AD Pedals Aerodynamic Overdrive

I dig a nice, easy-to-use, not a lot of frills and thrills, good-sounding, good-looking overdrive pedal (don’t we all?). Although a giant list of options and switches can certainly be fun, useful and awesome, sometimes it’s nice to kick back with a guitar, an amp and one nice drive pedal to get a great rock n roll tone without exerting too much effort. That’s definitely what I found in the Aerodynamic Overdrive from AD Pedals.

A simple setup is first and foremost here, and the Aerodynamic Overdrive exudes tone and sparkle for days. The 3 main controls here are almost a given these days for any overdrive: Volume, Tone and Gain. This pedal is definitely in the low-to-mid gain drive category, so it’s easy to get a nice, clean, shiny boost by turning down the Gain and cranking up the Volume, then setting the Tone to taste. The Gain itself has a decent range, especially when coupled with the 3-way toggle switch, which provides an extra added dimension to this stompbox.

The toggle switch alternates between a Low Gain setting, a High Gain setting and the main circuit only when placed in the center position. When flipped to the right, the Aerodynamic Overdrive utilizes Bat41 diodes for a symmetrical, low-gain tone, while the left side is a higher-gain option, using Germanium 1N34A asymmetrical diodes, providing a transparent sound that will also make your amp sing. Having these three differing options opens this baby up, and will lead to a lot of experimentation, while still keeping the overall feel of the pedal relatively simple.

I found this pedal to be very different when using either single coils or humbuckers, as the former felt more laid-back in tone and aggression, while the latter was chunkier, had more gain on tap and felt a bit heavier and distorted. Both extremely useful, both complimenting the pickups they were paired with, and all-in-all sounding great on every level. The Aerodynamic Overdrive is a versatile little black box, and no matter what setup you play through, you’ll be able to find a nice spot in it for this pedal with ease. Thanks to Diego and AD Pedals for hooking us up with this rad drive, hopefully we’ll see more gear from them coming up in the near future!