Today, we’ve got another awesome addition to our guest reviewer series, this time it’s Rob Compa from the excellent band Dopapod! I’d like to say thanks to him for taking some time out and writing this review on a very rare and unique pedal, looking forward to more reviews in the future, Rob! Enough of my spiel, here’s what Rob has to say:

Hey guys! About a year ago, I finally got to that point where my mainstay overdrive, after about 8 years of heavy use, finally died. I was about to leave for a really long tour, and was in search of a good overdrive that also had an independent clean boost. I think I’ve tried just about every run of the mill overdrive one can get their hands on, and I genuinely only like about 8% of them. Just when I thought I wouldn’t find anything, a good friend of mine generously donated a NAU Engineering Spoonful Overdrive to me, and I can’t stress enough how happy I’ve been with it over the last year. Let’s discuss…

At first glance, this pedal does not do much at all to catch the eye. It’s plain, black housing’s only decorative enhancements are a couple pieces of labeling tape to indicate what each knob/button’s function is. That’s it. To me, its understated appearance only adds to it’s aesthetic mystique. Its as boutique as boutique can be, and I’ve had plenty of guitar players at our shows ask me about it. But anyways, how much does a pedal’s appearance really matter?? Honestly… not really at all. So lets get to the good stuff and talk shop.

This pedal boasts both an overdrive button, as well as a clean boost button. The OD and Boost can both be used independently or in conjunction with one another, which is very useful. There are also four knobs on the pedal, one of which serves as the Volume of the Clean Boost. I don’t really like when a pedal’s clean boost is preset to whatever the builder decided it should be, so I enjoy having the flexibility to tailor it to any given situation, and am often times adjusting it with my foot mid-song. The other three knobs are the overdrive volume, gain, and tone. Lastly, this pedal operates using an unconventional 12-volt power supply. This may be it’s only shortcoming; Not only are 12-volt power supplies not the most abundant piece of equipment lying around, but the pedal also is not able to operate on battery power.

The overdriven sound in this pedal is fantastic and versatile. It’s quite a bit less compressed compared to a Tube screamer, but isn’t completely transparent, either. It’s character lies comfortably in between those two schools of overdrive philosophy. As far as gain, it has more than enough if you want it. If you want fully saturated metal guitar tones, look elsewhere, but any amount of gain in the blues and classic rock vein is at your disposal should you need it. I personally prefer to set the gain nearly all the way down and use it for slightly dirty rhythm sounds, and then use it stacked with a Maxon VOP9 Overdrive (another FANTASTIC ts style pedal that everyone should check out) when I choose to have more gain. One of my favorite aspects of the Spoonful is that it still sounds totally natural when the gain is backed down a ton; No matter what amount of gain the pedal is set to, it still achieves it as if it’s the only thing that pedal was built for. Also, the tone knob is extremely usable and actually does stuff when you turn it, which is a novel idea for an overdrive pedal for once.

Now on to the clean boost. This clean boost can be extremely loud if necessary, although I haven’t had any need to put it past about 8 o’clock. It’s remarkably clean and clear, but still has just enough hair on it to make it lively. The clean boost is a wonderful tool for playing single note lines that don’t require any distorted tones. Once the boost is used in conjunction with the overdrive side of the pedal, the Spoonful really comes to life. The overdrive sound, which by itself is very suitable for dirty rhythm playing, but to me is not quite midrangey or punchy enough for soloing (and this is a good thing, by the way) can cut through any mix with more than enough authority once the the clean boost is engaged. I have it set to achieve somewhat of a low gain, Scofield-esque sound, and it accomplishes it very well. And lastly, when I’m in need of a huge, sustainy David Gilmour-esque sound (which is very often), using the NAU with both buttons turned on and stacking it with any type of tube screamer-ish pedal works wonderfully.

That’s about the gist of it! If you’re looking for a for a great, kind of obscure pedal that, in my opinion, tops any OD/Boost pedal that you could find at Guitar Center or on Musician’s Friend, I strongly recommend trying the Nau Engineering Spoonful.

Submitted by Rob Compa from Dopapod, Website, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook

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