The Slightly Technical ToneX captures are tone models of gear from my personal collection. These amplifiers and pedals are not commercially available and are either original designs, designs inspired by famous units, or uniquely modified pieces of equipment. Each piece of gear was crafted with carefully selected components, meticulously measured, and calibrated to achieve the desired tonal qualities.

This is a collection of Tone Models of my custom-made take on a very special pedal—a forgotten gem of rock 'n' roll history. It is the Overdriver by Colorsound, famously used by many old-school guitar legends such as Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. This pedal features a BJT transistor-based circuit with an active EQ including Bass and Treble controls—something practically unheard of at the time.

Interestingly, the original pedal didn’t have an output volume control, only a Gain control, which made the output of the pedal incredibly loud. As a result, the pedal was primarily used to slam the front end of an amplifier, creating a glorious sound, with the EQ used for fine-tuning. Simply amazing.

My take on the pedal adds a Volume control, which opens up even more possibilities. Pushing the Gain control pushes the pedal into heavy fuzz-like distortion. Like the Face Melter, this pedal is a hybrid circuit, featuring a Germanium transistor on the input and Silicon transistors throughout the rest of the circuit. It produces a harmonically rich and musical sound with a vintage feel—really cool!

This collection includes 11 different Tone Models. Circuits like this are captured using a half-drained 9V carbon-zinc battery, as I feel this gives the pedals their authentic tone. Capturing a pedal like this is more complicated than some others, as it features an active Baxandall-like equalizer circuit, making it highly versatile. I aimed to capture all possible combinations that would be useful with ToneX, so you have plenty to choose from. Details about the knob settings are provided in the descriptions of the Tone Models. You'll find models sampled at various gain levels with different EQ settings, such as flat, mid boost, treble boost, and fat boost.