MusicRadar Verdict

A robust, natural-sounding drive/distortion suited for rock but versatile enough for other styles.

Pros

+
Beautiful natural sound.

Cons

-
Very few.

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This two-footswitch pedal combines an overdrive and a boost section, each operating independently so you can have boost, overdrive or both together.

Overdrive has standard Gain, Volume and Tone, plus a choice of OD1 and OD2 voicings, selected via a toggle switch.

LunaStone describes its overdrive pedals as “True Overdrive”; their drive is created purely from cascading gain stages, rather than clipping diodes, and that manifests itself in a valve-like sound with natural compression.

OD1 is less gainy and excels at sounds just on the edge of breaking up, to low-level crunchy overdrive. OD2 gets into higher-gain territory, from Marshall-style rhythm raunch to full-on harmonically rich, smooth distortion for sustaining leads.

Tonally, the sound is full with plenty of thick bottom-end like a cranked stack, but still transparent enough to let your core tone shine through.

Trevor Curwen has played guitar for several decades – he's also mimed it on the UK's Top of the Pops. Much of his working life, though, has been spent behind the mixing desk, during which time he has built up a solid collection of the guitars, amps and pedals needed to cover just about any studio session. He writes pedal reviews for Guitarist and has contributed to Total Guitar, MusicRadar and Future Music among others.