MusicRadar Verdict
Quality overdrive with a neutral tonality that should work well with any sort of amp.
Pros
- +
Great build and tone.
Cons
- -
Very few.
MusicRadar's got your back
The Mayflower is a low-to-medium gain overdrive.
With the Drive control at minimum and Level anywhere above two o’clock, it offers a clean boost with just a touch of grit. And it’s tonally very transparent, keeping your tone intact unless you want to use the Bass and Treble knobs for a bit of enhancement.
We like it with just a touch of extra top for added sparkle.
Turning up the Drive knob brings in more of that grit, but it just sounds and feels like you’ve made your own amp a little dirtier rather than turning on a pedal - it’s a practical complement to a clean amp or one that’s just breaking up, and will add dirt while retaining articulation.
We particularly liked it for adding a cutting edge to rhythm work or putting a bit of hair on single notes for edgier country-style picking. It also stacks very well with other dirt pedals to give them a natural-sounding extra gain stage.
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.
“A synthesizer that is both easy to use and fun to play whilst maintaining a decent degree of programming depth and flexibility”: PWM Mantis review
“I feel like that song had everything we needed to come back with”: Bring Me The Horizon’s Lee Malia on Shadow Moses, its riff and the secrets behind its tone, and why it was the right anthem at the right time
“I said, ‘Are we sure we can write a song about death?’”: The story of Mike + The Mechanics' classic No.1 The Living Years