The thing covers a lot of range. Barely driven but with the volume cranked, it's quite clean, but has a definite snap and punch to it, a lot like an amp just barely starting to clip. Then in the middle range of drive it really becomes more of what I'd consider an "overdrive" sound. Pretty musical, kind of sort of like a smallish amp driving pretty good. Then if you really drive it hard, it definitely gets into something resembling the fuzzy character of a Bosstone or a Fuzzface, but still very unique. It doesn't have that definitive rasp of a real Bosstone, which I happen to also like in the right place. That little toggle on the front goes from thin (original Bosstone low end) to fat, which is very full bodied and beefy.
It's definitely not in the family of Fulldrives, Tubescreamers, and Zendrives. Those pedals are very natural, very smooth, very compressed, and "pretty" sounding. This pedal is a bit more nasty, a bit more "stanky" to use a technical term. Peter Mayer, Jimmy Buffett's guitarist, has a prototype, and he said it replaced his Fulltone Fulldrive II as his main drive pedal. He said the way that it's so dynamic is what really does it for him. Pick light and it's clean. Pick hard and it breaks and bites. He said it feels like driving an old Deluxe. To me it's not really the same sound, but I see what he means as far as dynamic response and how the picking has huge control over the amount of dirt. Another friend in town Jim Peters Jr. (hi Jim Sr.) said that it was an instant Eric Johnson tone. I guess that would be the fuzzface aspect to it.
This is not a "booster" pedal that is meant to slam a tube amp's front end to drive it into amp overdrive. Although you can crank the volume of this pedal and do some pretty good damage if you want it to.
Honestly, I developed it with 6-string in mind, mainly because I rarely use dirt on pedal steel. But it really does work for steel. If you liked the Bosstone on steel, this will do similar things harmonically and dynamiically, but it's going to have a silkier, less gritty and raspy top end, and (in the fat position) a fuller, beefier low end. Also, where the old Bosstone tends to dump the highs of the steel's pickup and then re-create highs thru its distortion process, the Dirt Box instead actually preserves the highs and clarity of the steel pickup all the way thru, so less dirt is needed to put some "hair" on the sound.
I hope to have these things going by mid/late july. I don't have a price on them yet either as we are still doing a cost analysis. But I'll be sure to let y'all know as soon as I do.
Brad
Brad builds quality electronics. Brad is honest and I like him. I am coming out with my own distortion unit, designed especially for steel guitar first. It plugs directly into the end of the steel guitar like the old Boss Tone. This puts the controls at your finger tips instead of on the floor.
. I also really like the Keeley modded Sparkle Drive a lot, too...
