EarthQuaker Devices Palisades Overdrive

As most of you readers are aware, the gang at EarthQuaker Devices doesn’t tend to mess around when it comes to creative pedals that most of us would have never even thought about, much less could figure out how to make. On the rare occasion that they create a pedal that isn’t based on a concept they absolutely pull from thin air, you can guarantee it won’t be like anything else you’ve ever heard, and will come correct with their signature style and awesomeness. And if you’re gonna make your own version of a classic overdrive, might as well make it incredible, like the Palisades Overdrive.

This pedal looks a bit intimidating at first, I’m not gonna lie to you. Lots of knobs and toggles and stomp switches to sift through, but that’s half the fun of a pedal like this, am I right? The Palisades features 2 separate Gain sections, A (lower gain) and B (higher gain). These two are controlled by the Activate (Gain A) and Gain B (duh) footswitches, found toward the bottom of the pedal. These 2, along with the Boost footswitch, make up the tasty tap dancing portion of this overdrive, and as you can see right off the bat, these guys didn’t make a one-stomp, one-tone overdrive, no sir.

There are Boost, Volume, Tone, Gain A and Gain B knobs in the top center portion of the pedal, and they all do exactly what you would think (and hope) they would. The toggle switches and rotary knobs are what really make this a great pedal to sit down and experiment with, though, as you’ll soon find out. The Normal/Bright toggle lets you select from either a warmer drive sound, or a brighter, punchy-type tone, both very useful in their own right. The Buffer lets you also select from a warmer tone or a sharp and crisp sound, and since it’s part of the internal drive circuit, it won’t affect your guitar’s original signal in the least when the Palisades is turned off.

The Rotary knobs add a whole new dimension to the overdrive world, with a ton of options to choose from to basically custom build your classic-sounding drive pedal. Bandwidth gives you everything from a thinner, less-powerful gain sound all the way up to a heavily distorted, fat-sounding overdriven tone, with a great range in between the two. This also works together with the Voice knob, which allows selection from 6 different diode clipping options, which basically allows you to recreate any overdrive sound you’ve ever heard…with ease, I might add. Great range on these 6 options, too, producing everything from low-gain sounds to beefy distortion to almost fuzz-like, thick, chunky, riff-worthy magic.

Full of options, and better yet, incredible sounds to play with, the Palisades Overdrive is not a pedal to take on lightly, so lift with your knees, ’cause this one could make you pull a hammy. We are continually impressed by the lineup of pedals that they keep creating over at EarthQuaker Devices, and hope to continue reviewing them until we’ve done ’em all…and then wait in anticipation for the next batch. Go check out the EQD website and try your best to sift through the vast pedal collection they have for you, if you can handle it!