzz, distortions and overdrives), and I found my Wah colored the sound of those pedals enough that you lose the original and intended tones of those pedals. I like keeping my Wah on with ‘toe down’ as it gives me a nice bite and more mids, but to get those nice flavours intended by the other boutique pedal manufacturers, I need to keep the Wah off unless I intend to use it specifically. This is not the case with the SuperDrive – I can use my Wah to accentuate the mids and without it coloring or affecting the original tone signal of the SuperDrive to any significant degree.

The value of a pedal will be based on how often it is used, and how long it will stay on your pedal board, and I suspect anyone who uses the SolidGoldFX SuperDrive will treat this pedal like gold and have it stomping around for a long time. With something of this calibre in the industry, it is surprising that so many musicians still consider the big-name companies that produce far lesser products that sound lacklustre compared to the SuperDrive. It’s one of the most perfect sounding distortions I have heard.

Pluses: Works well at both lower gain and higher gain settings, with an even wider array of tonal possibilities as you tweak the pedal’s presence and bass responses, as well as your guitar’s volume. You can achieve classic tones of the 70s, but it still sounds very modern. The quality is amp-like and it pushes your equipment to new limits and dimensions without altering your gear’s natural characteristics. The SuperDrive works very well with both single-coil and humberbucker pickups, and ‘sits up and takes charge’ when you couple it with the SolidGoldFX ‘Nitro’ so that you can experience further increases in creamy saturation and thickness while the tone ‘sparkles.’

Minuses: If you want something that makes your amp sound a lot different, then you’re likely better off looking toward a fuzzbox or some other type of distortion/sound effect module. The SuperDrive does not emphasise or increase the mids, and if that is what you’re after you will need to tweak your amp or a pedal EQ to achieve that end.