Three Canadian Overdrives You Should Know
Overdrive is an essential component of any guitarist’s rig. At its core, it’s the sound of an amp pushed to its limits, condensed into a more controllable pedal format.
But beyond that, overdrive has traditionally been the soul of the electric guitarist’s tone. It’s the primary element in the gain stack that gets you louder for solos, controls the bottom end of amp distortion, or pushes out everything from a warm blanket of tone to a raging, jangling mess of untapped aggression.
Is it any wonder so many players like to drop multiple flavours of overdrive into their signal chain?
Here are the three overdrives included on the Great Canadian Pedalboard for 2023, and why we think you should get to know each of them.
True North Pedals: TWEED DRIVE
Sheldon Ens’ remarkable innovation, the Tweed Drive for True North Pedals, has achieved iconic status in the industry. It’s not exactly an amp simulator, but in its look and feel definitely captures the warmth and growl of a classic Tweed (not to mention the look, which he meticulously hand-wraps on every pedal!).
The real gift in this pedal is how it responds to the player. It features a diode switch that, when engaged, can give you either that low to mid-gain amp drive, or rev it up to a much more fuzz-like growl. Both instances clean up with a lower guitar volume as well as a softer pick attack, giving the player all the feel of a classic combo through whatever rig you’re using. And the added “Fat” switch plumps up the bottom end as well, helping round off and beef up thinner single coil tones.
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Shoneswood: MEAN PRICK
If the Tweed Drive offers a warm, vintage tone full of nostalgia and character, then the Mean Prick is its foul-mouthed upstart cousin.
The brainchild of Kevin Shone, founder of Shoneswood, the Mean Prick is a unique work of art. Some would argue – and rightly so – that the artistry here is in the woodworking, which is a bit of fine and a bit of nasty. The pedals are all one-of-a-kind, because they’re made from salvaged and recycled skateboards; a punk edge that’s perfectly in line with the character of the tone.
Shone’s circuit is aggressive and nasty, but at its heart is a very playable drive that can sweep from some pretty sweet boost to an almost overly-clipped mess of badassery and generally not giving a shit.
I hesitate to pigeonhole a drive, but this one is a hard rocker, tastes like punk, looks like grunge, and is way more fun to play with than any overdrive should be allowed to be. Paired on the tail end of a fuzz for a boost, it’s absolutely devastating.
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Airis Effects: SAVAGE DRIVE
It’s hard to look at the Airis Effects catalogue and not immediately recognize that the brand is metal, through and through, and they make no secret of that fact.
The secret, actually, is in the things their pedals do that are not obviously metal when you hear them.
Enter the Savage Drive. The name is savage. The artwork is savage. And the gain this thing puts out is…transparent and sweet?
WTF?
OK, here’s the deal: in metal, it's common to use an overdrive ahead of the high-gain signal (amp or distortion pedal) to “clean up” the fluffy bottom end and produce a tight chug that’s needed for clear and precise rhythms at high speed. And to do this, we’ll often turn the gain all the way down.
THAT is where the Savage Drive shines. Its gain section (marked “Savage” on the pedal itself) isn’t a high gain at all. It’s there to add some sizzle for sure, but doesn’t create another layer of distortion. By differentiating high and low mids, Airis has created a four-part EQ that allows for precise tonal control, making this pedal a master tone designer for the gain stack while controlling the rumble and fluff in the bottom end.
What’s surprising about the Airis Savage Drive is just how great it sounds on a clean signal. On its own, it produces a sparkling clean boost with just a bit of an edge that’s quite at home in other, non-metal contexts. That makes it a truly flexible pedal, and one worth checking out for artists of any genre.
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Guest Article by Steve Baric
With over 35 years of professional guitar playing and pro-level guitar tech experience, Steve Baric Custom has evolved into a one-stop luthiery with services ranging from restringing to pickup installation, kit customization to fully customized builds from scratch. Rig Hacker Pedalboards, the pedalboard arm of Steve Baric Custom, provides boutique pedalboards, custom boards, and custom cases from locally-sourced Canadian native, felled, and reclaimed lumber. Tone consultations, custom hard rigging and wiring, and more are available to guitarists ranging from new players looking for their first pedals to seasoned professional touring artists.