Michelangelo. Obviously, he was a fairly famous artist in the 1500s, and was also arguably the coolest of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the 1980’s and 90’s. Today, however, his name adorns an effects pedal, one coming straight from his home country of Italy, and one that sculpts your tone and paints vivid images of sonic waterfalls in your mind. The Michelangelo Overdrive Plus from Dophix is an overdrive and boost pedal, with each side being independent of the other, for a slurry of combinations unique to this marvelous enclosure.
Starting on the left, the Boost knob adjusts the output boost activated after the Boost foot switch is activated, and features a range from 0 to +15dB. The Preamp is controlled by the Pre On/Off toggle switch, and its level is set by the Pre knob, which also features a 0 to +15dB range. If the Pre switch is in the Off position, it can only be activated by the Boost footswitch; if it’s On, it’s on.
The Drive section of Michelangelo gets a little more complex, but offers a nice array of options to contour your overdriven sound. Gain2 sets the amount of distortion, while Level sets the Drive’s output. The B and H knobs control tone, setting the high and low frequencies allowed to meld with the distorted sound. A 3-way toggle lets you choose from a few different distortion modes, with Silicon, Germanium and JFET semiconductors altering your tone in differing ways. There’s also a Blend knob, which lets you retain or destroy your original signal, something we’ve found not to be too common with many overdrive and distortion units.
The heart of Michelangelo is made entirely of JFET transistors, which characterize a dynamic and warm sound, recreating the effect produced by a tube amp extremely accurately. A very flexible overall pedal, it goes from clean boost to light crunch to overdrive to distortion with the greatest of ease, offering a versatile and exciting effect that can sometimes be a bit boring or uninventive. This is definitely NOT one of those kind of pedals. Cheers to the Dophix crew for an awesome dual pedal, one that’s useful and fun for all who are witness to it. They’ve got a HUGE lineup of other pedals, too, so be sure to head over to their site and check out all their products. We’ve got a tasty little demo for you as well – feel “free” to check it out below…
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