If you’re looking to add some new crunchiness to your tone, then you might want to check out these recent distortion and overdrive pedals. They’ll send you down that sweet, sweet Iommic path in no time at all.
Matthews Effects The Broker
The Matthews Effects Broker is a dual overdrive pedal that allows players to toggle the order of the overdrives, and is controlled by two separate Volume, Tone, and Gain knobs for the corresponding Black and Silver channels. The Black channel offers a classic soft clipping overdrive, while the Silver channel is more of a hot-rodded version of the classic “Blues Breaker” circuit.
The Matthews Effects Broker is available here for $199.
Blackstar Dept. 10 Dual Drive
The Blackstar Dept. 10 Dual Drive is an all-tube overdrive pedal that players gives two channels (and two voices per channel) of crunchy overdrive and an ISF tone stack EQ. The pedal also offers a USB recording output, FX loop, and Blackstar’s Cab Rig Speaker Simulator.
The Blackstar Dept. 10 Dual Drive is available here for $299.99.
Pigtronix Gamma Drive
The Pigtronix Gamma Drive offers active Treble and Bass EQ controls and a very touch-sensitive performance thanks to a unique mix of germanium, LED and silicon diodes. In short, you can coax quite a few tones out of the Gamma Drive. The pedal is rich in 2nd order harmonics for a nice, fat tone that can of course be overdriven as hard you’d like.
The Pigtronix Gamma Drive is available here for $129.
JHS PackRat
The JHS PackRat packs a whopping nine classic Pro Co RATs into one, meaning you can finally delete your Reverb account (which is a nice lie to tell yourself). The JHS PackRat gives you:
- The OG (1979-83)
- White Face V3 (1984-1986)
- Turbo V6 (1989)
- BRAT (1997)
- Dirty (2004)
- LA (1986)
- Landgraff MO’D (1999)
- Caroline (2010)
- JHS Mode
The JHS PackRat is available here for $249.
Walrus Audio Eras
Walrus Audio is giving everyone five different choices of distortion-based destruction with their new Walrus Audio Eras pedal. They are:
- Tight mode with a slight mid-cut, LED hard clipping, and internal volume control. Fastest response, great for palm muting.
- Tight mode with a slight mid-cut and silicon hard clipping. Smooth with added compression.
- Dual clipping mode with a slight mid-cut and both silicon and LED hard clipping. Rich and full with added sustain.
- Rhythm mode with a deeper mid-cut, LED hard clipping, and internal volume control. Scooped mids, tight response.
- Rhythm mode with a deeper mid-cut and silicon hard clipping. Rhythmic, warm and full.
The Walrus Audio Eras pedal is available here for $199.
