The folks up north at Diamond Pedals have been making top of the line gear for many years now, and I’m always waiting in anticipation for their new releases, year after year. One of their newer model pedals is today’s featured POTD: the Cornerstone, a dual-gain overdrive that features multiple unique discrete gain stages, as well as a couple of fun options in the control room for more versatile and explosive performance in any rig or setup.
Most basic overdrive pedals are just that: basic. Sure, a lot of them sound great, but sometimes, you want a pedal that sparks your interest just by glancing at it, and then exceeds your expectations once you plug it in. Enter the Cornerstone. This gold brick beauty uses 2 separate control knobs to control 2 separate gain stages (Gain 1 is like a preamp, Gain 2 is like a power amp), the blending of which opens the floodgates to sonic glory, with multiple levels, textures and musical opportunities waiting around every corner.
There’s a Mid knob on the Cornerstone Overdrive as well, which lets you control how much or how little get added into the mix. Using this control in conjunction with the 2 Gain knobs really makes this pedal rock, and with such a vast range in each knob, you’re sure to find many, many useful stage and studio settings with ease. In addition to all these options, there’s also a toggle switch present here, a Bright switch, that is supposed to be utilized when switching back and forth between guitars with humbuckers and those with single coils. Flipping this switch works even with just one guitar, cutting some of the high frequencies out when you just don’t need ’em in the mix.
I have really enjoyed the overdrives and fuzzes that I’ve had the chance to play from Diamond Pedals – as it turns out, their only specialty is not delay! I really like to 2 different gain stages on this Cornerstone, too, it really makes for a diverse and user-friendly piece of gear, and will make your guitar and amp sound great as well. Thanks for the millionth time to Aimish and all at Diamond for really being overly-generous, and helping us continue to do what we do. Please go check out their site and buy some gear – help support the companies that help support us, cheers!
Specs:
– Premium audio components
– Small footprint with top mounted jacks
– Multiple discrete gain stages with two gain controls
– Standard 9V operation (battery or power supply)
– True bypass switching
– Midrange cut/boost
– High frequency contour switch
Submitted by Mike B, Website
Demo Rock pedalboard by West Coast Pedalboard
GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES, CONTEST INFO, SEE OUR LATEST DEMO VIDEOS AND MORE:
