Review: Dawes Audio – Overdrive Pedal

Dawes Audio

Overdrive Pedal
dawesaudio.com

I’m usually a one-guitarist-in-a-band type of fellow, which I feel leads to optimal creativity. Thing is, in Filth Lords (filthlords.bandcamp.com), if I’m playing a riff high on the neck or a buttery lead and Nick Harris is doing his thing on the bass, there’s a chunk of sonic space in The Filth Hole that demands to be filled by sound waves other than those from Rio Connelly’s fast crash. Such a situation demands a good overdrive pedal, and Dawes Audio’s got what the doctor ordered. Mine came encased in black with a badass white Venom sticker. As far as the sound goes: It’s mean. It’s powerful. Upon using the pedal, all of a sudden, my Peavey Triple X tube amp/Peavey cab bathed me in bright, colorful mids. From left to right, creator Chase Dawes includes three knobs: volume, gain and sag—sag being “a voltage switch that changes the breakup,” he says. It seems that high overtones become more prominent by turning the sag knob up. I’ve found that midway for each knob hits the sweet spot for my ideal tone—the gain boasts ferocity, so paired with my Triple X’s already snarlicious distortion, fully cranked gain can muddy the output, which isn’t a problem, by any means. I do wish that the the power-supply input was on the back end of the pedal for easier daisy-chaining, but it’s small potatoes for the type of meat this pedal puts on the table. Paired with my digital delay, my Les Paul sounds sinister and pervasive. (Christmas is almost here—hint-hint.) –Alexander Ortega